You're never too old to have fun!

I would like to dedicate my 150th post (already!) to all the amazing people who stand as living proof that life can continue to surprise, delight and teach valuable lessons every day of every year, as long as we still want it to ...

Rally-driving granny R

Learning to scuba in your sixties? Why not!

He may be an OAP, but Alan conquers the heights with ease ... 

So, to all those amazing people who reassure me that I don't HAVE to turn into a boring old fart ... I salute you.

Underwater paradise ...

As you probably know, I've been getting into my diving again over the last year - it's fun, it's a form of exercise that my ankle doesn't disapprove of, and when it's 50 degrees outside, the underwater world is a nice place to be! But more than anything, it's the life down there that I love, a whole other world with weird and wonderful creatures and, in the best spots, a riot of colour that you just don't get anywhere on land. I don't normally get to share this world with non-divers and distant friends, but this week we had the perfect combination of excellent visibility, lots of things that had come out to play and friends with a decent underwater camera (thank you Joy!). So here's a small selection of what Oman's waters have to offer ...

There are fish galore ...

A shoal of Bigeye Snappers (delicious with garlic)

A Half-spotted Hind from the grouper family

Oman is always a place to spot rays (but don't get too close)

One of the Numbfish family of rays -
either a lesser or a large-eye electric ray?

A marbled torpedo ray having a snooze -
another ray that can give you quite a shock

Even when the fish are hiding, the plants and corals are a marvel on their own ...

A wall of vegetation

Soft and hard corals

And then there is the other stuff - scary, intricate or just plain strange ...

Honeycomb moray eel -
these buggers can be over 2m long
and always look like they're hungry ...

Animal, vegetable or mineral?
Who knows ... but very pretty

A nudibranch called Jorunna Funebris -
a seriously strange family of animals ...

Gripped! Sorted! Let's Off-road!

Man, this is a beautiful country, and when I get the chance to leave the office behind and explore the lesser-known nooks and crannies, I jump at it. So when Paul suggested a little mountain adventure, I was in the Jungle Bus before you could say "Gripped and Sorted!", and by 9.30 we were speeding away from the sea into the Hajar mountain range  ...

I guess I'm the one in the lovely orange jacket ... 

Rather than doing one of the tried-and-tested routes in the Oman Off-Road Bible, Paul wanted to try some of the smaller routes cutting across between the wadis, some of which he'd done before. In the end we did a bit of a road that he'd done before but in the opposite direction, and then just followed our noses ... click HERE to see the route we ended up taking (with handy camping spot all recced and ready to go).

I think the photos speak for themselves - we spent the whole day with a big grin on our faces, and I can't wait to take family and friends to experience some of the best off-roading I've done so far. Nice work Paul, and long live the Jungle Bus!

Plantations in Wadi Sahtan - grass!

The beginning of our off-road adventure ...

Woohoo!

More unexpected lushness,
even at the end of a hot dry summer

Stupendous views looking down into Wadi Bani Awf

The Jungle Bus at her sexiest

A little village tucked into the folds of the mountains

No Omani village is complete without
some kind of football pitch, however primitive

Echos of the Dolomites?
Just past our little camping spot

Mountains that make you feel very very small ...

Heading home just as the clouds gather - for rain?

It's amazing how tiring a day of hard-core driving in the mountains can be, but I am certainly heading for bed a happy girl ... 

Where is everybody?

It's a strange day - the hot summer season already sees large numbers of Muscat's inhabitants leaving the country for a month or two, but it is even quieter than normal today.

It's the last Friday of Ramadan, and the government has given itself the whole of next week off. This means that most of the Omanis who were still in Muscat have high-tailed it to their home villages and towns to celebrate Eid Ul Fitr with their family.Fair enough. With no Omanis to deal with, large numbers of the Western expats have also made the most of this week to go for a quick overseas break. Very sensible. And with no Western expats around, there aren't even any of the house staff that I normally see wandering the streets. Good for them, they deserve a break too.

So all that's left is me and about 10% of the normal population, basically all the other mugs who weren't able to get the week off.

Muscat beach all to myself

Kind of blissful for a while, with only the occasional car whishing by and the birds coming to visit me on the balcony. I must say though, I'm starting to feel a little lonely ... and you know how you can start sinking into crazy negative thoughts when you're lonely. Hey, I could end up like this guy ...

[EXPLICIT LYRICS WARNING!]



So do get in touch if it's mid-August 2012 when you read this, make a lonesome girl smile and maybe even do your bit for world peace!

X

Cake fest

Well, I must dedicate this blog to all those amazing friends who came round to help me celebrate my birthday  last night...

I had asked people to bring a little something sweet, and people did an AMAZING job of creating weird and truly wonderful puddings - it was a mighty cake fest, and one I well remember for a long long time ...

