For several weeks the skies have been a pale grey as we have sat under a dust haze. http://blog.omanholiday.co.uk/blog/_archives/2008/7/3/3773658.html At times the entire country has been affected – on a drive of 1000 kilometers to Salalah a few weeks ago the tone of the sky hardly changed. NASA (where I obtained the image from) has up-loaded the cause of the latest  – dust drifting down from Afghanistan. With the sharp rise in humidity over the last few days the dust will ‘stick’ however the humidity also comes with a change in wind direction, now from the south and hopefully we will gradually be free of grey skies for some time.

Despite the heat, humidity and now dust the date harvest has to go ahead in Oman. It’s a laborious job, involving climbing to the crown of a date palm and collecting the dates. Here is an energetic Omani I saw today in Muscat http://blog.omanholiday.co.uk/blog/_archives/2008/7/3/3773662.html – read about the date harvest of rural Oman here http://www.omanholiday.co.uk/Bountiful%20Havest%20by%20Tony%20Walsh%20for%20Arab%20News.pdf ; it’s usually a family affair and despite the heat and hard labour enjoyed by all.