Oh Man, it's Oman! Part 2

After spending the first 2 days in Muscat, we drove 3 hrs down the coast to the Ras al Jinz Turtle Reserve. To break up the drive, we stopped at 2 wadis along the way. The first was Wadi Arbaeen (or Arbayeen, Arbeieen, Arbiyeen...take your pick, the Omanis couldn't seem to agree on its spelling). You can drive right up to this wadi. We chose not to swim here b/c we knew we were going to need to swim at the next wadi. I'm at the boulders near the top of the waterfall, taking a photo of Brian and the landscape.

Brian looking down at us from the top.

Close to the wadi was a "supermarket"- not sure how super it can be when it's the size of a tiny bedroom! Oh well, Brian stopped for drinks (which they had) so it was super-enough for us.

Wadi Shab was next. It was a 6 km round trip hike. Here's a few photos of our hike...kids were awesome hiking. I thought for sure Mei would tire but she was a champ jumping from boulder to boulder (and made me nervous walking along the cliffsides).

I'm standing at the beginning of where we have to enter the water to get to the cave.

Some parts were shallow enough to just walk.

Other parts definitely required swimming- Brian got a couple of underwater pics of the girls:

There's a natural cave at the end of the trail. You swim through a keyhole (only 1 person can fit through at a time) and it opens up into a cave that has a small waterfall. Brian climbed a rope to the top of the waterfall and took this pic looking down- too bad there's a water spot on the lens...but you get the idea!

On to Part 3...