A TREASURE THAT IS OMAN
UNSETTLED and nostalgic from her recent visit to the Sultanate, Linda Hawkins from Wairoa, New Zealand’s North Island, is craving to come back again. Fascinated by Omani halwa, pomegranate juices from Jabal Akhdar and swimming along the coast of Masirah Island, she lived every moment of her stay here.
Embraced by an omen of goodwill that followed her throughout her short stay, she admires sailing along Oman’s long coastline and prefers travelling up through the Red Sea. She loves the sea, having lived on Alize, their yacht for some time.
Watching flamingoes on the beaches of Masirah Island was a delight and the Blue swimmer crabs she says are similar to those off the north eastern coast of Australia. She along with Dianna, her co-traveller, tasted delicious sea food dinner during their last night in Oman and thanked the fisherwoman in Masirah for her kind hospitality.
Surprisingly, many from her small coastal village of Wairoa of 4,000 people had earlier lived in Oman. The Leon and Jane Fulchure couple who worked in the Middle East where time seemed to stand still, has a culture that learned to endure long waiting times, and given a place where one accepts its fellow traveller with humility yet at the same time maintains a pride of place.
In Muscat, she was ‘spoilt for choices’ and booked herself onto a dive boat to enjoy the beauty of the tropical fish and turtles. The marine life was so reachable and untouched, so close to shore. She dived and was amazed to see marine life only 20 metres off shore which was better than her dive on the outer ‘Great Barrier Reef’ in Australia two years back.
“Oman has a treasure which must be preserved,” she says. At Royal Opera House Muscat, ‘The Sleepwalker,’ an Opera by Bellini, was a joy to behold, which she and Dianna enjoyed with a chorus of voices reaching such heights and feared the crystal chandeliers to shatter.
The ‘Pitt stop’ along the way to Jabal Akhdar where welcome cool water is provided in earthen jars amazed her. Impressed by the generous supply of water wherever one travelled right from underground aquaphor (falaj), springs to across the conversion plants that provided water for the cities and beyond.
Linda owns stunning Riverhouses at Wairoa. She worked in the