It turns out that this is the high season in Oman, and the place is full of tourists, not only from other Gulf countries but from Europe as well. We have even run into Americans here; who would have imagined! We had wanted to spend another day and night in Muscat, but our hotel, which is a huge resort, is fully booked, so we’ll be flying out tonight to see another part of the country. Unfortunately, we had to cut a planned trip to a large desert area short yesterday because with a 3:40 a.m. flight here the night before, Tim just couldn’t stay awake for what turned out to be an all-day drive south.

This was one of our hotel’s pools all decked out for the many guests, unlike when we were here back in July, when it was a pretty empty and sedate affair. It was also incredibly hot and humid then, but now it’s downright delightful.

I’m just going to post the odd picture here and there of this trip and will fill in the many blanks later. Will also catch up with commenting as I can (but I can’t now, or else we won’t see anything today!).