Talking Location With author Denyse Woods – Oman

29th December 2018

#TalkingLocationWith…. Denyse Woods, author of “Of Sea and Sand“, set in Oman.

My current novel, Of Sea and Sand, originally opened in West Cork, Ireland, where the main character, Gabriel, comes across a wispy, there-again-gone-again woman, invisible to others, whom he can’t quite fathom. I couldn’t work her out myself, but then realised that she was neither ghost nor faery. Her capriciousness, vanishings and beauty ticked another box entirely: she behaved like a jinneyah. We were in the wrong country; the wrong folklore. And I knew exactly where Gabriel, and I, needed to go to find her.

Birkat al Mawz

Oman had been pulling on me for years and, as a wise Bedouin saying goes: ‘If a place calls out to you, you should go there, because it holds something for you.’ Four of my six novels are largely set in Arab countries, simply because, from Morocco to Yemen, I have been inspired by their landscapes, peoples and deserts. I’m a sucker for deserts. Nonetheless, it is the stories that choose the settings, and Of Sea and Sand, a tale of love and landscape, belonged in Oman.

Sur

The Sultanate of Oman – the elbow of the Arabian Peninsula – is one of the oldest human-inhabited countries on Earth, the oldest independent state in the Arab world, and Sultan Qaboos is the longest-serving ruler in the Middle East. So, let’s just say, it has history. And, given its 3000 kms of coastline, Oman’s history is one of seafarers, fishermen and traders, and wherever there are seafarers, there is rich, multi-cultural, multi-layered folklore. Oman is like a hot, dry version of Ireland: beautiful beaches, moody mountains, friendly people and a lively tradition of storytelling. In fact, Omanis are keeping alive this important artform, which was handy for my purposes: to know a place, know its stories. No sooner arrived in Muscat, my companion and I were invited to share a wonderful Omani meal, including – over mint tea, with the Gulf of Oman rolling around in the dark beside us – a feast of local tales, beautifully told. This happened all along our route: history, myth and parable shared with warmth and humour, and infused with desert and sea.

Omani breakfast

To complement the element of the supernatural, Of Sea and Sand needed a landscape to match: warm waters, where the protagonists could swim and slither about, ungraspable; craggy, indomitable mountains; and sands – because it is true what they say: in silence we find our true selves.

But first – Muttrah, with its curved sweep of bay, huddled white houses and dhows bobbing on the water along the Muscati shore. This is the image that first intrigued me in old photographs, long before I set foot in the Arab world. It did not disappoint: the Corniche runs along the seafront, minarets twinkle, and, perched on the surrounding hills, forts look out. The Corniche doesn’t seem to have changed much in fifty years, although there are probably fewer goats crossing the road, but Muttrah souq, once known as the Dark Souq because of its shady alleyways, is now bright, bustling, and aromatic.

Then, the open road calls.

Bimmah sinkhole

My research route followed that taken by Gabriel when, years after his affair with the unfathomable woman, he pursues newly-arrived tourist Thea Kerrigan, convinced that she is his long-vanished lover. First stop for them and us: the must-see Bimmah sinkhole. This deep rock pool, shaped like a comma, is restful and mysterious, perplexing and beautiful, and its extraordinary colour – a teal-turquoise mix – is created by the meeting of salt with fresh waters, which ripple back and forth against the limestone crater. Like an eye blinking, the sinkhole throws its secrets to the sky.

The magnificent Hajar mountain range, with its peaks, gullies and canyons, offers one of the great, and unique, joys of Oman:wadis. These watercourses create a paradise of pools and crystal streams that beg you to leap in and swim through the earth’s crevasses while rock faces rise all around you, echoing every splash and squeal. Although 82% of the country is desert, Oman is a joy for water-lovers. Along the coast, secluded coves and long beaches offer scuba-diving, sailing, wind-surfing and whale and dolphin watching. (At the Raz al Jinz Turtle Sanctuary a special privilege awaits respectful visitors: witnessing endangered green turtles, in the dead of night, scrape out deep nests in the sand to lay their eggs).

Inland, Oman boasts the Empty Quarter – ‘the desert within the desert,’ as Thesiger called it, but even in the tamer Wahiba Sands, the 6000-year-old dunes are spellbinding. After some perilous, thrilling, dune-bashing, we camped in Bedouin tents, gathered around the campfire for music and talk, and the next day enjoyed pancakes and honey for breakfast. In the name of research, I then strolled a very short way through some low dunes and quickly became disorientated. It is that easy, in the desert, to get lost.

Desert

Flash flooding prevented us from exploring Jabal Akhdar, so we headed back to Muscat, stopping at Nizwa, a good place to appreciate Oman’s combination of old and new architecture, and visited the nearby oasis of Bahla, sometimes called the City of Jinn. We detected no sense of the supernatural, but Bahla is also known also for its pottery and the ancient fort, which was basking in the late evening sunlight as we strolled through quiet alleyways.

Bahla Fort

Oman is a comfortable and easy place to visit, if not particularly cheap, and there is so much to do – hiking, climbing, wildlife; culture, history, forts and palaces; and of course, the great wide open. When Swiss tourists asked our guide if they’d be okay in the desert without 4-wheel drive, he laughed. He thought they were joking. So if you do make it to Oman, do not miss out on its spectacular desert, but, as Gabriel and Thea discover, don’t mess with it either.

This piece certainly inspires a visit to Oman. Thank you!

Follow Denyse on Twitter and you can of course buy her book through TripFiction from your preferred bookseller

Do come and join team TripFiction on Social Media:

Twitter (@TripFiction), Facebook (@TripFiction.Literarywanderlust), YouTube (TripFiction #Literarywanderlust), Instagram (@TripFiction) and Pinterest (@TripFiction)

For more books to transport you to Oman, just access the TripFiction database!

Subscribe to future blog posts