February 20, 2011 Mirbat to Jinawat and a hunt Wadi Andhur

We left the hotel at 8 am after a large breakfast and pilfering a few items for lunch. That Bosch "last meal syndrome" kicking in as usual. We are carrying tins of tuna, protein powder, some of "Kay's muesali" and some containers of milk plus a flask which we just bought in Thumrayt for David's hot tea. I picked up a supply of diet Pepsi, processed cheese triangles, youhurt, water and a lighter for our expected desert overnight.

Gazelle in Wadi Andhur

We looked everywhere for the enterance to Wadi Andhur as UNESCO archelogical site there that was linked to the frankincense and had a temple to the goddess Sin . we got off the road at a sign post that said Andhur. We ended up looking at the Harweel oil processing plant with flares. There was no town of Andhur as noted on the 4 tourist maps nor duly sign posted on the paved road and later on the graded road. So we turned around and drove back to Route 39 going to Marmul. Never ones to give up quickly we went back to the area we thought was Wadi Andhur and found a track to drive on. We put on the GPS and set the "man overboard" so that we could navigate back to the road if we became directionally challanged. We were hoping to find someone to give is directions. We came upon no one to ask, but were delighted to see gazelle at 3 different times. There was no obvious well traveled track going south so we gave up on finding Wadi Andhur. We traveled on into Marmul and got gas and then tried to find "route 41" to take us to the coast. Amazingly we wandered all over the oil fields with their xmas trees and the big digging arm wells and no one stopped us. Gas and oil pipelines everywhere. We asked directions twice and then decided we were not going to take any short cuts through the PDO oil fields.

We finally drove into the coastal town of Ash Shuwaymiyyah and found a Maha station. We filled up again with gas at their very delapitated pumps. David asked if there was a restaurant and the service man happily reported they ran a hotel and restaurant. Leslie chose to sleep in the car rather than in the accomodation offered. We drove another 25 km till the end of the road again. We are only about 30 km from Husin and the road is under construction over the mountain and then back down again on the other side. We had tuna fish for dinner from the can, and apples spread with the processed cheese. We made a campfire and took our Excedein PM so we can sleep. Lovely sound of the surf and the stars are amazing.