Memories.....

This past weekend we decided to be adventurous with some friends and head to Oman.  We received this book called Off Roading in Oman. We should have known. I should have hid that book right from the moment I set eyes on it.  I'm going to hide it now before I forget.

So we headed to Oman in a nice, normal, civilized manner. Cross the border, drive 2.5 hours to a small village where there is a wadi and something that is supposed to be like "Paradise".  Paradise always sounds like a good place to go visit, right?!  

We get close to our final destination and the road turns into gravel and then gets a little more rocky and a little more.   We finally find our destination, park the car and get excited to explore for the day.

The book called it an "Easy" hike. 

It was definitely pretty.  See how pretty this pool of water is? We should have swam in this pool.

We continued our hike through the wadi. The weather was gorgeous and the scenery beautiful.

At more than a few points along this hike, we were happy to have Trey and his strength.

Yeah, there was a rope at one point to climb up a rock. There was a lot of "throw your leg over this rock and pull yourself up" action going on.  Trey's arm was our stepping boost at one point. 

After passing a few really pretty pools (remember we were aiming for PARADISE) we started to wonder if we missed the glorious Paradise. Yup, we did. We walked right by it.  At one point, Trey finally put down his camera and told us to stay where we were and marched ahead to see if we were missing it.  There was nothing ahead except a ton of big rocks to climb over so we turned back. 

What do you know....we had walked right past it.  As we were trying to make our way back to P-dise-land I took a nice digger and slipped on wet, moss-filled rocks and fell right into a dirty pool of water. Mmmm......the problem was that I needed to try to get myself up this big rock in front of me and my sneakers were wet. Well this provided great comedy for my husband who was supposed to be pulling me up the rock....nope, he just laughed really hard and let go of my arm! I decided to wade through the nasty water and figure out another way up. 

We finally reached it!  It really was pretty. But really, c'mon, you call it Paradise! If this is the Paradise of Oman, I'm not sure too many more weekend trips are going to be happening for me.  I'm sure in a "normal" guide book we'll find some cool places....and places that don't involve getting bruises on the belly and knees and "just throw your leg over and pull yourself up" jibberish nonsense! 

I felt like I was back on LaVida at Gordon...this 12 day hiking trip we had to do at Gordon.  

But the way back was rather pleasant except for a few exceptions for those afraid of heights. There was one place that we just had to jump over a crack in the wadi...you know, if there hadn't been a huge drop down below, I wouldn't have been scared but it's funny how that plays with your mind.  At one point, Trey just picked Jenna up and carried her over the crack.  I felt the same way she did. Anyway, we made it and accomplished a lot in that day!  Overall, I'm glad we did it. 

We made it out before dark.  I thought this would be a great picture to leave you with. 

When you come visit, we're not going to Paradise. Sorry. 

And don't ask about that Off Roading Book in Oman. I hid it!