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 14 (17-Feb-2009): Turtle Watching and the Last Day 
After our highlights with the monitor lizard and the spiny tailed agama we still had to endure a night event. We booked a guided turtle watching tour in Ras al Jinz, which is the third largest nesting beach for the green turtle – Chelonia mydas. Every year about 30.000 (!) females lay their eggs on a 30 km long beach sector, which is strictly protected by local guides. Of course the turtle watch tour is a mass spectacle for tourists and a good profit for the locals.
Back to Muscat
So this event is held as a show for tourists, which we don’t appreciate but in fact the turtles are quite safe from natural predators, when they are always under observation and laymen receive an impression of these huge fascinating animals. During our stay two females came for laying eggs, which we could shortly observe in a group of 15 people. In total about 5 groups during this evening tour were guided and 5 more during the morning tour. We also could observe some 5 or 6 hatchlings, most probably released for the “event”, otherwise there should have been lots more and we wouldn’t be allowed to trample down the area where these hatchlings reportedly came out of the sand just seconds before…
In the morning we left the hotel after breakfast and drove to Sur, where a newly built motorway starts into the direction of Muscat. The modern motorway was built by Chinese investors, who are allowed to cash the money for the toll. Although the toll stations weren’t finished and we could drive for free, we nearly were the only users of this road. This highway starts at the refinery in Sur, for sure an important strategic location in the country.
We decided to visit two more Wadis on our way back and firstly we entered Wadi Shab, a narrow valley, which can only be entered by walking. We met some locals, who cleaned up broken and burnt palms and trees. These people told us, that about two years ago a huge fire and a thunderstorm had devastated this valley and now they are growing new palms and trees in order to again beautify this Wadi, which once was one of the most beautiful Wadis in the country. In terms of animals we found lots of Bufo arabicus, Pristurus rupestris, several Omanosaura jayakari and a slain Psammophis schokari along the water basins of the valley. Unfortunately the time was too short to enter the famous pools, which are about one hour from the starting point and so we decided to go back to explore another Wadi.
Wadi Tiwi can be explored by car, at least 10 km of dirt road lead into another beautiful somewhat wider valley, with green vegetation line along the Wadi bed. We saw several tropical fruits growing in this Wadi like bananas, papayas, mangos and several other palm species. Here we found two Wadi racers, some Arabian toads and a huge Oman lizard, which escaped before we could take a picture.
As we went back to the capital area, we just came into the rush hour and so we decided to drive to a site, which we knew from one of the early days near Al Kodh. When we reached the site, the sun was nearly going down and we observed our last reptile of this trip, which was a nicely colored Mesalina adramitana. Because we had plenty of time till our flight, we decided to go shopping, where we bought some souvenirs and spices.
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 Conclusio & List of observed species
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