Everyone and Everything created by HIM is beautiful. But there is always some partiallity shown, even by GOD!! I should'nt be calling it partiallity. Its more like special liking towards something or someone. I was given an oppurtunity to visit one such beauty! After this visit....I want to hug HIM and thank HIM for creating such a beauty.....OMAN
For people living in the gulf...especially in UAE, Oman happens to be the first stop for any small holiday. There are varied reasons, visiting friends, beaches etc., But for me Oman means scenic beauty. Mountains and beaches and a beautiful blend of both. It is said that this place was actually a place that emerged from the seas. Meaning, it was under water earlier. The mountains found there are all full of pebbles. I have a weakness for these mountains. I feel they keep inviting me to come to them.
My first stop this time was at a place called The Sinking Hole. The folk lore behind this is that a meteorite hit at this point and the Earth has caved in because of this, leading to the water coming out from this. For someone hearing this, it might just be another hole with some water. But for people who have seen this, its something unexplicable. The place is such a beauty. The Omanis have built in steps to reach the water. Big steps that really take your breath out, however healthy you are!! Its real Bliss reaching down and touching down on the water. The water's colour is blackish blue. But its pure and transparent at the same time. There are lots of fishes which give you a free pedicure at all times!!
The way that leads to this place was another story by itself. One would be aware that Oman is a country of Mountains. The drive anywhere would be ups and downs and curvy. There was no exception to this as well. My words cannot, at its best, describe the beauty that held my eyes. The best thing that would give you a hindsight of what I enjoyed would be that, when we were coming down the mountains, we felt as if we are rushing to meet the ocean. And the best part was, it was one of the few unknown places. Which means...solitude.......No body around!!!!!! It was just the few of us who went along sitting by the oceans clicking shots and collecting pebbles. No street lights. No roads. No sand....you need to walk on the pebbles to reach the Arabian Sea. And looked like Mother Ocean was happy to see us....she kept us thrilled with her waves....she was so excited that she kept rushing to and fro. Looked as if we were having a tete a tete with Her. Though its sounds greedy, we were happy to have her all by ourselves!!!
Our next stop....Jebel Shams. We were actually planning to return on that day, but our freinds said this was a lovely place and not to miss it. So we stayed put. We thought it would be another mountain driving and lets enjoy it. Seriously, this was the mind set with which we started out. We set out in 3 cars. All Salons. You might be wondering why I mention the "Salon", just read on....you would see....
Racing around at 140 kmph (looks like this is the normal speed of all the people in Oman...everyone goes around in this speed here. And me doing it doesnt surprise them at all!!!!), we reached a place called Ibri. The starting point actually. We went on with the climb. There were amazing curves and hair pin bends. We enjoyed the drive thoroughly. We would have taken multiple tricky curves, which are similar to the roller coaster rides. We even had a point where we headed a steep and stopped, had to, because we could not actually see where we were heading, upon starting the desent we concurred that there was a curve there. Had we just descended blindly, we would have been kissing the Earth!!! After all this, the cars stopped. I opened the door and was greeted by CHILL wind. It was pricking cold!!! I really enjoyed that moment and went around thanking my friends who made us go for that lovely ride and experience the amazing weather. And to my shock, I was actually told "Cool down dear!!! We have just started!!" Oh then I thought, we are going to have a few more of the curves which we had already experienced.
But what turned out was nothing compared to what I have ever experienced. They were slopes at more than 85 deg. Our cars wear eating at it vvvvvery slowly. It would climb only in the second gear!! that too with great difficulty. That was not all.....the roads lead to proper mountains. You know the ones made of pebbles? Just a path that was made out on a mountain??? I actually mean that...And we were not riding a 4 wheel....and another thing was actually it was single lane road, where there was two way traffic! And on the right there was no barrier....one mistake.....we are history!!!!! That was what made the trip more worthwhile!!!! Amazing!! What a feeling it was to come out of the car at the end of the ride!!! And it was 12 deg there, when in Muscat, it was actually 38 deg at the time we left. The sun was setting at 4:30 p.m. It was pitch dard (at 6:30) when we started our descent. We unfortunately could not take many snaps here as our hands were shivering with the cold!!! There is a resort on top of this place, where get some hot teas to warm us up.
This is one such natural beauty which I enjoyed immensly thanks to our friends Bindu & Prakash and their friends Mani Yetta & fly.
I still feel these mountains calling me......Waiting for my next rendez-vous with them.
