We had a great, but tiring, time in Oman

  Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Wednesday, October 15, 2003

7th October continued
A$1 = 0.25 Omania rials
OR1 = A$4
We did a smart turn against the no entry arrow, and parked outside the Nasseem Hotel. Greg is not convinced that it is suitable, but we say we are fine and bid him farewell. The foyer is pretty ordinary, so we ask to look at a room. There are no front rooms, so look at a fourth [top] floor room for OR14.6. It looks tiny compared with our previous room, but is quite reaonable, and has a fair view out the side window when the shutter is opened. We check in, find our fridge is not working, leave this problem in the too-hard basket, and head east to the covered souk, but get trapped into smelling incense in the incense and antique section before we even get there.
The covered souk has a woven palm decorative ceiling and the usual range of souk items - antiques, incense, gold and silver jewelery, and the full range of Chinese made trinkets, toys and rubbish. We walk right through, taking a punt on the left branch, and end up in a commercial area and reasonably main road leading up the valley, and probably over to Ruwi.
We return via the other branch of the souk, and stop for a fruit juice, which extrapolates into two large plates of lamb off the big skewer, a plate of flat bread, a plate of salad, a Lebanese Cocktail and a banana milkshake, all for OR3.75.
We then walk the Corniche, which is a REAL corniche, look at the Sultan's Yacht and the harbour, check out an internet, and walk back to the other end of the Corniche. We finally find an Internet with the right connections and software to download the Palm, but are too tired to do it now, so off to bed after reporting our crook fridge. We don't want to change rooms just for a fridge, so leave it till later. The bed is pretty good, and the hotel quiet, so we hit the sack for a long sleep.

Wednesday 8 October Mutrah to near Dibab
Awake before the sun rise just after 6am. Out soon after to check out the fish market -interesting enough, but not anywhere near the variety of some we've seen (e.g Pusan in Korea). As it's early, and still reasonably cool (it has now started to cool down in the evening, and in the morning, unlike the first couple of days) we decide to walk the three kilometres to the small gated city of Muscat, along the Corniche. Muscat sits on a natural harbour surrounded by a jagged spine of hills, and two forts.


Pass through the main gate, but can't seem to find the harbour. Walk through a tunnel, and come across what we think is another harbour, but turns out to be THE harbour. Walk up to the Sultan's Palace (a modern building), then around it inland (photo). Can't get back to the harbour because of a big development nearby. Walk up the hill to the South along the road out of town, until we are sure there isn't another harbour, then back to room, by hailing a local "baisa" bus. It's now 10am, we've already walked 6 kms, and it's too hot to do any more walking, so sit and decide what we're going to do next. Make a few phone calls - find that tours are VERY expensive, and don't give you much flexibility. We want to go along the coast road to Sur, and they (and our guidebook) recommend a 4WD, so end up with a Grand Vitara 2.7 litre V6 4WD for OR25 per day with 200 kms, and a OR2 dropoff fee. We've made a conscious decision to go more upmarket when backpacking gets too hard, and with the temperature here, this is one of those times. Dianne goes to internet to do our first successful upload to travelpod. Have found that not only do we need a computer with a USB port, but also needs to have Windows 2000, ME edition, or XP, as it automatically downloads the software to recognise the SD card, whereas Windows 98 needs the driver, which we're not carrying with us.
We check out of hotel, and they bring the car around at midday - not bad, considering we had no idea we were about to leave two hours ago.
The agent fills in the paperwork (not too well, as it turns out later), and leads MP through narrow alleys to where he has the vehicle sort-of legally parked off the main highway, but a long way from the hotel. After a difficult conversation on how to get to the hotel, there is no way he is going to drive, so MP sets off south, looking for a turnoff he sort-of indicated into the parking area in front of the hotel. 2 km later, MP does a loop around a roundabout halfway to Muscat and returns to park at the meters on the main road, near the hotel and take a risk on parking fines. He loads the first bags, then finds DP in the foyer, having come back from the Internet.
Set off along the Corniche, and drive to Al-Bustan Palace Hotel. Out to have a look. It was built as a venue for the GCC summit in 1985, and has an enormous domed atrium, and has won numerous awards as the best hotel in the Middle East. Ask about rates, and shown figure of OR123, but says he can do a deal for OR70 - still above our budget! Walk around the terrace, and took photos of beach etc.
Head for Jissah Beach, whiich is very isolated, but reached along a very good bitumen road. Beach has a couple of shade shelters, and a couple of basic kiosks, but looked really good.



