Picnic in Jebel Shams, Oman's Grand Canyon (جبل شمس‎)

here are few pleasures I am drawn more to than to alfresco meals. Quantitatively speaking, the humankind had meals outdoors much longer than indoors and that's probably where that irresistible appeal to have outdoors the same food that you'd be bored to eat at home!

We stocked up on various Arabic goodies - tabouleh, baba ganoush, hommous as well as dried fish and non-alcohol beer - in Muscat's excellent Lulu supermarket and drove on to Oman's own Grand Canyon, Jebel Shams. It looks exactly like its American cousin, except it does not go on for tens of miles and the access to it is slightly less convenient, which only adds to the sense of exploration.

As we were munching down our food, a disarmingly cute baby goat came to beg for a few bites. How could we say no to someone looking like this? Strange to think that that way we may have contributed to somebody else's picnic.