Thursday, and the beginning of the weekend. It’s a safe bet nothing much will happen workwise over the next couple of days, so I’m free to explore the city. In theory. Unfortunately, Muscat consists essentially of a 50km highway sandwiched between the mountains and the sea (nice mountains and sea, but still) along which suburbs are strung like pearls on a necklace (as the Omani tourist board probably says). Dandy for driving, but not so convenient on foot. The closest thing to public transport is a system of shared taxis, which as far as I can tell doesn’t reach this part of the city (all gleaming white villas and gleaminger white SUVs). All that remain are taxis which can get away with charging foreigners triple the price, know this, and therefore follow any western pedestrians with a chorus of honking. As a matter of principle, therefore, I’m pretty much restricted to the stretch of beach between the hotel and Starbucks.
Fortunately this stretch does include a nature reserve with some kind of mangrove wetland: I’m not allowed in, but I can look. There’s quite a variety of birdlife:
this heron is the star – statuesque and chilled-looking, he spends his days standing in the stream, watching…
there are several of these (storks?), which slowly glide through the water…
my favourite, this grumpy-looking fellow runs back and forth in the surf, apparently trying to time his runs to catch a fish without getting his feet wet…
And all around the area there are screeching parakeets, sadly a bit too fast and high for the camera…
The beach itself is popular with footballers and promenaders:
It’s covered in exquisite little shells:
And those mountains are very tempting:
Great birds! Looking forward to more – words and pics.