Had a quick snorkel, but only sand. Declined offer from fisherman to take us out in boat to see the natural arch or snorkel. Made the mistake of staying in wet swimmers while in the car air-conditioning, as intended stopping at other beaches. On to Oman Dive Centre, only to find it was a private beach, and not as nice. Good photos coming back down hill to the coast. We then wanted to continue down the coast, but in order to do so had to head back towards Ruwi , a suburb of Muscat. Unfortunately took a wrong turn. Luckily we stopped for drinks at a little village we didn't remember, and it turns out the reason was because we were on the wrong road. Given directions, which include going back to Ruwi. Get back to Ruwi OK, but have a lot of trouble finding the way out. Eventually stop at a BP station to try and buy a map. Don't have any, and can't show us where we were on our map, however they do show us where the Sheraton is, and now that we have a landmark, we eventually find our way out, after getting caught in one-way streets, parking lots and roundabouts. Travel on a very good road for about 20 kms, then unfortunately we see a turn-off to Yitti and Bandar Khayran, showing it 24 kms away. With our new-found freedom of wheels, decide "why not", as Greg said there is very good snorkelling at Bandar Khayran. Road to Yitti is a rough gravel road down the bed of a dry wadi. After about 20 kms, come to a black-top road - the one we could have taken from Ruwi! Road meanders through various small, fairly basic villages, and ends up at a very ordinary, long beach. Definitely not worth the effort. Seeing we've come this far, decide we may as well see Bandar Khayran as well, as our guidebook says it's on a large, mangrove-fringed lagoon. Lagoon had no obvious entrance to the sea, but was quite deep and had a sea-going looking fishing fleet. Town looked like a fishing village
Couldn't imagine where you'd go snorkelling without taking a boat out. Now have to retrace our steps along the rough gravel road. That was one deviation that definitely wasn't worth the trouble. Back on the tar road, see a bakery, so stop for emergency supplies. We're surprised how cheap basic food supplies are here - we'd been told everything was expensive. 8 breadrolls were A$0.80c, and can coke A$0.40c
Continue on to Qurayat, which the guidebook says is an attractive fishing village. Expecting a small town, but instead the road leading is a wide, divided, double-lane highway with lots of roundabouts. Stop to top up our petrol in case it's the last we see. Then pass another half-dozen stations on the way in. Once in the town, road narrows down to a more traditional narrow winding road through the town. Stop in what looks like the centre of town beside an historic fortification, and buy a couple shwarmas for dinner, and get directions to the Corniche, which we can't find on our own. Can see a lighthouse but getting close to it the road narrows to less than a car-width, and quite often ends up as someone's yard. In one of these yards a car stops, and we ask for directions to the Corniche. He says to follow him, and we do so along narrow laneways for about a km. Finally there is the Corniche - not up to Muttrah's standard, but with a wide beach with lots of fishing boats, and an overlooking watchtower as described.
Sit on the beach to eat our Shwarma, and accumulate about fifteen kids, who practice their English on us. In typical fashion, one is a bit cheeky. When we leave, one opens the side door of the car, and as we're not au fait with the automatic locking system yet, we take a while to work out how to lock it. One opens the back door, and it won't shut as our mask fell down, so Dianne has to get out. Luckily Murray works out how to lock the doors then, and we head off with no problems. It's now about 8pm and quite dark. We had hoped to be further down the coast by nightfall, but our detour had taken a long time. We have no accommodation information for Qurayat, and it's not what we want anyway, so head out of town, and inland along the bottom of Wadi Dayquat. The blacktop soon runs out, and we climb up the jebel (mountain), looking for a spot to free-camp. Various sources have told us it's OK to free-camp. It's a full moon, and the landscape is rocky and bare of trees, so hard to find anywhere discreet. Finally get well off the road near some flat-top trees. Unfortunately it's on the outside of a curve, so cars coming either way pick us up in their headlights, as we soon find out. It's also Wednesday night, which equates to our Friday night, so lots of 4WD's heading down the coast. Quite a few stop to have a look at us. Our previous love affair with our Suzuki Vitari takes a steep nose-dive! According to the handbook, the front seats lie completely flat - there are obviously degrees of flat! Various buttons, arm-rests etc manage to make sleeping a very haphazard affair. Walking for day 9kms.
Thusday 9th October near Dibab-Qalhat
Finally by 6am we decide we've had enough non-sleep, and head off across rugged terrain with high mountains inland. Continue down to the coast at Dibab, where we get out to watch the fishermen bringing in their catch (photos), then follow the dirt road along the coast. Follow our guidebook directions, and find the Bimmah sinkhole, which is not signposted. It's about 1km inland, and we only find it because we can see some shelters in the middle of nowhere. It's about 40 metres x 20 metres, and a lovely blue colour much clearer than the guide book infers. We climb down the steps and go for a snorkel (photo), then head back to the coast, and a spot we'd seen that looked interesting for a snorkel. Dianne goes in, and swims around a large rock, and sees LOTS of fish, plenty pan-sized, and a turtle and a black and white moray eel. Both walk a bit further up, and go in again,



after hiding our bag with all our worldly goods in the rocks.
Continue on. About 9 kms before Tiwi, we see a lot of vehicles parked on a beach, so stop to investigate. Find a wonderful beach with incredible white sand and aqua blue water. See couple of dead turtles. Dianne goes for snorkel - still quite a few fish. Continue on to Tiwi, where we stop to go to Wadi Shab. We promise to pay our 1 rial on return to be ferried by boat about 30 metres, then walk up the wadi. Couple of 18 year olds attach themselves as guides, and decide to stay even though we're definite we won't pay. Walk a couple of kms along he wadi,




