Old post! Kara Visit!

Kara came to visit a while ago, around Feb. 26, 2009. Kara and I worked together at the Pinnacle and she is now in Dubai. James blunt was in town, so we had a good excuse for her to come down. She arrived on Wednesday night pretty late and we sat out on my patio drinking and catching up until 1 or so. Thursday was a big day for us. We picked up Courtney and went down to Wadi Shab, or the 'Keyhole' wadi. This one was so built up, I decided I would save exploring it for when someone special came, and that was Kara. We drove down in about 1.5 hours and parked in what little shade we could find. We started up the Wadi passing a lot of Omani families having picnics or teenage Omanis filling the canyon with their rythmic drums. As it happens in every wadi, though, we were soon passed all the people and litter bugs and onto a high, narrow path walked on so much that the hand holds were smoothed out. Living in Dubai, Kara was impressed by how much water our wadis have in them. They are pretty impressive when you think about how much desert surrounds us; I guess that's why we return to them nearly every week. Wadi Shab is one worth visiting as it has beautiful, bright blue pools surrounded by cliffs and round boulders. Walking up the path took about 30 minutes, and when we finally arrived at the water trail head, we had lunch.
The water trail head is just that, the rest of the trail is water and requires wading and swimming, so we had to leave our bags and belongings (that means no pictures, sorry). We followed Courtney since she had been there before down a very steep cliff and then into the water. Courtney isn't exaclty the most graceful person as she falls a lot even on flat ground or in the hallways, but she is suprisingly attentive when it comes to stepping and crawling over mossed covered rocks. Where I was falling all over the place, slipping on every rock or boulder I touched and flailing my arms all about my head as if I were swatting a swarm of bees to try to keep my balance, both Kara and Courtney just watched, laughed, and took the opportunity to get their payback for all the times I had mocked them for falling or stubbing their toes.
After the treacherous moldy rocks, we arrived at a deep pool in a box canyon. At first glance you would think that there is nowhere to go but the way we came from. So, you can imagine my confusion as I saw Courtney swimming to the far wall as if she could swim through it. I was even more surprised when she did swim through it yelling behind her that we were almost there. I swam to the far wall and discovered the small crack to fit my shoulders and head and treaded water through the 'keyhole'. When you pop out of the crevice, you do a double take and wonder if you just stumbled (or treaded) into paradise (yet another one!). You find yourself in a huge cave with a waterfall flowing on your left and a cave under the waterfall and light shining down from above the waterfall and from above your left shoulder. Kara and I were speechless; so, Courtney did the talking for us, "Pretty incredible, huh?" Yes it was. We climbed up the waterfall on a frayed rope and jumped from there as well as another huge boulder. Whoever comes to visit, you will see this Wadi, it is quite impressive.
After about 45 minutes of playing an soaking up the sun above the waterfall, we headed back. Grabbed our backpacks, had more lunch, and hiked back. As we passed the picnics and drummers, we noticed a huge mobile jackhammer coming to block our path. Omanis can be pretty inconsiderate and irrational (to us) sometimes, but blocking the only way out with this construction equipment just even too odd for Omanis, but when we looked to where it was actually going, we couldn't help but laugh. A big 4 wheel drive Toyota SUV that can do anything and go anyway found its limit; its limit being water (we thought is was just common sense that you don't drive a car into water, but I guess you don't truly know until you try! Maybe his GPS told him to drive into the water, damn technology!) We walked passed the Toyota and tried not to snicker too much as the crane approached. We left as the mud soaked car was being successfully pulled out.
We arrived home and I took a quick nap, then we had dinner and headed to the James Blunt concert which was great fun! I agree that his music is pretty slow paced, but he seemed to speed everything up, and had a lot of energy! He was jumping all over the amps, having the crowd sing along, and his hair looked like Beetlejuice's; a rocker through and through.
On what was supposed to be the last full day of Kara's visit, Friday, we ended up just hiking in small Wadi near Muscat. It was a nice hike and Courtney and I bouldered a bit, and swam in a small pool. The next day, my phone died and for some reason, I was the only one of the three of us to set an alarm, so we rushed Kara to the highway to catch a cab so she could catch the bus and I could make it to school on time. She missed the bus and showed up to one of my classes, I couldn't help but laugh when she came in and my students were extremely confused of who this tall, blond woman was. The rest of the day, she was at Courtney's and finally made it to a bus to take her back to Dubai around 4:30.