My favourite kind of weather forecast

Muscat

Day	Weather	Max. DayTemperature (°C)	Min. NightTemperature (°C)	Wind Direction and Speed (mph)
MonNight weather	Clear Sky		29	SSW 5mph
Tue Day weather	Sunny	40	27	NNW 13mph
Wed Day weather	Sunny	43	26	NNW 15mph
Thu Day weather	Sunny	42	26	N 9mph
Fri Day weather	Sunny	42	25	ESE 16mph

Last updated at 11:45, Monday 30 May

A fortress straight out of the Arabian Nights

So, first foray out of town last weekend, up into the mountains behind Muscat to the town of Nizwa. The country inland from here starts off as a mountainous desert with little towns that have sprung up around water sources, creating islands of green between the towering rocky heights.

The trees are mainly acres and acres of date groves, with houses scattered in between, all fed with water from the mountains. The water is channelled through systems called falaj, and any village or town is completely dependent on these falaj to survive.

The other thing that every town needed in this area to survive was a fortress of some kind to defend its people, and Nizwa has a corker! Walking up to it your are confronted by the massive tower, which looks pretty impossible to even consider breaching, and high walls surrounding the inner sanctum. The tower is apparently mostly solid, made up of chambers filled with many many tons of rubble, and I read one book about cannons firing at this particular tower and barely making a scratch!

The surprising thing when you get inside is how much space there is, with rooms and passageways in all directions and on several levels. This means that there was lots of stairs, arches and little nooks and crannies to hide from the sun, so that those inside the fort can stay cool while those on the outside are baking in the sun. There was also a pretty nifty museum in the basement with lovely AC and a model of the fort complete with amazingly realistic trees!

We spent a good hour roaming up, down, in and out, which was pretty good going considering the 40 degree heat! This fort has been beautifully restored, and although many of the rooms are empty, some of them have been furnished with carpets and artefacts, and it's not hard to imagine what the others would be like, complete with soldiers lounging inside during the heat of the day. Bet most of the fighting took a break for lunch around here!

But the thing I loved best was standing at the top of the tower, looking out over the town and the tiny people moving about below and feeling completely invincible! Close your eyes and you can imagine watching the enemies approaching from on high, raining down arrows, cannons pounding in every direction and pouring hot date syrup on enemies who dared to come too close ... bring it on!

Oh we do like to be beside the seaside ...

The working weeks are busy busy busy, so the weekend (Thursday and Friday here, just to be confusing!) have been the only time so far to go out and explore. Haven't made it outside Muscat yet, but even in town there are plenty of lovely spots, and we had lunch in one of them the other day, the Capital Yacht Club.

View Larger Map

This Club is one of two yachts clubs along the east coast down from central Muscat town (spelt Masqat here) - on the map above it is in one of the little bays between between Sidab and Al Bustan, just above the big marina.

As you can see, the mountains fall straight into the sea on this coast, and the Capital is located in one of hundreds of little private bays. This is great as it means that we can lounge around on the beach in normal swimming costume and swim in the sea without offending anyone or feeling stared at - no Nigella-style burkinis needed here!

The club also has shaded tables, umbrellas with loungers, an outdoor bar (yes, with alcohol!) and a restaurant with a massive patio, so you can munch on fresh seafood while staring out at the waves ... there are also some small boats, and as sunset approached we saw little motorboats appearing from all sides as people came back from a day at sea. Am hoping to get into the boating thing at a later date, but for this trip we contented ourselves with swimming, squid and lying back with a cold beer. This is going to be a hard few years ...

My very own Chateau?

So, 48 hours in and I'm still reeling from the many days and weeks of admin, packing and goodbyes, which has been topped by slight jet lag (OK, only 3 hours, but am feeling it for some reason) and getting used to the heat - 45 degrees! I ask you, how on earth is anyone supposed to even think in these temperatures? So overall, still a bit unsettled and not at peak performance ...

But things are looking promising so far. For starters, although I don't have a place to call home yet, I am in the meantime staying in a self-catering hotel room (self-catering as long as you don't want to eat anything that can't be microwaved that is) which looks like a toy castle; haven't you always wanted to?!

I think this is supposed to reflect traditional architecture - by law every building in Muscat has to be white or off-white and have some aspect of Arabic style to it. Having said that though, I'm not really clear what they were going for here ... the inside as you can see is mildly more convincing, with the pointy doorway and fabulous fake wooden beams. It's also got a huge comfy bed and all the mod cons (including that all-important AC and a fan), although the choice of upholstery is a little peculiar ...

Anyway, far more exciting is beyond the walls of the Chateau, which is handily located mere metres from the sea - hoorah!

I have been down here for a stroll at sunset one day, and on another day I just sat to sip a little coffee at one of the beach-side cafes, reading my book and watching the world go by. Sundown brings everyone out from their air-conditioned houses to run around (the kids), play football (the lads) or just sit down and appreciate the view / muscle (me and other women). And then it's off to find some yummy fresh seafood for dinner ... could be worse!