Thumrait is not the cross roads of Oman but ,when I arrived at the shopping area there from Muscat, yet another Japanese Cyclist was waiting patiently there for shops to open.

Mr Kentaro had bought his bike in Yemen and donning fairly typical Yemini attire had cycled into Oman. Daisuke Nakanishi whom I met in May http://blog.omanholiday.co.uk/blog/_archives/2008/5/6/3682219.htm was on his second world cycle trip. Kentaro had not been ‘on the road’ so long and was hoping to get a boat into Pakistan or India .

I came across some more expected visitors – White Storks. They overwinter in parts of Oman and the wooded hills around Salalah are a great source of food for them