I treated myself to a days leave so that we could have a reasonably early getaway and so reach Jebel Akhdar in daylight. This gave us enough time to find a new campsite in a secluded dip with views to distant mountains.

Champagne with a delicious meal cooked on an open fire. All very romantic for our 29th celebration.

At this height (2300m) the temperature is cool enough for camping while the rest of Oman (and definitely the UAE) is becoming too hot to spend time outside. We had a delightful daytime temperature of 24º while the base of the mountain baked in 40º.

As usual it was left to me to appreciate the sunrise. Sue is happy just to see the photos at a later date.

Then a day spent tramping the nearby peaks and wadis.

We finished the weekend by descending just a few hundred metres to the lower Sayq Plateau and revisiting the abandoned village of Bani Habib. Last time we were here we made a rapid exit from the wadi without exploring anything as thunder clouds gathered around us. We got off the mountain in torrential rain only to be trapped by rising floodwaters 100 km away.

This time we had blue skies and enjoyed a leisurely scramble through the old ruins.