Frogs for a day.

We had the day off for the Prophet Mohammad's Birthday  so we went to . . .

a wadi. Wadi Hoqin, Hoyqain, Hoqayn. It's spelled differently on every sign.

Cyclone Shaheen left it's mark everywhere here. The highway was completely washed out a couple of times but they were already temporary roads and everything was being repaired. The Sultan is committed to improved infrastructure for future storms.

There was no hiking involved on this wadi, You drive to a parking lot and walk over. The tricky part is just getting the right location. Matt made a pin.

This was a little tricky footing, nothing serious but you do have to climb down to the water a bit.

It was really beautiful and green because of the cyclone. I'm amazed at what comes alive with just a little water.

A good portion of our day was spend jumping off rocks. There were a lot of people enjoying the wadi and they were cheering and clapping and a few of them joined us. We don't speak the same language but on the other hand, we did.

Fish are not her favorite but she was a champ and I think enjoyed herself.

The men in the family could move into a wadi and never look back. 

She had a beautiful day. Jumping into wadis, playing with rocks, swimming, catching fish and singing. I loved hearing all the men sitting around cheering for her by name when she was jumping.  She did get frustrated when she couldn't reach the climbing moves the others were making.

These guys were pretty funning hanging out in the cave under the ledge Matt and Brigham were jumping from. They give a little perspective to just how high the jump was. It is hard to tell from the picture.

She's inspiring. Such a balance of calm in the adrenaline everyone else has.

The cheer squad. Yes, all men. I saw only a handful of women on this whole trip.  I'm starting to get used to it but I admit it still bothers me. I don't love being around a bunch of men all the time, especially because I don't know how comfortable it is for them to be around me if that makes sense. It seems fine. They're all happy, normal nice and I had a great time but I would love to see more women out. Maybe they don't enjoy that sort of thing? Maybe there's a secret women's wadi? 

Sam spent the ENTIRE time up on the top of that wadi searching out beetles. He loves cliff jumping and swimming in wadis but he didn't get in the water once. Research trumps everything. This unique time with so much water not only greens up the terrain, it brings out new insect life and he's determined to capitalize on the opportunity.

The left side of the wadi was steeper, narrower cliffs with beautiful waterfalls for as far as we went in. There were more cliff jumpers in this waterfall section.

This isn't a great picture, but Matt wanted to go up and join in on this jump. He realized after he got partway that it was more than a little treacherous getting to the jump spot. The guys up there were patiently helping him figure out how to climb it but it took a LONG time. It's amazing how cold you can get these days when it's not 100+ degrees. I'm SOOO glad we didn't wait for it to cool off before we embarked out our adventures. I feel like I'm going to miss the feeling of jumping into a cold wadi when you're about to fall into heat exhaustion. Not for everybody but we kinda love it.  

There are theme parks with rides and entertainment, and then there are wadis where you get thrills and entertainment.

 The end. I apparently need to teach some other people how to use the camera because I have no proof I even went. I'm sure we'll be back.