following an easy-to follow path. Stop for a rest at a shade shelter. Becomes clear that we have to swim from here (our book made it sound like you could just wade), so decide to go separately while the other stays with our worldly goodies. Dianne goes first with one of the boys,. Have to swim up about three separate pools and walk between them. At the last pool, which is a cave, the water came almost to the top of the cave, with a head-shaped notch that you could just pass through, keeping your mouth above water. It then opened into a larger cave, with a waterfall down into it, and a passage around behind the waterfall, with another notch, but this time you had to duck your head to get through. There was a second small waterfall, fed by a hole in the main waterfall, that was forming its own stalactites. There was a rope down the main waterfall, which, with great difficulty and a bit of help, Dianne managed to use to climb up the waterfall, which was extremely slippery. At the top of the waterfall, there was a small hole to squeeze through, and it then opened up into another large pool, open to the sky ,with the wadi continuing. Back down the waterfall. Saved from slipping by the guide. Used the rope for the last section, and when lost footing just let go of rope, and fell into the pool, getting water up the nose. Guide worried that alright, but couldn't answer for coughing. Back to shelter, where Murray repeats process with other guide, but too smart to go to top of the waterfall. Talk to guides, who were happy to stay anyway, as it is an opportunity to practise their English on a one-to-one basis. Tell our guides they've proved their point, and we would have had trouble without them. Won't quote a guide fee, so give them 1 rial each. They leave, and we stay to have lunch, and hopefully a short sleep, but sun is now on the shelter, and very hot, so back to car. Drive a short distance, and find the turn-off to Wadi Tiwi. Drive a few kms up it, but the road gets very narrow and steep (you really need a 4WD), and we eventually decide enough is enough, and turn back.
Further on, stop at a headland, with a wadi on to the beach. Seemed like the cliff was impossible to climb down, but on investigation, found a cairn of rocks, which were a marker for a safe climb down. At the bottom, hide our bag in the rocks, and both go snorkelling. Once again, lots of fish, including an enormous puffer fish, which we thought was a shark at first.
Continue on to Qalhat. Go through the old town, which was built around the 2nd century AD. All that remains of it are a few ruins. Now coming on dark, and we're pretty weary. Up ahead is a big gas works, and Sur is strill 26 kms away, when we see a pull-off area along the beach, with a couple of groups picnicing. We drive right up to the end, which is in the lee of the cliff, and has had some of the rocks cleared ( the ground is very rocky). Have dinner of cold baked beans and breadrolls. In the meantime everyone leaves, and we decide we'll camp here for the night. Dianne refuses to sleep another night on the "flat" seats, so clears an area of as many rocks as possible, and spreads one of our rain ponchos (which unclip and make groundsheets) on the ground, then zippers our two -10 degrees down sleeping bags together, and uses these as a mattress of sorts. Murray decides it's much more comfortable than he expected, and joins her.We hop into our silk sheet sleepers, and Dianne takes a night flu tablet, as feeling quite fluey - hasn't been helped by the fact that have been for six swims during the day, and stayed in wet swimmers. Sometimes gets quite chilly in the car with the airconditioning on. Now only about 7pm, but both exhausted, and soon asleep. Quite a strong wind comes up, so get other poncho and put over us, but unfortunately keeps coming untucked, and we keep waking cold. Walking for day 7 kms
Friday 10th October Qalhat- Ras Al-Hadd
In between waking, had a beautifully comfortable sleep until about midnight, when heard a boat on the beach below us. Another one arrived soon after. Worried for a while, but seems they were just fishermen, who set a net for the night, and stayed on the beach with a fire watching it. We were a fair distance away, and we had no problems, so back to sleep till about 5.30am. Watched the sunrise, had a muesli breakfast, and then drive to Sur. Pass through lots of industrial areas. Get into Sur, but once again have trouble finding the Corniche - not helped by the fact that some roads are blocked off, and there are a lot of detours. Eventually locate it. The beach is very ordinary, and the corniche has been attractively paved, but what looks like a wide dirt parking lot runs the whole way along it, with a row of houses after that. We end up driving beside it for quite a way Find the new boat harbour, with lots of dhows in it. Pass a castle, and eventually find the great lagoon, and see Fatah al-Khair, a beautifully restored dhow, built in Sur 70 years ago and recently brought back from retirement in Yemen (photo). Also find the dhow yards, where dhows are being repaired, and new ones built. Find a more attractive section of the corniche, with a great view across to the picturesque village of Ayajh with its distinctive lighthouse. It's Friday, and all the children are done up in their best clothes, and heading to or returning from the mosques- the girls are in glittery or silky dresses, and the boys are all in white with their embroidered hats. We sit in the car next to where a dhow is ferrying people across to Ayajh, and watch people coming and going. Watch five little girls (the oldest probably about 12), with one boy about 4. The girls hop on the ferry, but the boy doesn't. One comes back to try to entice him on, but he clings to a pole and refuses to go. Eventually all the girls get off, and try and persuade him to hop on, but he won't. One raises her hand to hit him, but doesn't. Eventually they let him win, and head back the way he came. They stop at a large gate, and decide they want to see what is on the other side. The girls climb up to look over, and hoist the little boy up to also have a look. Hard to imagine that such an adventurous little girl will soon be dressed in a black abeyya, and behaving very decorously.
Drive around the long lagoon and inlet to Ayajh, which doesn't look quite as cute close up, then head down the coast to Ras Al-Jinz, which is famous as a turtle nesting site for the endangered green turtle. All over the world we've been to turtle sites, but they were there either last month, or next month, but not when we're there. The peak laying season here is July, but September to Novermber is the best time to witness both laying and hatching, so we're hopeful.
The road continues south for 16 kms. Stop in the shade of a wadi for a rest, but are hassled by flies, and soon the shade starts to disappear, so back on the road. Our guidebook says (incorrectly it turns out) that you can go either left, or right if you want to see the spectacular zebra-coloured sand formations. We set off on the rough dirt road, in quite isolated countryside, in the stinking heat. Don't see anything that looks like a zebra, or in fact, much of anything. There is no signposting whatsoever, and various tracks (not much smaller than our road) off to the left and right, which worries us. The two forks are supposed to join after 15-20 kms, and when we don't see any sign of other road, start to worry.



