Well life goes on here in sunny Salalah and we have been making the most of our stay by doing a bit of exploring East and West.

This week we took another trip to our favourite beach West of the port past Mughsail.

We love this remote beach with it’s turquoise water, fine white sand and back drop of huge strata rock.

Mark had bought a new barbeque which he proudly put together while the hunter crews went out to collect crayfish and the rest of us snorkelled and enjoyed the sunshine.

There was a bit of a cook off between Mark and David, all I can say is that Mark definitely needs some more practice with his new toy !

A great day out with friends.

Later in the week we set out to discover an archaeological site and the beaches to the East, past Murbat.

The archaeological site, called Khor Ruri  is known as the Queen of Sheba’s Palace, and dates back to the 1^st century AD. It was built on the Frankincense trail so that huge quantities of very valuable frankincense could be stored for the queens own use and also exported to India, Africa and Arabia via the natural harbour below the palace walls.

Onwards to the beaches where we had a picnic lunch and a walk along the beautiful rugged coastline, picking up shells.

Amazingly a camel train appeared from over the sand dunes behind us and meandered towards us.

What a sight – sitting on the beach with camels passing close by and looking at us as if we were the strangest sight they had ever seen !

We finished the day with a swim and a drink at the pool bar in the Marriott Hotel followed by a visit to the frankincense souk where we had dinner at one of the roadside barbeques and an ice cream from the local ice cream parlour – perfect !