Part 2 of the Epic Saga

I'm following the trail of the Book of Mormon prophet, Lehi, as he left Jerusalem, Israel for a point near Salalah, Oman. There, the scriptures record, his son Nephi build a boat and the family set sail for Meso America about 600 years BC.

A secluded coastal valley has been discovered that exactly matches the scriptural description in Mormon's book. The camels are ready and eager to go.

Click here for a map showing Lehi's trail that we are following

http://www.latter-day.com/bofm/arabia.htm

Back to the journey and more on camels later.
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Where is Mecca from here?

On the flight from NY, along with altitude, ground speed, GPS location etc, the TV monitors also showed an arrow, angling off one side of the plane, like a compass direction. It wasn't pointing north ~ unless we were really lost. My seat partner explained that it pointed towards Mecca. If you're on a plane for 12 hours and need to pray 5 times a day towards Mecca, it's a handy aid.

Hotel rooms had aids too. Prayer rugs were also provided. However, no Gideon bibles in the bedside tables.

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We had a "cultural" adventure in Jordan. The people belong to tribes. Each has their own status. If you mix nationalities, job positions, and politics with a dash of liquor.... whoa!

I don't understand a lick of Arabic but body language told me to duck.

Sorry, no photos of that.

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Leaving Petra, Jordan behind (scroll down for an earlier entry), we flew overnight to Musqat, Oman. A beautiful, clean, modern city brought into the 21st century only recently by the present sultan who was educated abroad.

We attended church in Musqat. The little branch was thrilled to host us. They have a beautiful building. I took pictures of every room and every ceiling. I'll spare you the over kill. The members there are mostly oil company employees from the states or elsewhere.

Visiting the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque of Muscat was sensory overload. I just love mosques!!

Note the reflection in the marble!

The Quran (or Koran) on the building

Detail of a doorknob.....

Marble tile everywhere

This mosque is simply amazing. The men's section holds more than 6,000 praying men. Suspended is a chandelier made of Swarovski crystal. It is 8 meters across and weighs 9 tons

The carpet is all one woven piece!

Pictures can't describe the size and grandeur of the men's prayer room. Pictures describing the size and grandeur of the women's section however, *is* quite possible. Conveniently, women can pray at home. Here, Leah is modeling.

The Boat......

We visited a National Geographic site where a crew was constructing a replica of a 3,000 year old boat. The planks were being hand carved and then sewn together. The rope, made of coconut fibers, becomes stronger in seawater.

The night in the cave....

With the storm at sea, the planned beach camp was canceled in favor of cave camping. Our guide was born in a cave and although he is a city dweller out of necessity now, he loves his home cave and goes back often.

He told us of hauling water in goatskin bags and described how clean the caves always were before plastics and other city garbage came into their lives.

On the other side, he said many children died from drinking water soiled by camels. And water from goatskin bags didn't taste that great. There are tradeoffs for either lifestyle.

The table was spread for our evening meal which was more like a picnic of survival food, but we ate it with relish.

The rain shifted during the night. People near the outer edge of the cave had to get their sleeping pads in, closer under shelter. Our guide who was sleeping near-by, confessed later that he had awakened and saw "his children" scurrying about. He thought about offering to help but decided he would pretend to sleep through it.

The Cave

A member of our group awoke to meet this strange bedfellow next to him.

I'm sorry there wasn't an object such as a shoe in the photo to give a size comparison.

Although no one slept well that night, the cave camping was one of the highlights of the trip.

A hard boiled, breakfast egg. Their chickens are more sophisticated than ours...

A "wadi" is the valley through which water runs to the sea. The point where the water enters the ocean is called the Khor. We visited 3 proposed sites: Khor Rori, Khor Mughsayl and Khor Kharfot. One of them could possibly be what Nephi called the "Land Bountiful"

The scriptures list 12 distinctive traits. 1) It must lie nearly eastward from Nahom, Yeman where Ishmael died.

2) It must have access to the coast.

3) It must be a fertile area,

4) with much fruit, honey,

Khor Mughsayl in stormy weather

5) ship building timber and

6) a year-round water source.

Khor Rori

It needs to be
7) a sheltered port with

8) access to the open ocean.

Even more specifically, there needs to be

9) a "mount" nearby with

10) ore and flint present and

11) points from which one could be thrown into the depths of the sea.

Finally, 12) it is most likely secluded from a populated area.

In visiting the first two candidates for the Land Bountiful, Kor Rori and Khor Mughsayl, it was quite obvious to me that they were missing on a few important points.

Unfortunately, the third and most perfect candidate, was unavailable for us to explore. The storm off the coast of Somalia, in eastern Africa, sent high winds, unusal rain and rough seas to the Omani coast. It was too dangerous for our little, hired fishing boats to take us in. We were terribly disappointed and could only imagine how perfect it must be.

Khor Kharfot through the mist

Khor Rori on a beautiful day!

Greeting a camel...... One must always be respectful. A camel never forgets. Our guide is the St. Francis of the Arabian world. He is kind to camels and to us, his "children"

Ali, an expert in hieroglyphics is finding the bridge between the ancient people of Colorado who wrote in the same language as a historic Arabic group in Oman. A fascinating study.

Wherever you go in the world, there's always a discussion whether active

Or passive....
A mediating moment while the tourists take pictures of the same ol' thing that last week's tourists took pictures of. A bit of the new with the old - such as guard rails and Coleman coolers.

Finding the native fruit....

An offering of fruit to one of his ailing tourist "children".

A peaceful man with a kind heart and a gentle nature. A practicing example of a pure religion. One that serves with good and sincere intent.

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There are no stray or "wild" camels. Their names are known. There are desert camels and mountain camels. There are milk camels, meat camels, packing camels and racing camels. There are no forgetful camels or insensitive camels. You must treat them kindly.

After a few days, we got used to seeing camels strolling around.

And then we met the "friendly camel" who loves people.He was an orphan brought up in a household with the children. They taught him all about Classic Coke

He downed 2 cans straight. I imagine it would become expensive if he had a craving to refill after a long desert trip.

This baby camel is less than 2 weeks old. Dang cute.

Looking out to sea at Khor Rori