Pass a small settlement, and soon after a couple of 4WD's in the middle of nowhere, with a few camels and goats nearby. Go past them, but after a few kms turn round, and stop to ask them the way. About 6 young men, all dressed in white, laying on mats in the shade of the car, presumably picnicing while watching the livestock. Speak enough English to tell us "problem problem" with the way we are going. Tell us we need to go back, so we thank them, and give them a bottle of water after they ask (which worries us a bit, as we only have one left ourselves now but can't give them cigarettes. Retrace our steps for twenty kms, and take the LEFT fork this time. This route is signposted, and we have no problems. Oman is building really good tarred roads everywhere, and they are replacing very rough 4WD roads. The problem is that the maps, and even the signposting, can't keep up with the rate they are building them, so you keep coming across good tar roads with no signposting, as well as the fact that they haven't taken the signposting down from the old roads. See the turn-off for Ras Al-Hadd, which is also supposed to have turtles, but is not a policed reserve. Go in for a look. Town is very spread out, with the centre of town with a mosque that looked like a castle, with all the locals congregated there. Whole place, especially the beach, which was very wide, looked a bit unloved. Hard to find road to beach - eventually drove along an abandoned airport runway to get to the beach, where there was a concrete shade shelter. Tried it, but not very clean, and not very cool, so back in the car. Drove a couple of kms down to the lagoon, where there was an isolated Best Western Hotel (Ra's al-Hadd Beach Hotel), which was only opened in May. Decided to look at it. Amazed to find a large, beautifully furnished room with picture windows looking over the beach, which looked good from the windows. They say we can have a room for OR22 including breakfast, so take it. Turn the airconditioning on, have a shower, and straight to bed for a sleep (now about 2pm). Out later to drive to the headland, where we walked around to see the lagoon entrance to the sea, and the world's new biggest puffer fish.
Back to the fancy hotel restaurant for our first proper meal in quite a while. After our Asian experiences, can't believe how well the Omani's do everything. We're in what looks like a god-forsaken place, surrounded by desert, in a hotel which has one other couple staying here, but when we order a meal (Dianne grilled fish, chips and fattoush - local salad, and Murray spaghetti bolognaise, both with cokes), it arrives with everything perfect, and costs A$25.
Back to room to write up diary etc until about 7.30pm, when we head off for Ras Al-Jinz. After driving along the gravel track for a couple of kms, we get on to a good tar road. A few kms later we come to a sign which leads us off onto another rough gravel track. After a few kms, we notice that the tar road is running parallel to us, and take the punt that it is the new road, and they've just forgotten to take the old sign down, so continue on the new tar road till we arrive at a boom gate with a guard. Pay our OR1 each entry, and wait by the toilet block in a large sandy (dusty) paddock with a number of brick shade shelters which we assume are camping spots. Murray has a short nap, while Dianne writes the diary, (we're still a long way behind) in the light of the toilet block. When Dianne goes to the toilet, she interrupts a woman who is going on the floor of the tiled block, despite there being perfectly clean cubicles with Asian-style squat toilets. Later get to talk to her - she and her husband are Iraqi dentists, with a two-month old baby, and they've lived and worked in Oman for three years. They both speak good English, and are obviously well-educated - beyond my comprehension as to why she didn't use the toilet!
At 9.30pm our guides, as well as about 25 other people, arrive, and we set out on foot to walk to the beach which is just over a sandhill. At this stage our expectations are not very high. Guide points out a fox skulking in the sand, waiting for a feed of baby turtles. Our guide stops to tell us a few facts about the turtles. Over 20,000 female turtles return annually to the beach, where they themselves hatched, to lay eggs. They return 3 or 4 times in the one season, and lay from 60 to 140 eggs, depending on their age (more as they get older). After they've laid all their eggs, they set off for areas as diverse as Maldives and Malaysia, and don't return for another 4 years or so. In July and August they are on the beach for up to two hours, but now in October it can take them 3-4 hours as the sand is very dry, and keeps falling back into the holes they have dug. Tells us not to come here on their equivalent of our Saturday night, which was last night - they had 277 people, and the same number of guides( he sounds like he's still a bit shell-shocked from the experience! ) Tonight we have about 30 people. As we reach the beach, guide points out a turtle coming up the beach - bit hard to see, even though it is almost full moon, as it's a fair distance away. Then point out another, and another. We have to wait, while they go to inspect what is happening. Apparently they're easily upset while they're actually laying, but after that it's OK. They then take us to near where a turtle is actually laying eggs. We're allowed to approach one at a time, and he shines a torch so we can see the eggs being laid. See a newly-hatched baby turtle in the hole as well - maybe another batch was laid very close by. If 20,000 turtles lay on this one small beach, you can imagine it gets a bit busy! Our guide says that this turtle is about 75 years old, after looking at its shell. They can live till about 150 years. Suddenly someone announces that baby turtles are erupting from the sand in front of them!



