We had signed up for the PDO (Petroleum Develoment Oman) Astronomy Club outing along with our neighbor Annette who told us about the club. We met up at the Oman Oil filling station just before Quriyat on the coast road heading towards Sur at 14:30. By 15:05 27 4WD cars headed off down the coast to Qalhat (Bibi Mariam's tomb is there). The club notice had advised that this would involve steep driving up to the 5,000 feet position on the Selma Plateau halfway between Fins and Qalhat on the coast. All participants brought their own camping equipment and catering.
From Qalhat we drove up into the mountains on a well graded dirt road. The initial climb was particularly steep. Convoy rules applied so that, theoretically, you stopped if you did not see the car behind you and you tried to keep the car in front of you in sight. It was obvious that there were varying levels of experience in off- road driving from the start, with some drivers not knowing how to put their cars in low-range 4WD. We had an expensive Range Rover behind us that just crawled along, so we were always stopping and waiting for him. In stark contrast, the guy in front of us never stopped to see what happened to us.
The group leader took a wrong turn so we ended up in a village where the road ended, and all 27 cars had to turn around. David helped out by asking the locals where the road to the Selma Plateau was; although we had several Omanis in the group, they did not step forward to assist with getting directions. We arrived at the designated spot around 5:30 pm so all scrambled to get their tents up. Camp fires were permitted out of the line of sight of the observation area where telescopes were being set up. The group treasurer and his friend invited us, Annette and her friend Robyn, to join them at their camp fire. We all ate our prepared meals and chatted by the fire. We had been told it would get cold, but we did not really believe how cold, although we were at 5,000 feet. Prior to the lazer light show, pointing out constellations etc, we were wrapped in our small fleece blankets and using our red flashlights. Red flashights only are mandated as the source of light 30 minutes befor the program starts so all can get their night vision.
The evening observation program concentrated on deep sky objects including the Virgo/Canes Venatici/ Leo region cluster of galaxies as well as Orion area. The group had set up several big telescopes so you could see the winter sky constellations. What we enjoyed most was the laser sky tour as we know nothing about the stars! Had we been more warmly dessed we would have stayed up late to enjoy the starry night.
We had made up our usual beds to sleep in the car and took our Advil PM to help us sleep. It was very cold so we did not sleep very well. We were up having our hard boiled egg breakfast and luke-warm tea from our themos by 7 am. By 9 am we were heading back to Muscat. While we had brought snorkling gear and had discussed snorkling with Annette and Robyn, we decided to abandon that idea as we had a dinner invitation that evening and wanted to get in a nap. We stopped at Finn's beach and had a look around on the beach while we ate a snack. We very much enjoyed the Club outing and wish we had heard about it this group's monthly trips earlier.
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From Qalhat we drove up into the mountains on a well graded dirt road. The initial climb was particularly steep. Convoy rules applied so that, theoretically, you stopped if you did not see the car behind you and you tried to keep the car in front of you in sight. It was obvious that there were varying levels of experience in off- road driving from the start, with some drivers not knowing how to put their cars in low-range 4WD. We had an expensive Range Rover behind us that just crawled along, so we were always stopping and waiting for him. In stark contrast, the guy in front of us never stopped to see what happened to us.
The group leader took a wrong turn so we ended up in a village where the road ended, and all 27 cars had to turn around. David helped out by asking the locals where the road to the Selma Plateau was; although we had several Omanis in the group, they did not step forward to assist with getting directions. We arrived at the designated spot around 5:30 pm so all scrambled to get their tents up. Camp fires were permitted out of the line of sight of the observation area where telescopes were being set up. The group treasurer and his friend invited us, Annette and her friend Robyn, to join them at their camp fire. We all ate our prepared meals and chatted by the fire. We had been told it would get cold, but we did not really believe how cold, although we were at 5,000 feet. Prior to the lazer light show, pointing out constellations etc, we were wrapped in our small fleece blankets and using our red flashlights. Red flashights only are mandated as the source of light 30 minutes befor the program starts so all can get their night vision.
The evening observation program concentrated on deep sky objects including the Virgo/Canes Venatici/ Leo region cluster of galaxies as well as Orion area. The group had set up several big telescopes so you could see the winter sky constellations. What we enjoyed most was the laser sky tour as we know nothing about the stars! Had we been more warmly dessed we would have stayed up late to enjoy the starry night.
We had made up our usual beds to sleep in the car and took our Advil PM to help us sleep. It was very cold so we did not sleep very well. We were up having our hard boiled egg breakfast and luke-warm tea from our themos by 7 am. By 9 am we were heading back to Muscat. While we had brought snorkling gear and had discussed snorkling with Annette and Robyn, we decided to abandon that idea as we had a dinner invitation that evening and wanted to get in a nap. We stopped at Finn's beach and had a look around on the beach while we ate a snack. We very much enjoyed the Club outing and wish we had heard about it this group's monthly trips earlier.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
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