www.womanthismonth.com April 2016 78 LIFESTYLE | travel Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Oman The Omani Tourist Board has as its slogan ‘Beauty has an address – Oman’, and it’s really not wrong as Liz O’Reilly discovered on a recent trip. Much as I love Bahrain for its feeling of home and the friendliness of the Bahraini people, there is something special about Oman with its dramatic mountains and lush greenery. After a busy few weeks at work, to say my travelling companion and I were looking forward to a weekend’s getaway would be something of an understatement. We took an afternoon flight and just an hour and a half later touched down in the land of green turtles, monsoon and the Queen of Sheba. I love that, in Oman, the taxi counter at the airport tells you the cost of your journey before you step on board. And, at 15 riyals for a trip of almost 50 minutes, getting to our destination in the Al Hajar Mountains was very reasonable. We stayed in Al Husn, Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah’s stunning ‘Castle by the Sea’, the most exclusive of the resort’s three hotels, where guests have access to a child-free infinity pool and private beach – something of which my frazzled mum mates have declared themselves extremely jealous. Our first evening was spent enjoying Omani lobster accompanied by barbecued local tuna and Wagyu beef on the terrace of the international à la carte restaurant, Sultanah. We were delighted to find we’d arrived in time for the weekly jazz night, the strains of the double bass and sax adding to the already super-chilled atmosphere. After an extremely comfortable night’s sleep (shame the pillows wouldn’t fit in my suitcase), the next morning saw us heading out to meet Mohammed Al Hassani, the region’s one and only turtle ranger. Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah lies along a stretch of Oman’s coastline where both green and hawksbill turtles come to nest. And it’s Mohammed’s job to help visitors enjoy a unique turtle experience without putting the endangered creatures at risk. Females will cross thousands of nautical miles, returning to the beach of their birth to lay their eggs in a deep hole they dig in the sand with their flippers. Once laid, mum returns to the water and the eggs are left to incubate for around 60 days before the baby turtles hatch and set out on their perilous dash to the water – the bit everyone wants to see. Mohammed showed us several nest sites where, below the sand, the eggs were heating up and the babies preparing to make their debut. He keeps track of when each batch was laid and each nest is labelled with an The turtle ranger
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