We all crowd around, and the guides scoop them up into their dishdasha (shirt-dress) as they appear. Told this is because it is full-moon, so it is very easy for the seagulls and foxes and crabs to see them on the sand. Apparently the crabs peck their eyes out. When they think they have all from the hole (about a 100) we all go down to the water's edge, and watch them all make the mad dash for the water. This whole process is repeated another couple of times as there are further baby turtle eruptions. At the same time we can see large turtles lumbering up the beach, and at various places on the beach you can see sand flying into the air, where there is obviously a turtle hidden in a hole, but still digging. We all approach another turtle one-by-one to see how they use their small flippers to dig the small, deep chute where they place the actual eggs. They cup their flipper, almost like a hand, to get the sand out. Once they dig this, they use the big flippers to cover everything, and move quite a distance away before they get out of the hole, so that there are no obvious signs where the actual eggs are laid.
Watch a couple of turtles heading back for the water, then it's time to leave. We've been here about an hour and a half, and we reckon there were about 30 turtles during this time. This goes on all night,, with the last turtle leaving by 7am in the morning. Told the beach is opened about 5.30 in the morning, and you can come back and walk around, as by then all the laying is done, and the turtles are just returning to the water.
Back to our hotel about midnight, after a very exciting night. Once again, we're impressed with how the Omani's are handling their assets. Apparently a few years ago this beach was open to anyone to wander on, and the turtles were starting to disappear, as we suspect they have to a large extent on Ras Al-Hadd, where our hotel is. Walking 5 kms.
Saturday 11th Oct Ras Al-Hadd-Wahiba Sands
Unfortunately we miss returning to the turtles, as we're running out of time, and we sleep till 7am, as we're getting run-down from lack of sleep, and the heat.
Have breakfast in the restaurant, and talk to Swiss couple, the only other hotel occupants. They have a good map (turns out to be not-so-good, but at least better than ours), and they get the staff to photocopy part of it for us. Exchange info with them, and they give us the name of place they stayed in Wahiba Sands.
Continue down the coast, which is not as attractive as further north, as there are now small waves breaking, which disturb the sand, and make the water more murky. Turn inland at Asila, then Jaal an Bani bu Ali, Al Kamil (lots agriculture, big town, major ground watercourse). Turn off the main highway, and follow a brand-new, wide tarred road for 33 kms to Wadi Bani Khalia. Then have to leave the tarred road, and follow a rough goat track for 4 kms, up and over steep hillsides ( engage 4WD) to Mukal Cave and waterpools. Give an old local man a lift part of the way. Pools are quite attractive, but spoilt a bit by fancy little bridges and shade shelters painted bright green which have been added. We don't know where cave is, but see a sign saying don't head for it without climbing ropes, water, first aid equipment etc. Looks like their is a path heading up the edge of the sloping rock strata, so decide to head up there a bit, as will hopefully get a good view back over the wadi, which we do. Some of the waterholes look extremely inviitng (photos) Now middle of the day, and stinking hot (we're obviously up to our normal 38 degrees). Walk for a while, then on way back down when local comes over, and starts to lead us to the cave. We follow, and find it is actually in the gorge. After some crawling on hands and knees through a couple of small holes, arrive at the cave, to find it has a well-made set of steps up to it ( we think their sign is, once again, a bit out of date). At this stage find that we need a torch to see into the cave. Murray crawls around a bit, but can't see much - apparently it opens out after a while. Pay off our guide, and head back to car and the much-appreciated air-conditioning.
Back on the main road, we continue on to Al Mintirib, which, according to our very hazy information, is an enatry point to the Wahiba Sands. We take a leg in toward the sands, past the Mintirib fort and onto a road which obviously leads to the sands, but stop when we read a tourist information board which sets out all the pitfalls of desert travel. We look for a telephone, find that the public phones take only cards, so head back for the highway to get petrol and a card, and ring the Golden Sands Hotel. The service station shop attendant insists on us taking his card with 900 credit on it, and we have to leave OR 1 on the counter, as he won't take payment. When we eventually get through to the hotel, they have no food, and ask us to ring back in 5 minutes. They have a driver in town who can meet us in one hour at the Mahata service station. We say we will look around, and wait for the Tourist agency across the street, particularly as we can't find the service station reputedly 500 metres up the road.
At the agency, the girl says they have vacancies at a resort 20 km out past the fort, easy to find, for the standard RO15 each. It sounds OK, but when we quiz her on which side of the warning notice the road runs, she can't offer a logical answer, which makes us somewhat reticent to go on our own, so she makes a call then tells us to go to the fort where "car 42" will be waiting to lead us. This sounds satisfactory, so we set off, find car 42, a full size Toyota 4WD, waiting, and after a short break, set off at a fair pace, to the left of the danger notice, and along a rough gravel road.
The road passes some excellent semi-derelict kasbah buildings, then through a village of primitive mud brick houses and timber-fenced compounds, and out onto the sand proper, and due south along a 500 m wide, shallow wadi with sand dunes each side. There are two fairly well-defined tracks, each with many tyre tracks, and a well-worn groove for the most-used route. The sand is very soft in this groove, but car 42 is sticking to it, and we follow. We note that his tyres are very flat, and he is handling the sand a lot better than us with highway pressure, and no time, and not much inclination, to reduce it. We have to pedal pretty hard to keep him in sight, nearly getting the car sideways a couple of times. He disappears entirely over a hump in the wadi floor at one point where there is very little in sight but sand, but he circles back to find us.
We stop to give help or advice, or something to a 4WD full of local women and kids, and our man gets into the driver's seat for a while, but it is hard to see what he has achieved, as they are still there when we disappear over the sand hills. The Vitara is working pretty hard in 4WD, but it is difficult to work out if this is because of wheel slip, or pushing sand in front of us, but we are not going to stop.
Our first indication of the camp is a high telephone tower on the floor of the wadi, and then a water tank and a collection of low buildings. We can see a big Toyota high on the sandhill to the east, but no other tourist vehicles. As soon as we arrive, our man says, "quick, into the jeep, and up the sandhill to see the sunset".




