Thank You Oman Observer

                                                       

Thank you, Oman Observer, for publishing Akshaj Udaiwal's mountaineering journey(www.akshaj-udaiwal.com) and his recent trek to Mount Ararat in Turkey.

Eight-year-old hikes to second base of Mt. Ararat of Türkiye - Oman Observer

Thank you Kabeer Yousuf for this wonderful writeup about my son.

#omanobserver

Why do people stack stones /pebbles?

 While I was going through the pictures in my mobile phone, I was struck by this one picture and wondered why people stack rocks?

 

 This stunning location is famously known as Pebbles beach is nuzzled at a few kilometres away from the Bimmah sink hole, Muscat and it offers beautiful, picturesque views of serene sea with plethora of colorful stones at the shores.

We visited this place with our friends in the month of December. By seeing those smooth pebbles, children started stacking them, few fell down and few stood yet they didn’t give up until they made it to a certain height where they felt like, this is it and satisfied. It was fun watching them.

 

One thing, I know that this activity improves one's concentration and patience. And I was happy watching children enjoying doing this.

But, when this question of why we stack stones popped up in my mind, I browsed in internet for reasons and to my surprise or being unknown to the facts of it, I was fascinated to learn these new things about stacking.

 - People who go for hiking stack rocks and guide the other hikers towards the right path. However, misplaced stacks may lead to off trail as sometimes hikers might do this stacking for fun or to release stress/ strain.

 -   A pile of stones can be used to represent how things grow and expand i.e change over time in a variety of ways.

 - There is one spiritual meaning of stacking rocks: As the rocks stand on top of one another, it can give us a message of unity-” Unity is strength”.

Another interesting finding is, In India, there are places like Ladakh, Uttarakhand where we can find this stack of stones. It is believed that this practice of stacking stones is a way to worship or gesture to ask for a wish or good fortune for the person stacking them.

Whatever the reason may be, I love to stack stones and have fun with my friends.

                                                    What about you?

 

 

 

 

SAAL Steps/ DEVIL STEPS

Saal Mountain, also known as Jabal Khoneh is a mountain in the village of Saal located in the outskirts of Muscat.

And this is famously known as Sa'al steps or the Devils steps. As the name says, yes, it is the most challenging trek ever experienced so far in and around Muscat in Oman.

Here is the google link to reach there -  

https://goo.gl/maps/oNvfqc9jjF6m9aR4A

We started our trek at 5 AM in the morning. And it took us around one and half hour to two hours to reach the summit. 

Total distance walked is 1.8 km and elevation gain are 355 metres. One needs good physical stamina to complete this trek as 95% of the trek is climbing stairs. 

                                        My Team-Happy feet Oman!

Beautiful sunrise, mesmerizing mountains and picturesque natural terrains everything was captured by our eyes in our memories. What a great start of the day!

We had wonderful memories and many lessons learned in the process - reaching the summit as a team, LOL's, pain, not leaving any of the teammate behind and at the end enjoying the taste of successful reach to summit.

                                            Happy hiking!

This famous quote of Edmund Hillary reminds us to overcome our inner fears before conquering the world.

“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves”.

RAINBOW OF HOPE

 A beautiful poem written by Nigel on the occasion of International Women's Day!

It was published in Oman Observer daily. 

#omanobserver #womensday #hope #faith #inspiration #motivation

https://www.omanobserver.om/article/1133757/features/books/poem-rainbow-of-hope

In the night all alone locked inside a room in fear

She tried to sleep but, she couldn’t
When she heard the rain pelting down on the window, her heart went pitter patter in distraught.

The window pane slid open in blowy wind.
Far across the meadows, she could listen to
the birds chirping
Wondering why the birds were awake at this time ,she heard the scary howling winds.

She trembled.. just then a deep voice from within said, i carry your heart don’t you worry and sleep peacefully.

Hours passed by, and the rain settled down
Hearing the chirping of birds and seeing at the window , She rose from her bed and saw the clear sky
She enjoyed the gush of fresh air on her body
Sun seemed to have occupied the silver sky in a tilted golden bowl.

Everything seems to be alright with the world
No trace of rain, no trace of pain
Previous night experience taught her it’s ok to be scared in life for few things but overcoming that fear makes you strong which brings a rainbow of hope to start anew

She bid adieu to her haunting bad memories, and decided to move on….

                                                                                                         written by 

                                                                                        Nigel George Raphael