Two nights here so no need to pack this morning. Our first stop was the Qasr Zabal fortress, which as usual is on the top of a hill overlooking the village/town. There seem to have been forts everywhere here, keeping an eye out for strangers up to no good. They usually look newish because the outer layer is often redone. Not far from here was an old Nabatean well, which strangely was on higher ground also. Our third stop was to see the Al Rajajeel Standing Stones, which were in a large area of worship. Fourth stop was Qasr Marid, a walled fortress (not on a hill), complete with mosque and town. We managed to get in to have a little look, as it was closed - the Italians are there right now excavating the site. We had lunch at a nice restaurant with a terrace overlooking the site. The country seems to be working very hard to get ready for tourists, super roads, sidewalks etc. but lots of museums and sites are often closed (sometimes because the guy with the key didn’t show up yet). We also visited a man made lake (constantly being topped up with spring water), that was quiet but I’m sure was very busy on the weekends. You can rent jet skis here.
We managed to have a treat this afternoon, apparently our tour manager and our local guide, had been emailing numerous times through the morning with the Ministry of the Interior and managed to get us access to Camel Rock. Apparently this was an extremely rare privilege and very few tourists in the world have ever been allowed in. It is a parcel of land with rock carvings of life sized camels (from about 7,000 years ago). They are trying to discover more details about the place, and are protecting it, our bus had to drive carefully overland to get nearer to it, following a ministry vehicle.
We are going out to a restaurant for tonight’s dinner - an Italian Indian fusion place, so we’re looking forward to that.
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