Salam alaikum!

As I write these lines, only few days are left until this year`s ABC/J fieldtrip to Oman. The vacuum between the last blog post and the beginning of our journey clearly wants to be filled, so if you don`t mind I will write about Oman a little more and about our team and about myself. And maybe, if you`ll let me, I will tease our participants a little – since they are in for a real treat and I couldn`t live with the possibility that some of them might not fully realise that.

Almost floor-length beard and (added up) more than 15 years of experience in Oman: excursion leader Gösta Hoffmann and his three doctoral students Michaela (Falkenroth), Kim and Valeska (Decker) (from left to right). © Valeska Decker

While I type, I am sitting in a camping chair on a beach close to Ras al-Hadd, feet in the sand, the sound of crashing waves in my ears, a perfect starry sky above. A camp much like the one we will build next week is scurrying around me – dinner is in the making, people are putting up their tents and settling in for the night. They are all Omani students from the GUtech University in Muscat and they look happy, the only look that you need in this corner of the world.

Oman is a special place

It is special in many ways: culturally, because it functions so very differently from everything we are used to as Europeans, geology-wise, because it is a giant open-air museum for every geological process you can imagine. Still, for me personally, the most special thing about Oman is the feeling of freedom when I leave Muscat behind and drive off into the desert. Oman has space; space to put your tent up and light a fire, space to explore paths not walked before and undiscovered territory and space for research.

The desert is waiting and with it new horizons in research. © Michaela Falkenroth

My PhD project combines classic sedimentology with sea-level research: I am trying to make beach rocks a better, more precise, sea-level indicator by understanding its facies variability. Now, most coastlines of the world are already speckled with sea-level studies. These are the result of decades of research and generations of scientists. Oman has almost none. To me, Oman is like a personal sea-level-study playground where no question is too old and no idea too obvious, a magical wonderland of outcrops.

The fact that you get to ask your questions surrounded by the most beautiful landscapes while indulging in local specialties, be drinks like karak-chai, strong cardamom coffee or spicy food, is just the date on top.

All of this also plays a role in why the ABC/J fieldtrip is so extraordinary. We are not just looking at a random collection of geological relevant outcrops. Most of the places we visit and the stories we hear are first hand. Told, and relived, by the very person who discovered the outcrop in the first place and then went along to study it and publish the results. I don`t think I have to explain the difference between someone giving you information that they read somewhere or someone telling you their own experiences. Gösta doesn`t take us to mere interesting places; Gösta takes us on a trip through over ten years of exploring terra incognita. Only fitting that his beard, after being here for almost a month, grows closer to the style popular during the 15^th century, the “age of discovery”, every day.

Join us for fieldwork, you are not the first one! © Michaela Falkenroth

Lucky for us that the long held believe that women have no place in exploring is as dead as the early explorers are, which is why Gösta doesn`t come alone but brings his Phd students Valeska, Kim and myself. We will get the chance to show off our projects and to include you in our fieldwork routines. And who knows, you might see the data that you helped collecting popping up in a publication or two not long down the road. Each of our projects, be it mangroves, groundwater or beach rock is of relevance to the people of Oman and once we have understood this country from its geology to its cultural heritage to the ways in which its modern society works we will stumble upon some surprising interdisciplinary links, you`ll see.

So friends, who you are still at home, counting the days, be excited! No matter how high your expectations are, they will not be disappointed. There are many reasons to fall in love with Oman, but whether you like the cardamom coffee, the sand, the heat and the dates or you don`t, this fieldtrip will be a true gain on levels beyond food and pretty landscapes.

We couldn`t be more excited to welcome you here, that`s for sure. Ma’a Salama,

Michaela