Sur & Sea Turtles

The first week of March, we drove 3hrs south to the traditional dhow shipyards of Sur.  After 7 months of living in Oman, we knew we could walk right into the shipyard and no one would think anything of it.   

At 9pm we arrived at Ras al-Jinz, an important turtle nesting site where 20,000 green turtles return each year to lay eggs on the beach where they were hatched.  Our Omani tour guide led our group of 20 adults and children on a dark, 10-minute walk to the beach.  We saw turtles laying and burying eggs, a mother turtle returning to the ocean, and just-hatched baby turtles making their way out to sea by the light of the moon.  This was a unique and beautiful experience.  We were not allowed to take photos, but the picture below (from wikimedia) depicts a similar tour on the same beach: 

 

One of Ethan's favorite pretend play routines is to crawl into my bed like a buried sea turtle egg.  When he hatches, he crawls off the bed and "swims" across the tile floor on his stomach, trying to reach the sea before the large crabs on the beach get him.  It's pretty fun.

These ruins at Qalhat reminded me of field trips in and around Jerusalem (where David and I met in 1998). Apparently, Marco Polo visited this place in the 14th century.  The first photo shows the tomb of Bibi Maryam:

On the way home, we stopped by Wadi Bani Khalid, which he heard is amazingly beautiful.  We were hot and tired, and when one of Ethan's new, locally-made sandals fell apart walking through some water, we decided to cut our hike short.  Here we are picnicking next to a falaj (irrigation system).