It is our last day in Oman, and I woke up with a feeling of sadness that our trip through this beautiful country was about to end.

After a quick breakfast, I drove Sarah and Shafiq to the airport. As we began preparing to leave ourselves, we met four young Canadian women, adventurous spirits who had came to explore and write about Oman.

They are writing about their travels on their blog (www.arabianlala.blogspot.com). We had a good conversation about our expedition and they were very interested to learn more about future trips.

We took group pictures with them before we left the hotel, then drove to the Turkish Embassy to meet the Ambassador Engin Turker. We had first met Mr Turker many years earlier when he was Turkey's Ambassador to Bahrain.

The Ambassador was very pleased to meet us and we presented him with the latest copy of the Visitor's Complete Guide to Bahrain. He talked to us about his love to Bahrain and Oman. Mr Turker is an outstanding ambassador for his country and I personally have learnt a lot, directly and indirectly, from him.  I always call him my teacher. 

After saying goodbye, we drove to the Bahrain Embassy and met First Secretary Hussain Al Aradi, who invited us to stay for lunch. We had to decline the offer as we had a long drive ahead to Bahrain, so we settled on a rain check.

We had a quick stopover at our favorite eatery in Muscat, Arab World Restaurant, before we began our journey back. 

It took us 13 hours to reach home and we thanked God who looked after us all the way to Europe and now on our Gulf tour.

The Friendship Tour expeditions would have been very hard to do without the support from our sponsors. Equally important was the team, who showed a very strong commitment to the goal of the expedition promoting friendship and promoting Bahrain. 

We must also give special thanks to all our hosts and friends, who helped us when we visited their countries, and let's not forget our embassies abroad who made our  trip very special.

Thanks must also go to our  media sponsors: Gulf Daily News, Al Wasat, Al Bilad and Al Ayam, who all played an important role by allowing the people of Bahrain to follow our trip.

Last but not least, our thanks go to Archie D'Cruz for designing and regularly updating the site from across the world in Canada, allowing us to connect to a world audience.

So is the expedition over now? Keep visiting the website to stay updated!

Ali Mushaima