Tales of the unexpected - and not a spider in sight

Oman keeps surprising me - just when I feel totally surrounded and immersed in the dry, desolate nothingness of the landscape, a little oasis of vegetation and colour reveals itself. In the middle of a desert, a pool teeming with life; in the craggy mountains, a lush plantation. Here are some of these little splashes of colour and life, just to show that it's not all barren rock and earth ...

A dried-up river bed ...

... turns out to have trickles of water left ...

... and plenty of life making the most of the small pools.

Hidden in a corner of the majestic Ghubra bowl ...

... is a little paradise of terraces and orchards ...

... providing fruit, vegetables and a riot of colour
for the villagers of Wukan ...

... all made possible by the water channelled from the mountains above.

The strangest mystery for me is where all this water comes from to create these little enclaves of life. I could count the number of times I've seen it rain on my fingers, and the mountains above these terraces and wadis are completely bare ... and yet the water flows and collects all year long. Curiouser and curiouser ...