Oman’s date harvest

For several weeks, the skies above Muscat have been a pale brown as we have been sitting under a dust haze. At times the entire country has been affected – on a drive of 1000 kilometres to Salalah a few weeks ago the tone of the sky hardly changed throughout the journey.

Nasa Dust June 2008
Nasa Dust June 2008

NASA (where I obtained the image from) has up-loaded the cause of Oman’s latest dust arrival – dust drifting down from Afghanistan. With the sharp rise in humidity over the last few days the dust will ‘stick’  up in the air.  However the humidity also comes with a change in wind direction, now from the south and hopefully we will gradually be free of grey skies for some time.
Despite the heat, oppressiveness and now dust the date harvest has to go ahead in Oman.

Date Harvest Oman
Date Harvest Oman

It’s a difficult job, involving climbing to the crown of a date palm and collecting the dates.

Author: Tony Walsh

Tony Walsh - author and tour leader through Arabia