Qatar has only 7 days of public holidays in a year, so three
day EID Islamic holidays are always well awaited and it’s almost mandatory to
leave to country and escape from the desert and overheated city on Doha…at
least for few days. This time we wanted to break the rule and stay home
kiteboarding, but wind gods were not in our favor, so we had to leave!! And for
four days it was easy choice…green mountains and crystal blue wadis of the
Sultanate of Oman just an hour flight from Doha!
We didn’t have much of a plan, but we booked the all mighty 7-seater
4x4 Toyota Land Cruiser to get us wherever we wish to go. Luckily we got also a
roof rack to put our baggage, because without that we would probably be like
sardines in a can! We stocked ourselves with everything important in Muscat
airport duty free and nearby Carrefour and off we went into the night. First we chose a safe bet, Wadi Bani Awf and Snake canyon.
Deep and colorful wadi in the heart of Jabal Shams mountains with a beautiful
village of Bilad Sayd and with the thin and deep Snake gorge was sure fun a
next day and a half!
We woke up in the pass just above the valley and
after a breakfast in the sky we descended. We had to admit that all the Arabs
have a reason to have at least one Land Cruiser in their car fleet, because the
ride down on the super steep, bumpy and rocky dirt road was like in pillows.
Pure comfort! First we decided to do a short route of the trek though the
bottom of the Snake Gorge.
In comparison with the long route you don’t need
a rope here and was supposed to be easy walk. In actually was, but just because
there was hardly any water! I can’t imagine going here if the water is high a
flowing as constant stream…that would definitely be more scary, you wouldn’t
be able to stop, explore ahead and climb down to the next pool…you would be
washed downstream no matter what! But I guess that’s the real spirit of
canyoning. But we were more than happy like this J
It took us almost the whole day so after the walk back up the hill, we crashed for the night right where we started. On the way back we wanted to do a quick Via Ferrata above the Snake Gorge and slide couple of tyrolean traverses from one side to another, but it was closed for maintenance :( Next time!
The next day we took a pleasure hike to village
picturesque village of Bilad Sayt and on the way back we did a easy route in La
Gorgette, famous Oman climbing area. Unfortunately all the routes were quite
difficult for beginners and we didn’t have climbing shoes, so everyone just
tried once and we headed back up to the pass and onto the Omani plains down
south.
We stopped in Nizwa for a lunch and continued to Wahiba
Sands, the real sandy desert. We reached just after it got dark, so we chose to
get a typical Arabic tent in one desert camp we found on after we drove 10k
inside. It was a great choice, because we were covered from the wind and had a
clean carpet to drink play some cards. And sleeping on soft mattresses was a
welcomed change from wadi rocky grounds!
Obviously nobody woke up to watch the sunrise above the
dunes, so we just headed to play in the sand for a while after breakfast. Great
experience for those who have seen only the Qatari one! Finally they’ve seen
the real one J
Covered with sand we went straight to Wadi Bani Khalid for a
shover. I think I’ve never seen so much fresh water in the whole Middle East.
Crystal clear and deep pools were just like a paradise. And locals liked their
paradise too, because it was quite packed…who wouldn’t right? J We played, swam, were jumping until we were full, refreshed and ready for some
more adventure.
So then we headed further south to Ras Al-Had to
watch sea turtles to lay eggs on the beach. Because it was a breeding season
the official tickets were sold out, but we managed to sneak to a one additional
tour and got inside the national park. It was amazing to see the turtle land on
the beach, slowly crawl up to 100m from the coast, dig a hole, lay eggs, dig
another hole next to it to confuse egg hungry predators and crawl back to the
sea. It takes up to 1-2 hours for the turtle. But out of those hundreds of
small turtles who get born only few percent survives to adulthood…but I guess
this is how it is meant to be! After the tour we crashed on the main village
beach, and got lucky enough to see one turtle just digging hole 20 meter from
our car J
The last day we stopped in wadi Ash Shab,
another beautiful wadi full of water and trees. We hiked up to the end and swam
into a cave. We drank our last beers sitting in a sandy pool and unfortunately
had to start thinking about heading back. We managed to stop for a minute to
see Bimmah sinkhole and Sultan’s palace in Muscat, but that was really it!
Short trip, but intense and to remember!
It takes a while until you relax completely and start to
fully enjoy your holidays, but after a day or two you are in the travelling
mood. And speaking for myself, I wanted to continue further and more. One day I
will ;)
