German Geoscience students discover beauty of sultanate
A group of 27 German Geosciences students from the Universities of Bonn, Aachen and Cologne visited the sultanate recently. They were accompanied by Valeska Decker and prof Gösta Hoffmann from GUtech and Bonn University (Germany) as well as by Dr Daniel Felten. Dr Felten is the coordinator of the joint geo-network called ABC/JGeoverbund. He said, “We conducted the Oman trip for the third time. It is a very positive experience for our students to come to Oman.
It is not only the beautiful landscape and fascinating insights into geological processes but also the very rich culture of the people which makes the country a perfect destination for such an educational trip.” Dr Felten who personally participated the first time, further lined out that he was very curious to visit the country himself. He added, “The students gave very positive feedback in the last years, produced amazing videos on YouTube and posted incredible photos on social media. This year, the students blogged about their experience.” Although the blog is in German (www.geoverbund.de/omanblog), the pictures already illustrate the group’s huge interest in the country and its people.
The students also benefited from prof Gösta’s experience who recently published a field guide on the geology of Oman. Prof Gösta, who also guided a trip for the German Geological Association earlier this year, said, “For me, it is always a pleasure to guide visitors through the country. Especially Europeans expect to only see sand deserts. When we take them to places like Wadi Shaab or to the Hajar mountains, their perception changes completely. This is the most reward- ing work I can think of. As the responsible person, I am basically busy all the time, but looking into happy faces throughout the day and hearing the laughter during the evening at the campfire are very rewarding motivations for me to run these trips.”
Valeska said, “It was easy to conduct this trip to Oman. The sultanate is one of the safest countries I have ever visited. We were in the good hands of our local partner from Golden Highlands who took care of all the logistics during the trip and also gave us a lot of understanding of the Omani culture.” Dr Felten said, “We will definitely come back to Oman next year” before the entire group departed.