From Muscat to Sur
The following day, we left Muscat at the crack of dawn bound for Sur in three four-wheel drive vehicles which were going to become necessary as the roads went from tarmac to mud during the course of the week. Our guides/drivers were Khalid (my hero from the hike rescue), Abdullah (a professional guide with a wicked sense of humour) and xxxxx. They would be with us for the entire trip and I can honestly say they made it such fun; tremendous ambassadors for the country of Oman, and all photographers.
Our first stop was Quriyat beach to catch the sunrise. The main attraction here would be the fisherman readying their boats and mending nets, although to begin with, we were curious about the procession of people walking along the beach to the rocks at the end.
We followed them towards the rocks where there was a natural spring which the people were using as a part of their cleansing ritual - mystery solved.
It seemed we had got up much earller than the fisherman, so the beach was pretty quiet as the sun rose. Nevertheless we caught some people mending nets and launching their boats.
