Craftsmen at work building beautiful wooden dhows at the last remaining traditional boatyard in Oman.
Peaceful wadis, a deep water-filled sinkhole, and an aromatic frankincense tree.
Once a busy port and trading centre Sur, south of Muscat, is now a much sleepier place, a pretty coastal town with the last vestiges of traditional boat building in Oman.
We went down to the beach at the entrance to the lagoon, guarded by a lighthouse on the promontory. While we wandered taking photographs Kareem, our driver and guide, bought freshly made cheesy doughnuts which were fabulous, they didn't last long!
Traditional dhows have been built here by hand for hundreds of years and we visited the last remaining boatyard in Oman to build in this way. The men who now build the dhows are all from India.
Traditionally the dhows were constructed with teak, originally from India but now Malaysian. Now they use a mix of timbers.
The yard only works on one or two dhows at a time. They had not long finished a large order for Qatar, exclusively making boats for them for a couple of years.
The fishermen's harbour is a little further north, full of fishing boats, most of them a traditional timber build.
On the way out of Sur, Kareem stopped to show us the 700 year old Bibi Maryam Mausoleum. This is the most substantial ruin remaining from the ancient city of Qalhat, once a very important commercial centre for trade in the Indian Ocean region.
A serious earthquake in the 14th century weakened the city, but it was the Portuguese in the early 16th century who destroyed it, setting the buildings and its large wooden fleet on fire and massacring the inhabitants.
Bibi Maryam was installed as governor of Qalhat when her governor husband returned to Persia. On his death in Qalhat she continued to govern the city and was noted for her kindness. She built the domed mausoleum for her husband.
Wadi Tiwi has a village on its banks, lots of rushes and date palms, and is surrounded by towering mountains.
A beautiful oasis, the wadi had a lot of water flowing. It's possible to take a small boat to the other side of the wadi and go for a long walk - maybe next time!
This was a complete surprise, a sink hole looking very like a Mexican cenote.
And then another surprise - a frankincense tree.
Frankincense is one of Oman's most famous natural products and the gorgeous smell of the smouldering resin is ubiquitous in the country. The main areas of production are in the south of the country, in Dhofar, and we really hadn't expected to see a tree here.
This lone specimen was oozing some of the precious resin - such a wonderful aroma.
17km of tricky off-road driving into the mountains brought us to beautiful Wadi Arbeieen. We drove through spectacular steep-sided canyons and past palm-fringed pools of tranquil beauty to get to this lovely oasis.
There were a number of Qatari men at the pools, very identifiable from their headdresses.
