The Casinos Project

Matthew took the road out of the Ruwi District in Muscat northwards. After a few kilometres the buildings of the city disappeared. The surrounding area was baked brown in colour, and in the distance Matthew could see a series of mountains in the distance, which appeared a light blue in colour, seeming to fade into the only slightly lighter blue of the sky. In his rear view mirror Matthew could see Muscat slowly receding behind him. Within twenty minutes Matthew reached the brow of a hill and Muscat disappeared from view in his rear view mirror. A large mountain was in front of Matthew, and to his right Matthew could see a series of other mountains, in the distance, the first one appeared to be a light green in colour, and one further away a light purple. Matthew became aware that the car was now ascending a continuous slope, and every so often there was a wide radius bend. Then Matthew went through the first of a series of villages, which were filled with greenery, large palm and date trees, with some crops in fields sheltered by the trees and the mountains. Matthew heard the sound of flowing water nearby. Matthew saw women, covered head to toe in multi coloured clothing, mainly green walking along side roads within the village. The car came out of the village and continued on, the surroundings now once again a baked brown colour. The slope of the road became steeper and the bends in the road sharper. Matthew noticed that the surrounding area was becoming rockier, and large boulders were appearing beside the road. Matthew also noticed that some of the boulders were not baked brown but an almost chalky white colour, looking bleached against the surrounding area. As the road continued in a zigzag pattern up the mountain, at one end Matthew saw the azure waters of the Red Sea, and at the other the chain of multi coloured mountains in the distance. As time passed the colours of the mountain appeared to change, sometimes the closest one was a light green, then a pale blue, then pale orange, while the more distant mountains changed from light purple to pale blue to pale grey. Despite having to concentrate on driving on a difficult road Matthew was struck by the awesome beauty that he saw. Every so often as the road dipped before rising again in a small valley Matthew saw large flat shaped wooden stakes at the side of the road, painted white. The stakes had regular markings up their length and resembled measuring staffs that Matthew had sometimes used for setting out sites, so Matthew concluded they must be something to do with road works.