Rain in Oman often brings parts of the country to its knees as the infrastructure is just not set up to handle a downpour.  It often rains in the mountains and then gushes down from those higher areas to low lying wadi beds, valleys and ditches.  Cars and big trucks are overturned, junk and debris stirred up and someone usually dies when it rains.   Our second night in Nizwa, it rained.

Our friends the George’s joined us part way through the weekend.  We were determined to catch the livestock auction which happens early on a Friday morning at the Nizwa Souq, but Thursday night it rained.  We watched the wadi fill up behind the hotel.  We watched a skid steer float away.  We watched vehicles up to their mirrors in water, trying to drive over the flooded road.  We watched the once dry wadi bed fill with water and we watched the water flowing through that valley.

A road behind the hotel that we watched.

Friday morning we had a quick breakfast at the hotel and then headed to the souq.  We were excited to see camels, cows, goats and other animals being auctioned off by the Omanis.  We pull up near the market and traffic is at a stand still.  The wadi was flooded and you need to cross that area to get to the market.

The washed out wadi.

Wading through the water.

It took a little convincing to get our boys to walk across. “But we’ll get our feet wet!” they said.

Just some of the damage done by the rain and flooding.

Bringing in the big guns!

We parked the car and then walked through calf deep water.  By the time we battled the traffic, waded through the wadi and slogged our way to the souq, the auction was over and they were dragging some very tired looking animals back into trucks and packing things up.  We were a little disappointed, but we tried!

Loading up the left overs.

This one isn’t shy around the animals.

The kids gathered in a shady spot in the Nizwa Souq.

A little bit of everything for sale at the souq.

Fresh produce

We found some ruins of an old fort which were fun to scramble over and explore.  It was still another great road trip and we saw another beautiful part of Oman.

A falaj that helps funnel water through all of Oman to irrigate the country.

Ruins

I’m on top of the world!

L