The Arabian Leopard was the subject of an article in the new daily paper from the UAE http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081009/NATIONAL/76935597. The piece highlights how few of the animals there are – the writer covered the possibility that there might be, or might not be one Arabian Leopard in the UAE mountains. That prompted me to scan in the piece I did about the Leopard for ‘Oman Today’ along with 3 other ones .
The visit I made into Wadi Hadhramaut which Oman Today (again) published in 2007 was a wonderful journey . Seeing ‘hand made’ houses rather than ones made from mass produced material was very stimulating. Each one individual and yet harmonious . To get some nice photos I wandered around just after dawn – in Seyoun waking up a pack of several dozen ‘wadi dogs’ on a mountain slope which made me back away very carefully and in Mukalla enjoying watching the men of the old town take up their places in the tea houses . Along the coast, the scenes of fishermen chasing gulls away from drying sardines spoke volumes of their need to preserve ‘wealth’ .
Bank Muscat asks me to produce brief articles which cover towns where they have branches . I am waiting in hope that they will ask me to do one for their Egyptian branch – and of course pay my travel expenses.
The files are probably not so large with broadband – but they take a while to download from Oman .
Arabian Leopard in Dhofar
Wadi Hadhramaut Yemen
Ibri town in Oman
Al Hamra town in Oman
Categories: Oman · Oman's Nature · Yemen
Tagged: Bank Muscat, Hadhramaut, Hamra, Ibri, Leopard, Magazine, Oman, Oman Today, Seyoun, Shibam, Tarim, Travel, Yemen
The fields of English sub-urbia
The rain of a typical British Summer has kept trees in early summer leaf (except the Horse Chestnut which, where we live, has been badly affected by the new fungus which creates an Autumn brown off in early July). On the ground the constant downpours have forced the birds of the garden under the creepers, rather than on their well-stocked bird-tables. Floods have again damaged peoples lives. Its has been a difficult summer for many – but travelling with Oman Air from Gatwick shows many clouds do have silver-linings and rain’s of course is the green mosaic of the sub-urban countryside.
The flight into Muscat was moving off from its bay early and kindly they called the last 3 passengers by name; mine included. Fortunately, Gatwick is not Heathrow and a distance that was signed at 20 minutes actually was around 5. The meal included Tamarind Sorbet;
Tamerind Sorbet
Tamarind by ‘Al Nabil’ is probably my favourite drink (its usually only availably during Ramadhan unfortunately). This sorbet was tasty but could have had a little more sugar to hold it together and was on the verge of being a drink . I chose Lamb Rack for the main course,
Lamb Rack
which was generously garnished with thyme. The flavour was excellent, though overcooked to my taste, Omanis would disagree as they expect well-cooked meat. It was quite tepid when served – the right temperature on airline meals must be a very difficult target to achieve.
and finally the best part of the flight – landing ahead of schedule into a warm Muscat night – home
Categories: London · Meals · Oman
Tagged: Airline, English Countryside, Flight, Food, Gatwick, Home, London, Meal, Muscat, Oman, Oman Air, Rack of Lamb, Tamarind, Tourism, Travel