The jeep is an open Wrangler, with a cage, big sand tyres, and no muffler. Boris is a bit of a hoon, and roars up the side of the dune, right up to the crest, giving DP a quick, mischievous look before doing a wheelie on the lip of the dune and stopping beside the Toyota, where a German couple are standing watching the sunset. It is their second time here, and they seem to like it.
We walk up over a couple of sandhills while Boris blasts down the hill in the jeep. The sand hills go on forever to the east and west of the wadi, and we are told you can drive 100 km up the wadi if you are game. We photograph the Germans going down the hill, but with no spectacular results. After descending the soft sand hill in a skiing/surfing action, we go straight to the coffee terrace to lounge on rugs with pillows, talk, eat dates and fruit, and take Omani coffee.
The German couple is quite interesting. They have travelled widely including five trips to Australia, so we were able to swap North-West Australian travel stories. From the terrace, we went directly to the dining area for a buffet meal of goat (or chicken), lamb on a skewer, salad, flat bread and the fruit platter from the coffee session. Plenty of it, and quite good. Not as exotic as the camel on the menu the night before.
After talking till late, and organising breakfast for 8 am, we are finally shown to our room, a concrete block building with palm thatching and cladding. The room was quite hot, even with all doors and windows open. The allocated room still had the plastic on the mattress, so, rather than rip it off, we changed to the next room, as there were only two of about 30 being used. The night was very quiet, with a full moon over the sands, but the mattress was pretty weird.
Sunday 12 October Wahiba Sands - Hajar Mountaintop
We are awake at the crack of dawn, wishing we had called for an earlier breakfast, but hurry to get dressed to go up the sandhill with the Germans, as we are too scared to drive up ourselves. We are too late, so saddle up the Vitara and head out to gentler hills for a look. Our first try to the east is cut off by a fence and steep sandhill, so we head west to the other side of the wadi, where the hills are gentler. We decide to leave the vehicle on the flat, and walk up the first sandhill. In typical fashion, we then try the second, and finally find ourselves out of sight of the camp, with no food or water. However, we know where the rising sun is, have a rest on the sandhills and walk back. On the way back in the car, we try out the 4WD on a small sandhill, with some success, but the feeling that we would not like to take on the big hill, either up, or downhill.
We pack our gear and sit in the breakfast area, writing the diary, to produce a bit of early action, bringing on breakfast by 7.30, and forcing the Germans to hurry their shower. The breakfast of sausage, omelette, coffee, bread and jam was pretty good. We signed the visitor's book, paid our RO15 each with no receipt, and bid the camp farewell.
The drive back to civilisation was achieved more confidently without a pace setter, but still had some interesting moments. We stopped a few times to take photos of the isolation,



and also of some Bedouin camps. Back in town, we attempted to email for Betty's birthday, but couldn't raise Hotmail.
Back on the main road, we passed the mystery service station from the day before, and other roadhouses with desert connections, but were happy with our choice. We had a lot of trouble finding route 28. Saw road which was a possibility, but had no number on it, so drove seven kms into Ibra without finding any other road, and then back the seven kms, and took the only logical road. It turned out to be 28, which we found when we reached the other end. Continued on at Lizq, but without signs. We were almost sure the continuing gravel road was the short cut we needed, but unfortunately took local advice from a truck driver that the only way to go was a leg to the South via Al Mudaibi and Sanaw, both pretty forgettable towns. Here we were also advised at service stations to stick to the main road (think they were worried about us going 10 kms into desert country along a bad road - wonder what they would have said about the road we took later in the day!) Once more heading North, we passed the end of the shortcut we didn't take, with the same towns signposted on the other road also signedposted as being a few km in from this one. At this stage, MP was happy enough to drive extra distance to avoid risky roads. From here, we found route 33 with references to Izki, but no distances, and no mention of Nizwa. Although our "good" map showed a due west route, MP was finding far too much due South with his compass, even getting out of the car to make sure it wasn't magnetic. Eventually, just short of Izki, we picked up a sign at a diversion to Nizwa. This new divided highway also seemed to have a lot of South in it, but we arrived at Nizwa about midday. It certainly had that mid day lethargy about it. We parked in a large, empty parking lot in the wadi, and walked across to the new markets and the famous fort. It all looked cute,




