Travels and Trails of Sangeetha

The word is official in geological terms to denote a conglomerate that includes melted plastics as a component. The picture show plastic rope embedded into sand and pebbles to form a plastiglomerate. The more plastic we dump into nature, the more we morph nature and the consequences are still unpredictably deteriorating. Picture courtesy: www.huffingtonpost.com Reference article by Carla Herreria @ carlalove  : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/19/plastiglomerate_n_5496062.html The American geological society has published information about plastiglomerate on Kamilo beach, Hawaii. Ref: http://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/24/6/article/i1052-5173-24-6-4.htm

1.       Pilgrim’s Rock - 41°57′30″N 70°39′43″W The rock is a memorial tribute to mark the landing of the 1 st pilgrims landed in Mayflower, USA marked 1620. It is a SYANITE a rare type of igneous rock and is memorialized on the shore of Plymouth Harbor in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It is usually found at where a continent was rifted apart by tectonic movement. This is touted to have been transported through glacial moments all the way from the nearby Cape Ann. Ref: http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s5_7108.html 2.       Mount Rushmore - 43°52′44.21″N 103°27′35.37″W The Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore near Keystone, South Dakota, in the United States. Sculpted by Danish-American Gutzon Borglum and his son, Lincoln Borglum, Mount Rushmore features 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of the heads of four United States presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.

World's 2nd largest cave - The Majlis Al Jinn  W hat you need to et there: A top-notch 4 WD with spare tyre. Filling station on Route 17 towards Sur must be your last full-tank stop.  You need a skilled-driver who can manage steady climbs and descends with gears and not just breaks. The heating up of break pads is lethal in this route, for they may NOT work if badly heated.  Supply of food and water and energy bars. Ropes, helmets and protective gear with strong trainers in case you are find of trekking in the wild karst areas. The demo video links are only for entertainment purposes and not a suggestion to venture without proper guidance and an official permission from the Ministry of Tourism. Compass, GPS tracking device, Torches (mini, LED, Headlamps, Glow sticks, Lantern, rechargeable-torch lights) DAY1: Start from Muscat. 8am in the morning with camping gear and cool box with meals. Route: Muscat - Al Amerat - Quriyat - Wadi Arbayeen (GPS co-or

A short-drive from the capital and any vehicle will do. Take the Muscat Expressway all the way up to it's end and turn left toward Halban. One can also turn left at the Naseem park round about before Barka and proceed almost straight. Al Halban spot the Mosque and turn left and continue down the left extreme road toward the black-colour hills (ophiolites) ahead. The tombs are located on to your left. Over 30 burial tombs are scattered across in 4 different sections. Most are built using Travertine slabs stacked vertical to form an inverted beehive shape, hence the name. Most of the tombs have lost their top layers and hence they are open. The largest of them, best preserved is about 3 or 4 meters only.  It is evident that the wadi flowing beside has altered the ophiolite rocks around and the travertine rocks used to build these tombs are in plenty around. Mind your step and climb the small hillocks for panoramic views. According to online references, the