The April heat of Muscat made it great to ascend to the cooler heights of Jabal Akhdar and join Professor Reginald Victor and Mrs Victor with the Environment Society of Oman on a visit to several areas that are included in his long-term study of the ecosystem of Jabal Akhdar.

He is so enthusiastic about his subject and managed to include biology, ecology and geology in probably half a day . He showed us a trace marker of the Permian–Triassic extinction event 250million year ago, the highlight of a very enjoyable day. Later in April a young friend was formally getting married, so I took the fantastic road again up to Jabal Akhdar, and I joined a large crowd of well-wishers witness the event.

As usual these ceremonies take place in an evening – and generally, the entire male population of a village attends (the females have their own events).
The next morning a pile of the amazingly fragrant pink Damask Rose flowers was put in my car, for the entire 200kms home the road had a give-away fragrance of Rose Damask.
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