but a bit too much so - not too much obvious history about it, but worth a few photos. Although the town was set about with jagged mountains, they did not dominate it as much as we were expecting.
After DP bought a pomegranate from a street vendor for 1/2 RO, we proceeded toward the Bahla and Jabrin Forts (photos) with a stop at Tanuf to look at the historical falaj (aqueduct) and mineral water source. We weren't in the mood to look at forts, and were running out of time, so just photographed them.
While we were making for Jebel Shams, DP was decoding the information and although we correctly identified the abandoned village of Ghul, we failed to drive up the wadi to see the new village and "grand canyon" from the bottom, and carried on up the hill on what we thought was the start of a long, steep and rough climb to the top of Jebel Shams. Fortunately, after the short gravel section, left possibly to deter the timid, the road became new asphalt most of the way up the hill. Road crews were working on the verges, but, although seriously steep, it was wide and safe. We stopped and lunched on ice cream and fruit salad at a side road through a saddle at 4pm, getting good views down into another valley and a massive mountain. Continued upward to where the road was still to be tarred and rebuilt. It became seriously steep, narrow and rough, so we used 4WD for all the rest of the 9 km climb. There were plenty of signed turnoffs to villages, but no sign for the peak or the hotel, so when we arrived at a gatehouse with a guard, we were wondering where the hell we were.
We were greeted by a wild-looking shepherd type, but the guard told us to ignore him. It turned out that this was the right peak, but it had a radar station on it, and was a restricted area. We could see the radar dome from the gate, and avoided it while we took photos all around. The guard directed us back to the last turnoff, which was signed to a walking track, but made no mention of the hotel. This road was even narrower and steeper than the main road, but led us to a "you are here" sign with the walking tracks marked. We carried on more confidently to a lookout point over the top of a dam in a wadi. The wadi obviously ended in a waterfall into the "grand canyon". Some Omani visitors directed us to a walking track into the wadi, so we hurried down to look before dark. The drop into the canyon wasn't as spectacular as we had imagined, but was still impresive. Debris in the trees indicated a pretty spectacular waterfall in the wet season. After a look all around the canyon and over the edge, and several photos, we climb back up the wadi to be greeted by the local carpet sellers, two women with carpets, a couple of youths, and half a dozen kids with some sort of woven tassels in their hands. We got away surprisingly lightly, with an explanation of travelling light with a backpack, and pushed on past the hotel to a high vantage point for a better look into the valley. The rim road carried on, but it was coming on dark, so we beat a retreat down the mountain, quite often in low gear 4WD. The road crew had gone home, and it was a pretty straight run.
Back at Wadi Ghul we agonised about driving up the wadi, as we can see the road through the gravel bottom, but decided to push on to follow the complicated directions up and over the Hajars, which our guide says has just recently been built, rather than returning through Nizwa. We had seen the turnoff we needed on the way out, but there was a second turn to Huti ( or was it Hoti or Hoota - it depends on the sign you read. Quite often there'll be three signs almost together, all with a different spelling) cave and Balad Seet which cut off time and distance, but complicated the directions, as they were using mileages as a guide. There were a lot of twists and turns in this route, and we would have been hoplessly lost if not for the surprisingly good tourist signposting, and we found the start of the zig-zag road up the mountain just on dusk. We were able to take a few photos back at the mountains just before dark.
We started up in high hope, as the road was wide, sealed and well graded, although still steep, for the first 10 km, but then became a wide road under construction with earthmoving machinery parked on it. Because we had not started from the reference point, all the distances in the instructions were now irrelevant, so took a logical but wrong turn to the right in the construction zone, and went a km or so before turning back. We were now very doubtful, but after a couple of kms on this road we came upon a contractor's construction sign which indicated we were on the new tourist road. The road continued to climb and dip, needing 4WD and occasional low gear, so, having reached some sort of a high point with a very steep downhill, and a lay-by on the crest, we decided to call it a night and continue at first light.
The sleeping arrangement started with MP in the driver's seat, while Dianne, who has not as tired as hadn't been driving, typed up the diary on the palm pilot for an hour or so, with the interior light of the car. Then Dianne hopped onto the back seat to sleep. After a while we swapped places, then Dianne decided to risk the wolves and sleep beside the car,



allowing MP to sleep diagonally from the back seat, across the gear stick into the driver's seat. At 2000 metres, it was starting to get chilly when the engine cooled, and by midnight we were both zipped up in the sleeping bags. Only one local 4WD passed us in the night. The driver stopped to check on us, but carried on when MP waved and thumbs-upped to show we were OK. He was last seen heading down the very steep road, accompanied by goat sounds.
Monday 13 Oct Top of Mountain - Dubai
Eventually we lost the bright moonlight which would almost have been good enough to drive by on better roads. We wer up and about well before the sun rose. We ate the last of the muesli and were packing when the first traffic of the day, another local 4WD passed. He seemed to take a long time to appear on the crest, so MP had a look and found there was a junction over the crest with two equal sized roads. When we drove down, there was a tourist sign with arrows to our starting point, but none the other way, but by the placement of the sign we concluded that the right road was straight ahead, where we could see the road crossing below the crest of a sloping mountain. The other road wound down forever into a valley. When we arrived at the highest point, we found a wide stopping place and a small side road. The view was spectacular, so we stopped for photos and a break. DP noticed a sign on the ground so we investigated and found another "you are here", with the name of the mountain, and walking tracks all the way back to Jebel Shams. It would be fabulous walking country in the right season, with a lot of water.
We could see the road disappearing steeply downhill across the face of a 500 metre cliff, so engaged 4WD low range, low gear and proceeded with a lot of caution, particularly as earlier, on a steep slope, MP had slipped the gearbox into reverse instead of low, stalling the engine, and losing most of the boost on the power brakes. Exciting! This is the longest (14 km) sustained steep, twisty downhill we have ever encountered, but we had no traffic at all, so it was scary, but doable.



