The tribe where we belong, The Fishermen and The Mermaids, decided to start the New Year 2019 on a high note. So high that we went to the highest mountain of the Sultanate of Oman, Jebel Shams, to welcome the new year and to celebrate my birthday too. Here’s our story:
The Plan
Our group had an initial planning session on the 29th of December at Majan Grill in Alayah. We talked about the date, the food, and the preparations to make. We discussed about almost all the details. At the end of the meeting, there is just one thing that remains unsure: whether we will push thru or not.
We are on a strange situation here. The group is not at its full strength. Sir Erick went home to the Philippines. Sir Balai went fishing to Salalah. The Solano kids are sick. Sir Nars cannot commit due to some circumstances. Utoy is also sick. He has cough and cold.
The ones who are ready to go are Sir Darwin, Mam Nancy and Mam Elsie. The Nomads will back out of the plan if Utoy’s condition got worse.
The Night Before
On the 30th of December, the Ibra Kids held their Christmas Party at The Solano’s residence. I met Nars there and he said that there is a chance that he may join us on our trip to Jebel Shams.
I told Sir Darwin thru WhatsApp that there is a chance that Nars may join us. His reply is: “Where are you going?”
Apparently, there is a confusion after our meeting. They thought that initially, the trip is a No Go and that we will inform them if Utoy gets well and then we can proceed with our trip. For us, we thought it was the opposite. That the trip is a Go and we will call it off only if Utoy gets worse.
Everything got cleared up at about 10:00pm, exactly 12 hours before our planned take off. Within those 12 hours, Sir Darwin, Mam Nancy and Mam Elsie did the shopping, food preparation, rest and sleep and then prepare again before we started the trip. Which means a little delay of course.
This is the Day
Due to the confusion the night before, we had an hour and 15 minutes of delay. Once we met at our rendezvous point, we made our last minute checks, said our prayers and we started our journey to Jebel Shams.
From Ibra, we traveled to Jarda where we had our lunch and then we headed to Nizwa. We filled our tanks at Tanuf and for good measure we bought some firewood as we have been told that the temperatures at the peak of Jebel Shams may go down to 2 degrees Celsius by night.
At the start of our ascent, we passed by a paved road that runs parallel to a wadi. The road is smooth and there are a few bends and inclines but the cars can manage the climb even with the gear set on automatic at D.
We continued our joyous ride up the mountain until we found a spot where we made our first stop to take photographs.
Up to this point we are thinking that our research is probably outdated since the roads are well paved and that all the roads might have been cemented up to the peak. We were wrong…
About 100 meters after our photoshoot, we came to the start of the dirt road. At this point, we had our gear fixed at gear 2 to avoid loosing traction. It is still a joyful ride though as the bends and slopes are still easy to manage. The views, according to the passengers, are breath taking. Drivers are unlucky since we have to focus on the tracks.
After dealing with the dirt roads, there is a strip of paved road that lead to Jebel Shams resort and Jebel Shams Observatory.
We reached another view point where there is a small souvenir shop and where there’s several tourists who are enjoying the view. For the second time, we stopped to take photos and to enjoy the view.
From the viewpoint, we went on to find a camping spot. After a couple of minutes of searching we found one spot near place they call The Balcony. We met a French family on that spot but they said that they are about to leave as they have no plans of spending the night in Jebel Shams. We decided to put up camp in the place.
A pickup truck came later with Omanis on board. They laid a mat on the edge of the cliff and started playing some music with a flute and a drum. One of them even danced. They left after a few minutes of entertaining us.
Dinner Time
The main dish for our dinner is the national food of the Filipinos, adobo. It has been cooked the night before. One thing about adobo is that it gets better with age, and it won’t spoil easily. A nice parallelism with our nature as Filipinos. Despite going to the mountain, we never really forgot our being fishermen and mermaids. We grilled some fish to complete our meal.
We had a nice chat afterwards while we stay near the fire to keep warm. Utoy missed the Solano kids so the olds joined him roasting marshmallows by the fire.
Winter is Coming
Deeper into the night, the breeze started getting cold. We They started piling clothes and sweater on their bodies. I am comfortable with just a shirt on. We kept the fire burning. We thought of going inside our tents to sleep but we had to keep awake and wait for the New Year to come.
To combat the cold, we had some coffee. But the coffee became iced coffee within minutes. We noticed that the fruits that we had seemed frozen.
Later in the night, we cooked some noodles but it suffered the same fate as our coffee. It went cold as soon as it touched our bowls.
Bye 2018, Welcome 2019
At exactly 12:00 in the midnight, fireworks went off from Jebel Shams resort. We welcomed the New Year by greeting each others. And because it is my birthday too I got a present and I got to blow a wish on a candle of my birthday cake from the top of the world.
After a few minutes more, we retreated to our tents and called it a night. We actually spent the night inside the comforts of Alex, since Utoy is still nursing a slight cold.
Early Visitors
It’s 5:00am when we noticed two cars park near our camp. One big guy came out and gestured to the other car where to park and the guys went around our camp, seemingly searching for something. I was starting to get annoyed when I suddenly heard some children crying. Maybe they need something…
I went out and I was right, a kid approached me and asked for a coal from our campfire. I gladly gave him a piece which he took and used to start their own fire. He said that they came unprepared as they did not expect that it will be this cold in Jebel Shams. They are a bit noisy and their noise roused all of us. But we kept our cool since it’s a New Year’s Day. We have a saying that your mood for this day will be your mood for the whole year.
What a Day to Start the Year
Sir Darwin and I lugged our gears and we took some photos of this blessed morning. Mam Nancy got up too and did a balcony walk, that is, strolling near the cliffs of Jebel Shams. Mam Elsie started to do some housekeeping around the camp and dealt with some goats. Utoy and Mommy Nomad stayed inside Alex for a little while.
At about 8:00 am the whole camp is wide awake so we took our breakfast and later we took our mandatory photoshoot.
We broke camp at about 12:00 noon and headed back to our hometown of Ibra. Filled with great memories, well refreshed and ready to face the challenges and receive all the blessings of the New Year.
Happy New Year everyone!
PS: Beware, the Heights Will Make You Crazy
Yeah, we are the Fishermen and the Mermaids. So even at the height of 9000+ ft above sea level, I am still a fisherman.
Mommy Nomad proved that she is a mermaid.
And Nars, shall we call him a fisher-maid?
Happy New Year once again guys. We hope the New Year is a blast for all of us.
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