In the area around Nizwa - week two in Oman

After almost a week in Mutrah, and living the good life in the Finar, we rented a car and busted out to Nizwa. Nizwa is one of Oman's major cities, and is approx 150 kilometers south of Muscat in the mountains. It was a scenic drive in our Yaris, weaving in and out of the mountain passes.

We headed for Nizwa in mid-afternoon, too late to do much site-seeing. So instead of staying in town, we decided to camp outside of Nizwa. Our first night was spent in Wadi Tanuf, one of the valleys surrounding the city. We parked the Yaris at the edge of the Wadi and walked in.

We hiked back on a small road, past a little hill top village. Goats grazed and kids ran around playing soccer.

After a few more turns of the road, we found an elevated area to pitch Steffen's tent (under the tree in the right side of the picture below). 

From another angle:

With the tent pitched, we started scouring the dry river bed for sticks and other burnables. A few trucks went past us, probably wondering what a couple of gringos were doing in their valley. Soon we had enough fuel, and Steffen (the former Eagle Scout) took the lead on building the fire.

It got dark quickly in the valley, soon the fire was the only light besides the moon and stars.

We had bought some meat and vegetables at Lulu (Oman's take on Walmart) before we left, which we packed in aluminum foil to cook. It was a good meal, sitting on the rocks around the fire. After that it was off to bed in Steffen's little tent. A cozy fit for two big guys like us!

The next morning I stoked the fire again. It had been a rough night for yours truly, I didn't sleep very well. I was so used to the lumpy beds of the Finar, not to mention all of the late night noises, that it was difficult to get used to sleeping on the ground and in the complete quiet of the Wadi. So I was up early, trying to get the fire going again.

We posed for some pictures:

After cleaning up our camp site, we hiked back to the car and the old city of Tanuf. There are two cities of Tanuf, the old city which is in ruins, and the new city built close to it. The old city was destroyed when the Sultan wrested control of the area from his father. Instead of rebuilding, the people there must have decided it would be easier to rebuild nearby. I had brought my metal detector all the way from the USA just for places like this!

Steffen surveying the scene, my trusty metal detector chilling in the shade:
We found some muscat (the old bullet, not the capital of Oman) balls and a bullet in the ruins of the old city. A man walked up with a herd of children surrounding him. They were a little curious what two Americans were doing poking around the old city with a metal detector. Steffen explained in Arabic, which brought more questions - why does he speak Arabic? They were suspicious, it was obvious even to the non-Arabic speaker. Steffen asked the man if his children would like the muscat balls that we found. The man said no, and that he didn't know what the muscat balls were. It was obvious that we were touching on territory we probably shouldn't. So we left, heading back to Nizwa.