With an older, or less reliable 4WD, we might have considered going back. Because we needed to use the brakes, even in 4WD low range, low gear, it would also have been pretty scary in one of the light duty 4WD's, or cars like Subarus without low range. You also have to remember that this road has just recently been hacked out of the mountain, and is more a rock road, than a gravel road in places. We stopped where we could do so safely to rubberneck and take photos, but after a gravel crunching noise which sounded like the car leaving without us, MP was reluctant to get out on the steep pinches.
The road has no safety rails, which is hardly surprising, but the extent of overhangs, rubble slides from the road 200 metrs above, and the loose nature of the shale rock do not inspire confidence. There are fabulous cliffs and rock faces, but it does not look like good rock-climbing country - too much loose and weathered rock.
At what we thought was the bottom of the descent there is a flat area with a small village, Haat, surrounded by 1500 m walls. Just as we were driving in, a 4WD, the school bus, was leaving full of smiling schoolgirls, immaculately dressed in white uniforms. We drove into the central square, greeted a few locals and took photos of the mountains.




We would have loved to photograph the colourfully dressed local women and kids, but this is always awkward.
The road beyond the village was, if anything, steeper and rougher than before, to make up for the short flat section. Saw the turnoff to Balad Seet, just a couple of kms off the main road, but unfortunately we have a plane to catch this morning, so don't turn in. At the bottom of this descent was a turnoff into a smaller village, with a rock pool in a cleft in the rock. We stopped to walk up the wadi, waiting for a group of women and kids to finish collecting water from the pool. In better seasons a falaj leads from the pool past the village. We took a photo of the serpentine cleft in the rock which led to a wider wadi beyond, then carried on down to a main wadi which appeared to be at base level, hence no more scary mountain roads. Unfortunately the wadi narrows to a gorge, and we have to climb around it and back down. We now have a bit of traffic. and let a local 4WD past so we can stop at will to take photos. We eat his dust most of the way to the main road.
We are now in Wadi Bani Awf proper, with date palm groves, the odd water pool and falajs, but the signs of this being the fruit bowl of Oman are pretty subtle. The mountain views are still amazing. The last few kms to the main road are level, but quite rocky in the bed of the wadi. Just before the main road we are flagged down by an ancient (61+?) man, but we think he wants to go to Ar Rustaq, while we are going the other way. We probably should have given him a lift to the main road, but with the language difficulty, we may not have been able to get him back out. At the main road we take a farewell shot of the almost-concealed wadi entrance and head off down the highway, right on the speed limit.
Although we think we have plenty of time, we cancel possible side trips to Suwadee, or the coast near the airport, and hot foot it to the airport, only stopping to get rid of the worst of the dust, to avoid a fine (you can get fined for having a dirty car in Muscat!), and fill the tank. The closest call with traffic the entire trip happens on the airport roundabout.
Inside the airport, we look all over for a rental car parking area, and are eventually directed to arrivals. Apparently you just double park and walk to the hire company desk, but we need time to get organised. We try to enter the car park, but have to be directed to come in straight by an elderly, arab dressed man, and he has a couple of goes at it before he can punch the right buttons and get us a card. We have to park in the sun, and MP packs the gear while DP finds the Thrifty office, returning with the man, who checks the car out. It is only now that we realise that we have been travelling the whole time with no tools. When the letting agent said the tools were under the seat, MP believed him, but it was only the jack. The other tools were supposed to be in a very flash tray in the cargo area, which we now find is empty. Nice to know, having been in some remote and rough areas. We also find that the CDW box was never checked even though we asked for it, so we have been travelling with a high excess. The conditions of the insurance are pretty open to interpretation to the advantage of the company anyway, so at least we saved OR10.
We finish packing on the ground in the parking area after the car has been taken, then drag the bags across the hot parking area into the welcome airconditioning of the terminal. We have no problems getting them to take cash payment, but DP has trouble at the ATM. Looks like we might have to partially pay with credit card, but a second go yields more cash than we need, but at least gets over the immediate problem.
We finish our breakfast yoghurt and pass through another perfunctory security check. A couple of tight- jeaned, big-bust Arabic floozie types cause a stir at security with a lot of hand luggage, and probably a weapon-like hair curler. MP changes our OR to UAE dirhams, and gets back to the departure lounge just as DP is heading for the gate. There had been so much fuss with the staff trying to find Bombay passengers that our own departure just sneaked up on us.
We get another port side window seat but with an Indian worker-type in the aisle seat. There are no views worth photographing, lots of haze, and a route up the coast rather than over the mountains. Another lamb-filled giant samosa for lunch - quite welcome.

This is the last diary entry on Oman. We went to Oman because we could get a stop-over there on our round-the-world ticket, and we hadn't been to the Gulf before. We didn't have any great expectations. We had certainly under-estimated the country as a destination, and we thoroughly recommend it.
Our next instalment will be from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.