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 Jef...

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 -...

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. Accor...

DAY 1 PROGRAM Start from Seeb (1pm after lunch) – carry tea coffee and sandwiches so as to not to lose time at pit stops Optional Pit stop – Drive towards Haima on the Salalah route – Via Bidbid, Sumail, Nizwa, Adam, Al Ghaba – Asphalt roads Salt mountain and Cave Qarat Al Kibrit (reach before 5:30 and do carry torches) - 8.7 Kms before Ghaba Rest Area – Graded road – (N21 27 01.8 E57 16 40.4)    Reach Al Ghaba (Via Nizwa, Izki, Sinaw ) – 2.45 hrs drive from Seeb CAMP- DAY1 near Ghaba Rest Area (Side road - drive towards the hills that can be seen 3kms) Look out for fossils (Stromatolites) DAY 2 PROGRAM Gypsum quarry (N21 15 05.5 E57 25 46.0) and Flint factory with Flint stones to collect Ghaba – 1 Oil Well (N21 19 40.6 E57 18 46.9) (abandoned in 1959 after drilling to a depth of 3455mts. One of the 1st oil exploration wells to be drilled in Oman along with the Douka 1, in 1955 and Fuhud 1 in 1956) Haushi – ex...

 Collecting shells at the Whitesand Beach 'Kohl' is the eye-liner used commonly by women, kids and even older men in the MENA region. Do you remember those sketchy eyes and arched eye-lashes of the people of the Nile from ancient Egypt? Yes, they are sported Kohl liners as cosmetics way back in 1200 BC. It stems from the Arabic word - Kuhl which is normally made from a powder carbon / sulphide along with some essentail oils such as the olive oil. In Oman, a study of Kohl samples revealed that they contained powdered Galena (Lead Sulphide) ( http://isebindia.com/05_08/07-07-1.html ) and some mollusk shell powders. Another common recipe is to brun the fragnant gum 'Luban' from the Frankincense tree (Boswelia Sacra) and collect the soot from an inverted bowl to mix with herbal oils. Historically the Murex mollusks were used to make the famous Tyrian Purple dye and the colour 'purple' is still considered a royal colour. ( http://pffc-onli...

2009 New Year’s Eve at Masirah Islands The drive through the plain terrain can be very straightforward and boring. But drive carefully as God forbid, over-speeding drivers (anywhere between 140 – 200kms) on these roads can run into your lane inadvertently. Keep your vehicles filled with fuel and staff at these points can give you directions for your next land mark. Planning to celebrate the New Year’s Eve differently, say by watching the first sunrise of 2009 from the eastern most part of Oman, we took a 3days trip to the Masirah Islands. We are a family of 3 members Sridhar, Sangeetha (Author) and Aswath (Award winning photographer). This trip was planned in just 3hrs thanks to Mr. Senthilkumar for his guidance it turned both comfortable and entertaining. Masirah can be hot and windy in summer, but it cool and calm in winter. Here is a simple blog to record our experience and serve as a guide to other visitors to Masirah. Starting on 31st Dec 2008, we reached...