End%20of%20Day%201

On the beach near the Royal Opera House in Muscat, at the end of day one. From here I picked up a taxi to a pre-booked hotel, which was miles away and grim, then returned again the following morning in another taxi, to walk from here to my host's in Muscat.

Chicken%20Curry

A staple diet while travelling, from curry houses and motorway service stations. Much much better than it looked, and always welcome. This was lunch on day two, walking from the sea front to my host's house, just prior to starting the long straight stretch down the main road between the airport and the sea front.

Self%20Portrait

I wore this shirt every day for the 27 days of the trip. It was so stained at the end with ingrained dirt and grease it would not come clean. Not being one to give up on stuff I still have it, and after a year it has washed clean again.

Oasis

Much of the time I followed main roads, which had all the charm of walking along the hard shoulder of the M1. When possible I cut across country, as here, on gravel roads. This was half way between Bidbid and Samail, on the 3rd day.

Omani%20Falaj

A Falaj, part of the traditional Omani irrigation systems which distribute water from the mountains through local settlements.

Start Point

The Royal Palace in Muscat - start point for the 406 mile walk, on the 3rd March 2014. I left here in the morning and took a circuitous route through the town to get down onto the coast road, taking much longer than I had expected. Taking much longer than I had expected was to become a recurring theme during the next 27 days!

Foot Admin

This was preventative foot care, stopping early to tape hot spots and powder feet. This was the 4th day, and the first where I had woken in a bivvy. Taping the feet was the right thing to do, but ultimately my feet fell apart anyway. The single hardest part of this walk was overcoming the pain from heavily blistered feet during after the first week.

Camels

I was surprised at the time to see Camels grazing by the roadside, but this became a more and more frequent occurance.

Drying Sleeping Bags

I stopped for lunch at a service station, and laid out my sleeping and bivvy bag to air. They got wet from sweat in the heat of the night. There is nothing holding them up but the strength of a hot wind blowing into the openings.

Samail

The new entrance to Samail, which was under construction at the time of my visit. Samail is the birth place of Islam in the Oman, and the Samail Gap is a trading route trhough a natural gap in the Al Hajar Mountains, which seperate the low coastal plaine from the high desert plateau and the Rub' al Khali (The Empty Quarter) beyond. Samail is home to Oman's oldest Mosque, Masjid Mazin bin Ghadouba.

Rain on the route from Samail to Izkie

I had hoped to find a hotel in Samail. Instead I found a small mound of earth just outside the town, which seems to offer protection from being run over by random cross country car drivers in the small of the night. This was my second night out, and it had been a long day. I was up and away early in the morning, and made very fast progress at first, in the cool of the morning. My pace slowed as the day went on, but I managed a big mileage, and made Izki by the end of the day.