I went I conquered & I came back to write this blog post…

First of all, I would like to thank Vishka for all that he provided for the trip. Thanks to you we had a roof over our heads and a place to sit comfortably, not to mention warm food, those were delicious, a cool box that stayed cool all the way throughout the trip. A water kettle, that took time to get warm in Jabal Shams. Fire wood, that Terry and I had a good time setting alight, we made fire fairly easy. Also another big thank you to Tariq for sorting out the wheels for the trip (a 5.3L guzzling Yukon!), it drove easily constantly during the trip. I think your GMC has been through think and thin in all of Omans' unforgiving terrains. I vouch that the Yukon is King of Luxury, Comfort and space of all 4WD that I have drove. Not to forget Terry, who was the first victim of the thorn tree up in Jabal Shams, did you manage to get it out in the end? No more cheating in the "Touch Wood" game. He is also the first person I meet who managed to win more than once in that card game Uno! Good on you Teary O'Leary J. Last but not least, Najashi who joined us the last leg of the trip in Tiwi, thanks for an interesting conducting of the Uno game. You must teach me that someday.

So as you can tell, somehow the plan changed one day before the trip. Jabal Shams somehow came into the picture again, and I was not thrilled to go there at all, especially at this time. It is freezing there. I saw the weather report for the last week of November and it said: MAX 9 MIN 2… that is enough to put the shivers in me. But I was glad that Tiwi was still in, so that made me pack my bag, ready to go.

Wed, 30 Nov: Right after I finished worked at 5PM, I got information that the bastard Feras Esam Asqul, went on another trip with his friend the same morning, he just ditched us and left. He only informed Tariq about this while he was on his way on a 6 hour drive to the south of Oman… The fool… I am glad that he missed out on a fabulous trip, and cut his foot during his trip, serves him right.

Vishka, Tariq and I arranged to go shopping for the trip to buy the essentials, like food items, coal, fire starter, etc. we picked Lulus for that.

Thu, 1 Dec: We all met at Vishkas place including Terry, (in some way, he took Feras's place, it was nice of you to join us Terry, we got to do this more often) packed up the GMC to the fullest, and off we went to Jabal Shams. The weather was nice and the temperature was nice too, about 14-17 degrees when we first got there. We set up camp in a prime location, had dinner then slept. At night the temperature went down to 4 degrees. It was freezing, I had 2 vests, 3 t-shirts, 3/4 sleeve, 2 boxers, tights, shorts, jeans, 2 socks, a beanie and 2 musars. I looked like a bear. HAHA. When we went to sleep, I snuggled into my sleeping bag and to top it off put a blanket over me… the only part of my body that was exposed was my nose, coz I put the beanie over my eyes. I will post pics of how I looked like at night. I looked funny.

End of Part 1, come again to read what happened in Tiwi...