15th June

Heading south again our next port of call was Muscat (Mina Qaboos). Oman’s capital that was once a major trading centre controlled by the Portuguese.

An ancient city of white buildings with a back drop of grey craggy mountains has been carved out of the hills to make this old trading port. Rugged grey rocky mountains sweep down to the sea with not a skerrick of green to be seen.

Old 16th century forts protect the harbour and the palace of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said who has been in power since 1970.

Berthing at a container wharf we weren’t allowed to walk along the dock so shuttle buses had been organised to transfer us into the city. We stepped out into 40C heat to board our shuttle and drove 4kl drive into the city. We weren’t doing an organised shore excursion so we paid a kings ransom and boarded a hop on hop off double decker bus and listened to a very good running commentary in English for about two hours as we circumnavigated Mina Qaboos in air-conditioned comfort.

With everything white the city looks clean and tidy there is a blend of old and new but Mina Qaboos appeared to be more conservative and traditional than Dubai with its biggest of everything and there is a height limit to buildings that is something in the order of 4-5 stories. New buildings seem to be more of the traditional type than exotic shapes and apparently you have a choice of building colour – white or cream. The whole place is surrounded by high rugged rocky ridges and it is obvious that an enormous amount of excavation has gone on over the years to make room for buildings etc and continues to this day as everywhere we went machines were hacking away at the rock making road cuttings or building sites.

Back at the city drop off point we spent a bit of time wandering through an old souk but prices were high and we really didn’t want to buy anything. By this time it was getting pretty hot so we headed back to the ship and air-conditioning.