Today we drove some 200 km westward towards the mountains, along well-built roads deep into the interior and finally along dry river beds or the wadis. It is clear that the government has poured a lot of money on building infrastructure such as raised roads from the flood prone wadis and encouraging more of the population to settle far from the urban areas and make the areas here and on the outskirts of the mountains their homes. And yet without any obvious employment and visible farm land, one would question how sustainable is the scheme.
From the coast, the Omani mountains dominate the skyline of Muscat and the northern coastal strip, reaching to 3000 meter in height. Here in the higher altitudes the weather can be quite cold and windy. The mountains are cut through by many wadis and only approachable by 4WDs. The wadis are currently dry. There has not been much rain in recent years. However, there are still occasional floods especially during the wintry months when rain water from the mountains would rush with ferocious force carrying stones and rubbles down the wadis. One has to be aware of this danger as sudden flash floods might be triggered by heavy rains far away in the upper reaches of the mountains without one realising it.
Today was about looking at the rocks. Here some of the oldest rocks could be found, as old as 700 million years old. As we progressed and discussed through the rock sequence, the whole things came back rushing in my head, after all I spent three years in my previous job studying similar rocks.
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