Something Beautiful

I had a good flight, about 7 hours from Heathrow. I sat next to the world's angriest woman. Because she was so angry, nothing was going right for her. I suspected nothing ever had. Angry lady was also wearing what looked like a synthetic carpet from the seventies.
There were no public transport options, and so we hired a car in Muscat. In retrospect, one of the usual rental companies would have been best, but we opted for the cheapest (£620.00 per week). A trip to the station revealed that petrol was in fact, cheaper than water.

We made ungainly jerks through the traffic in our left hander, and stopped an hour south down the road at Bimmah sink hole. It was there that our car started leaking copious amounts of pink stuff. Khalid, who was dutifully guarding the attraction, came over to inspect our pink leak. Then he called Ali, a very nice smelling tour guide. Between them they determined two things, it was not possible to travel any further, and we should stay and drink lots of cardamon coffee and eat all of Khalid's dates until our rescue car arrived.

We settled on a weathered, silk carpet and waited.

We swam in the sink hole and had a picnic on the beach, and waited. It was beautiful. The earth was ginger-red and the sea turquoise and navy all at once. You could probably name new colours from it. I saw a funny little white bird catch a fish from the sea. I saw the sun go down behind the mountains at the same time the moon came up over the water. It smelt like home.

Eventually, a massive tank of a land cruiser arrived, and we headed towards Wadhi Shab. Wadhi apparently means gorge in Arabic. We drove down to the river mouth and caught a small boat to where the Wadhi meets the sea, captained by a man with a face that smiles even when he is not smiling.

We walked next to the water; it's surface like emeralds melted into oil...the same red sand with white rocks from yesterday, and endless cliff faces above us. There were date palms and flowers and no sound but for a few small waterfalls and birds. We walked for two hours before reaching the pools that would eventually become a river.

The entrance to the last pool was an unassuming gap between the rocks, just big enough for my too big forehead. Below the surface, the rock had been licked away. I breastroked through into a cave. A waterfall flung itself through a secret opening, past which I could see sky. The light that glittered off the water was that new colour someone should make a name for.