SALALAH, our last port in Oman - March 30th

Salalah is the last port we visited and quite interesting as well.  We took a tour to visit Job's tomb about an hour drive outside of Salalah.  The scenic drive included a  beautiful and pristine beach.  Many tourist come to this city because of the beaches. Although most Arabs do not swim, the beaches become packed during the rainy season.

We stopped at the beach and on the cliffs beside the beach we found small cave with a hole.

We passed a grove of frankincense trees.  Oman is one of the only producers of frankincense and the Omani government owns this grove of trees.  Producing sap like rubber trees produce rubber, the trees grow wild as well all over the country and it is sold in most of the bazars we were in.

The tour guide told us that although it looks quite like a desert, during the winter it drizzles rain steadily all day and all night and people come from all over to sit in the coolness of the drizzle in campsites they build everywhere.  This entire region turns lush green on all the hills and valleys.  Our guide said we would not believe we were in the same country. He told us that you cannot get a room for love or money and that other Arabs pay rack rates for rooms here during vacation.   This little stand was beside one of the resorts.

We climbed up into the hills toward the tomb and this beautiful scene lay before us.

On the way back we saw camels wandering around the roads and we asked the driver if he would stop while we all got out to take photos.  Camels are expensive - around $1000.   If you drive during the day and you hit one - you have to pay a fine and the cost of the camel to the owner.  If you hit a camel at night, you don't pay a fine because the camel should have been corralled at dusk - though you have to pay for the camel (if they catch you)

All camels are owned - they are allowed to roam free just during the day and most don't venture far from their village.

Here's an interesting bit of information. About 50 years ago they had a bad drought.  The camels had nothing to eat so some wise owner started to feed his camels dried sardines.  Well that has become part of their steady diet, sardines.

Speaking of sardines, not sure if this picture shows them well, but after we got back on the ship, Len caught this group of sardines which are plentiful in the surrounding waters.

Well, the bus climbed up the winding mountains to the top where Job's tomb is.  Considered holy by Moslems as well as Christians and Jews, this site is one of the pilgrimages most Moslems make.

We re-boarded the bus for the trip back to the ship and briefly stopped at a group of frankincense shops
The scent of frankincense hung heavy in the air since all of the shops were burning it.
Behind her is every kind of Arabic perfume and fragrance. We bought frankincense from this lady and she gave us a gift of a can of charcoal to burn the frankincense.