Tuesday we had a late start to the day as Cam, Matt and I all slept in. Whilst Cam and Matt got organised, Rachel and I walked down the shop for some lunch items. We had a stop at the bakery (I did say no, but Rach insisted we get some apple cake for afternoon tea). We also had to go into the non-muslim shop for the ham and salami.
After lunch, Rachel took us on a "windscreen tour" around the city. Beautiful beaches, buildings and the ocean. So pretty.
After our tour (during which we ate the apple cake - beautiful), we went to the embassy and met a whole heap of people, saw Mark and then picked up our new hire car (a Suzuki SX4 sedan) and followed Rachel and Mark home. At home we saw the boys, Christopher and Michael, who'd been at school all day and Matt finally had some children to play with, and Cam and I got some quiet time to chat with Rachel and Mark.
Wednesday, we had an early start, up at 6 to drive to Nizwa (2 hours inland) to see the original fort and the souk. We went into a fruit and vegie souk, where we spent ages identifying the different food inside and how different some of it is to home. We also had a taste of some halwa (date syrup, sugar and sesame seeds) which Matt was very unimpressed by.
Rachel is a great barterer, so after looking through the pottery, daggers and spice stores, we had some cashews and peanuts for snack (3 and 2 rials) and we bought some frankincense (1 rial) so I could decide on whether I wanted a big bag to take home (no).
After making our way through the row of shops, (Matt finally spent some of his holiday money and bought a zebra and Michael got a free turtle), we reached Nizwa Fort.
Nizwa Fort is a 17th century fort that was constructed over 30 years and has recently been restored to it's former glory. It has some interesting displays of Omani history and culture.
We walked through the fort, up the stairs
past the defenses - a hole that goes straight to the bottom, just behind the doors to get rid of unwelcome visitors, canons and murder holes (where they could pour boiling date syrup onto the enemies)
to the beautiful views at the top.
We found a great place for a picnic lunch nearby.
On the way home we searched for a fort that had been bombed. We found one that the children thought had a bomb crater in the middle.
We didn't think that was the right fort and had just about given up when we spotted another fort on the way home. (lots of rock climbing and sliding down hills, so the kids had a ball).
Home for a rest and a big day again tomorrow.
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