From Green Mountains to Golden Dunes

Every two weeks, our large group divides into 3 small groups and travels....to the North (to the Desert), East (to the Beaches) or West (to the Yemeni border). We don't go South because that is the Arabian Sea (please look at the map in posts below if this confuses you).

My group's first trip was North to the Desert! In order to get to the desert you have to go over the mountains, which are beautiful, misty and green thanks to the monsoonal rains. Also, at this time of year, there are a whole bunch of natural springs to go visit, which are like green oases and swimming holes.

So in the next few posts, I will share pictures on our first excursion. In these pictures you can see how green and misty the Monsoon season makes Salalah. These pictures all come from the mountain ranges right around Salalah -- probably no more than 15 miles. The picture to the left is a cave that we visited. You must remember that this is a country to which modernization is really very new -- and as recently as 50 years ago people still lived in these caves...(remember before electricity or cars or anything!)

So please when you are looking at these pictures, keep in mind the fact that we are in a Gulf country! And the day after seeing these beautiful Ains -- we were in the Rub3 il-Khali (which translates into English as "Empty Quarter") and is essentially one of the largest expanses of unoccupied barren desert land in the world. And it's famous because the majority of the Rub' Al-Khali is in Saudia Arabia)