We left Marina Bandar on Monday the 3rd of January to sail the 650 miles to Salalah. Unfortunately the rules require that we checked out from Port Sultan Quaboos in Muscat not from the marina, so we had to motor 4 miles in the wrong direction. At the port we moored against the wharf designed for big ships and getting off the boat was a bit like climbing a mountain. Our agent arrived and we tried to check out but guess what the officials didn't like the visas we bought in England. They are 2 year visas allowing a stay of up to 6 months per visit. They were only familiar with the common 1 month visas obtained at the airport. Since we had been in Muscat more than a month they said our visas had expired and we must pay a 120 Rial fine (about £180). William managed to persuade them to make a few phone calls and eventually someone confirmed that our visas were OK.

Having finally been allowed to leave, we missed the good wind and had to motor all night. The wind picked up later the next day but was light, so we sailed slowly. We didn't get good wind until much nearer Salalah, when it picked up to 15 knots. On the way the local marine life was very much in evidence, which was great and we saw lots of big, bottle nosed dolphins, turtles and a pod of whales.

We arrived at Salalah port at 10pm on Saturday 9th. It is a huge container port and we are anchored in what is known as the basin. We had to check in again using an agent but thankfully he was not as expensive as the one in Muscat. The port is noisy, operating all day and all night and also rather smelly. There is a club just up the road from the port, within walking distance called the Oasis club where we can get internet. They also do very good food at reasonable prices.

We hired a car for 2 days and went exploring. The area round Salalah in the south east of Oman, in Dhofar province, is quite different from that around Muscat. It is even now in the dry season, much greener, there are many more trees and brown dried up grass. In July and August when the rains come, the hills become green and covered with flowers. Apparently it is quite a sight but we are too early for that. On the first day we headed east to Wadi Darbat. Here there were lots of camels roaming about and grazing in the same way as cattle do in England, except that they can reach up with their long necks and eat leaves off trees as well as grass. I said I wanted to see camels, well now I've seen hundreds.

After this we called at an area called Khor Rori (KhawrRawri) , on the coast 40 miles east of Salalah. Here stand the ruins of an important ancient city Sumhuram, which dates back to the end of the 4th century BC. The area was once the main export centre of Dhofari frankincense and Arabian horses. It is thought that a boat laden with frankincense, a gift from the queen of Sheba for King Solomon, sailed from this port.

Next day we visited the frankincense museum in Salalah which is next to Al Balid archaeological site. Al Balid was a city founded in the 11th century AD and the ruins spread for about a kilometre along the beach and include part of the great mosque and palace. The museum itself is very interesting with exhibitions of ancient Arabian Sea faring, a history of the frankincense trade and many artefacts from Sumhuram. Frankincence is abundantly available in the local suq in Salalah.

We travelled west along the coast road from Salalah to Al Mughsayl Bay beach, carefully avoiding the many camels wandering across it. There is a pleasant walk via Al Marnif cave (it's really just an overhanging cliff face not a closed in cave) to the blowholes. The car journey through the mountains was spectacular.