Drove back to the Muscat airport to exchange our rental car for a Mitsubishi Montero 4×4. Then it was time to head south into the interior Hajar mountains. Highways are excellent in Oman, well signed in both Arabic and English. Our first stop was the Al-Hoota Cave, about 2.5 hours from Muscat. The cave is enormous, about 5 km long and 1000m underground but we only walked in and around about 860m. Very tastefully lit with only a couple of tacky animal formations (eg. Oh look there’s a lion, hear it roaring!). Guided tour lasted about 45 minutes and there was quite an interesting geological museum at the end.
Carried on to the town of Al Hamra where we spent the night. Our hotel was located in the old, abandoned section of the village. Buildings made of mud, stone and straw were crumbling everywhere. Several enterprising Omanis had the idea of restoring some of the houses and opening them up as guest houses. Our hotel was amazing, redone and decorated as a traditional Omani house. There was also a living museum just down the very narrow lane that showcased Omani crafts and household life (more bread making!). We poked around the ruined village a bit then had dinner on the rooftop of our hotel.
See some pics of Al-Hoota Cave and Al Hamra on Flickr:
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Cave and Crumbling Village in Oman