Its always nice to visit the archaeological site of Sumhuram near Salalah Oman as it is constantly evolving as discoveries are made and the site itself is developed.
A client who had travelled with us previously was in a ‘competition’ to visit a country starting with each letter of the alphabet. There is only one with the letter ‘Y’, Yemen, and we organised a Yemen Visit. Continue reading “Picnic in Yemen”
Oman is home or visited by almost 500 species of Bird; we were delighted to see two of the most magnificent.
Skirting around Jebel Samhan in Dhofar we had two wonderful experiences . Over the coastal region two Verreaux’s Eagles cavorted in the sky above. These are probably the largest Eagles in Oman and since they pair for a long time – I assume this was a male and female.
Verreaux’s Eagles in the skies of Dhofar
Larger still – a flock (if that’s the appropriate name ) of 8 Griffin Vultures glided away over the mountain plateau. The Griffin, along with the Lappet Faced, is Oman’s largest Raptor .
One of a flock of 8 Griffin Vultures over Dhofars Mountains
Grabbing a couple of bottles of water, we set off at a good walking pace under the cloud cover of the early Khareef (Monsoon) season in Salalah Oman .
Arabian Leopard
I enjoy trekking in Oman with Hadi al Hikmani, enthusiasm is always a good companion and Hadi packages his in friendliness and knowledge. On this walk, his knowledge identified fresh ‘scat’ (excrement) on our pathway – in fact Leopard scat . Fresh, in fact, very fresh – probably less than half an hour old. In the day that followed, we walked along Leopard tracks and with all our stops and starts, examining the tracks and collecting scat we didn’t catch up with our invisible walking companion.
We returned along the same path and astoundingly found more scat; the Leopard had returned to the path after we passed .
Oman Today Magazine Cover
Over a year before, on another walk with Hadi, I said to him that I would write about Oman’s Leopards; as he believes that awareness is a key to its survival. So, shamed that no article had been produced in over a year, I returned to Muscat and somehow produced a piece. Wonderfully ‘ Oman Today ’ has used it in their August edition – I’m delighted of course.
Oman is a key territory of Panthera pardus nimr, the Arabian Leopard, and, with possibly less than 200 individuals in the world, awareness may well help its survival.
The road from Thumrayt into Al Mazyunah leads into the northeast desert of the Hadramawt in Yemen and my destination Seyoun, which I decided would be a great centre for visiting the Hadramawt.
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