There were too many amazing contributions to mention them all - from chilli chocolate sponge to the unpronouncable South African almond apricot meringue coconut things, my very own banana cake, the many mouthwatering homemade cookies - but I think everyone there will agree that there were a couple of stand-out efforts ...

words fail me ... a true work of art

In honour of my herb factory -
completely edible mint 'seedlings'

The only downside of the whole experience? The rather negative impact on my efforts to lose that 'full English breakfast' stone ... but hey, it's not your birthday every day, right?!

One happy lady - thank you my friends X

The Zighy Bay Experience

So, after an incredible arrival experience to reach the Zighy Bay resort, was the rest of our weekend there ever going to live up to the dramatic start? The answer, my friends, is a resounding yes. Although,when you begin by jumping off a cliff, the follow-up is always going to be more relaxing. Oh so relaxing ...

I will confess, we did spend the vaaaaaaaaaaast majority of our time in our villa - with private infinity pool and a butler service, the temptation to just lounge and be waited on is hard to beat anyway, and having to cover up and not drink in public areas for Ramadan was just an even greater incentive to stay put.

Home sweet home

You can also see the mountains making a perfect backdrop in one direction and the gorgeous blue sea in the other from the terraces, so that even in the privacy of our villa the natural beauty of Zighy was never far away. There were plenty of visitors too - all sorts of birds during the day, and a flurry of bats in and out of the lights on the terrace at night. And the waves keep crashing throughout ...

Beautiful design using local materials ...

And who doesn't love an outdoor shower

The upper and lower terraces with comfy seating galore

Part of the well-stocked minibar!

So, we could have gone diving, or mountain biking, or swimming in the sea, or hiking, or even micro-light flying ... but this was a weekend of 100% chilling, which we did in the pool in style ...

With a gin and tonic ...

With a book ...

Without a care in the world ...

We did manage to briefly venture out of our little hideaway, and the rest of the resort was equally gorgeous if spookily deserted ...

The bliss of an empty beach in the early morning ...

... with only an army of ghost crabs for company

Leaving only footprints

No fighting it out with the Germans at this resort ...

Heading back home from the beach

The thing that probably made this weekend stand out more than anything else was the absolutely impeccable service - the smiles, the butler on call 24/7, the birthday cake that appeared just when we were thinking about pudding ...

Chocolate mousse cake + surprise = cheesy grin

The best example of all was when we left - or rather, tried to leave. Getting into the four wheel drive shuttle from the resort to the car park on the other side of the ridge, we joked about how nice it would be if our Jungle Bus had a puncture and we were 'trapped' in Zighy for another night. And when we reached the car park ...

Now, I can change a tyre (not a complete girl!), but of course Murphy's law meant that the spare had been damaged since I last checked it. So there we were, one wheel down, in the 40 degrees midday heat, on a Friday, during Ramadan ... but my office colleagues were never going to believe that I wasn't trying to wangle an extra day in paradise, so we asked the hotel staff for some advice. Within minutes we were whisked back to the resort and put into an empty villa with a pool and cold drinks. As we cooled off, one of the guys took off the wheel, drove to the UAE, had the wheel fixed, drove back, put the wheel back on and started the car running so that it was nice and cool by the time we were whisked back - all for free, all part of the service. Nice.

Back towards the main entrance and the real world ...

So, my advice is this: start saving the pennies, playing the lottery, become a WAG (is the male equivalent a HAG?!) ... whatever it takes so that for one day in your life, you can treat yourself to a little place like this - you'll be grinning from ear to ear by the end of it, I PROMISE ...

Making an entrance

Well, my friends, I am back from a weekend of the sheer bliss that is Zighy Bay Six Senses Hideaway resort ... a real window into the world of the super rich, who can afford this kind of getaway on a regular basis. Myself and a good friend could only manage one night after wangling a massive discount through her work connections, but believe me, it was 28 hours well spent ...

The resort, the village, the bay ... so beautiful

I will leave the delights of the resort itself for later, today's instalment is all about the arrival ... almost the best part of the weekend! Zighy Bay is a tiny bay in Musandam in northern Oman, surrounded by some rather majestic peaks, which was only accessible by sea until the resort came along. After 8 months of digging and blasting, the resort created Zighy Bay's first road, a hair-raising set of switchbacks taking you down into the paradise below ...

The road in - another one for vertigo sufferers to avoid

But there is another way in, and one I wasn't going to miss out on - paragliding in from the ridge! Having promised work that this was not going to involve any more broken bones, I booked myself in and was bouncing with anticipation by the time we finally got there - and it was so worth the wait ...

Paragliding is a strange sensation - thrilling to be suspended in the air, and we were moving at quite a pace with some great little winds coming off the sea, but it does basically feel like sitting in a chair with a particularly good view ... and so much to see! We visited an abandoned village on a mountaintop, and went for what felt like miles along the ridge and back again, skirting around the rocks and getting pushed up and around in the odd gust ... but eventually it was time to make a slow and graceful descent, and onto the next part of the Zighy Bay experience ...

Really darlings, it's the only way to travel ...