Herpetological trip to Oman: 4. to 17. Februar 2009 |
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trip report by Thomas Bader, Gerald Ochsenhofer and Christoph Riegler |
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Day 5 (08-Feb-2009): Crossing the Mountains to Nizwa 
The normal way to Nizwa leads to the airport and then southwards on the highway directly to Nizwa. But it is also possible to cross the Jebel Akhdar on a steep gravelly path. Of course this was the way we decided to go and so we started without a breakfast early in the morning. Near Rustaq we entered Wadi Shatan, which is famous for the occurrence of several gecko species of the genus Asaccus, which we all missed, because we didn’t go for a night excursion in the mountains.
Wadi Shatan
We stopped at an oasis in Wadi Shatan and again found a new species there - Mabuya tessellata – a medium sized nicely colored skink. The skink was running around leaf litter close to lots of Arabian toads – on the rocks we observed Pristurus rupestris. Deeper in the valley we searched for Oman lizards in a little Wadi but without success. Unfortunately we were in a hurry because of the long way and no time was left for a longer search.
The landscape became more and more spectacular and the way became steeper and suddenly stopped. Obviously we had gone the wrong way and after we had turned we asked a local man for directions. Fortunately he was the teacher of the village, who prepared a precise map of the way to the old oasis Ballad Seed then to Hat and finally to the steep slope crossing the mountains. So we proceeded the way and crossed a football field in the middle of nowhere, passed steep canyons and had really fantastic views over the mountains and valleys, while lapped – faced and Egyptian vultures flew over our heads in low distance. It was a real adventure and we all hoped that the car would survive the journey.
Shortly before we reached the highest point at an elevation of 2000 m we stopped for some photos and found another new species – Pristurus celerrimus – the big brother of Pristurus rupestris, which lived together on the some boulder. While P. celerrimus inhabits the higher portions of the boulders, P. rupestris lives near the ground. The characteristics of P. celerrimus are the white stripes of its tail.
After crossing the summit the landscape changed dramatically to a flat unspectacular flank of a hill without Wadis and water. The road was paved and we quickly reached the plain. The train of the Al-Hotta cave was not working and so we decided not to visit this cave, which is famous for their unpigmented Cyprinidae. Instead we checked out a gavel plain without any success (which was the wrong decision).
In the evening we reached our hotel in Nizwa and after our check in we took a bath in the pool of the hotel, where we detected another Mabuya tessellata, enjoying the evening sun. One of us was shocked by the fact that no beer was available in our hotel – guess who?! A short visit of the really nice center of Nizwa during full moon finished this extremely interesting day and the bright moonlight was promising for the forthcoming night excursions!
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Gallery Day 5: Crossing the Mountains to Nizwa (41 pictures)
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 Day 6 (09-Feb-2009): Direction Saudia Arabia
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