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Published: January 31st 2016
Wadi Shab
One of the many poolsOff on our Omani road trip today, and no road trip is complete without a set of wheels so first thing today we had to pick up our hire car. The hotel organised a taxi to take us to the airport for 8 Rials ($36 AUD) and as we drove there our driver gave us some good tips on driving in Oman and even offered us his own personal road map. Looking at the manic traffic I should have asked him to say a prayer for us. Got to the Europcar counter right on time and then had to wait an hour for them to prepare our car, but luckily they upgraded our car. As an Australian it always feels kind of weird sitting on the left hand side of the car and driving on the right side is just plain wrong. A quick familiarization and we were into the thick of the Muscat peak time traffic. It was all fairly easy and thankfully Michele is a good navigator and second pair of eyes so we were back at the hotel without any dramas. Had our breakfast, grabbed our
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Shiny new bow bags and checked out, and hit the road out of Muscat.
The main drag into and out of Muscat is a bit of a tangled highway and the speed limit varies from 80 to 120 so it can be a bit tense but Michele got me through without any problems and we were soon out into the countryside. The terrain outside Muscat is very mountainous dry and arid and the land looks like it has been sun and sandblasted for centuries, it is what I imagined the surface of Mars would look like. Even in winter this place looks so hot, arid and dry that it has you wondering “why would anyone want to live here”, especially when the slightly cooler coast is nearby.
The freeway was a breeze to drive on except that the speed kept varying from 120 to 100km/hr and literally every 3km there was a permanent speed camera. Being paranoid not to get a speeding fine I was watching the speedo more than the road, but locals would tear past us even when we were doing 120 and right in front of a camera. Started questioning if the cameras are
Road to Duqm
Hitting the Highway real or the fines are so low the locals don’t care. After driving for 2 hours we came to one of the major attractions on this road, the Wadi Shab, so we took the opportunity to stop the car and stretch our legs.
The technical definition of a wadi is a watercourse or riverbed that remains dry till the wet season, most are located in narrow valleys. Wadi Shab is regarded as one of Omans best example of a wadi and has been opened up to tourists. To start the walk you first need to take a boat across a lake which one of the local entrepreneurs will arrange for a fee. After this short ride you start the walk which is initially about 12 minutes over a dry stony river bed and then you start to gently climb up. This part of the walk is not that attractive as there are black plastic pipes running everywhere for the local water supply and the remains of concrete blocks that used to hold the old pipe system and some rubbish. Luckily this section again is only about 12 minutes and if you block this out and look up
Taqah
Taqah fort from Taqah Castle it is still impressive to see the high rock walls of the wadi. As you move through you see more and more waterholes that are crystal clear, the water levels were low but still great if you want to swim. It would be amazing to see in flood from the top definitely not on the floor of the wadi.
We walked back and waited a short time to catch the boat back while standing there saw some grey flamingos, someone forgot to give them the memo that they are meant to be “pretty pink flamingos”. Then it was back in the car and onto Sur about 30 minutes down the road. It was a bit confusing finding the hotel as the sign pointing to the hotel is spelt differently than it is on booking.com. Good point about the hotel it is on the corniche and our room overlooks the beach and it is big, but the staff, well let’s say if they smiled it would crack their faces and the beds are the hardest we have ever slept on.
We checked out the soccer matches on the beach and then walked into the town
Wadi Shab
Start of the walk centre to find dinner and it was the usual suspects Indian or shwarma. Many of the coffee shops and restaurants are male orientated but as we walked past a good sized restaurant the staff smiled at us, so that is where we stopped. The food was good and to finish we had the best juice drinks one banana and one mango.
Day 8 - Tuesday 26th January 2016 Slept like a log on our log mattress which was a surprise but woke up not feeling exactly refreshed. The hotel does not serve breakfast which maybe a godsend, so we headed back to the restaurant from last night. On the way we passed a herd of goats that had been let out for a day of foraging or eating the neighbour’s plants. As we turned the corner saw that the restaurant was closed but a few doors up a small place was open which was possibly run by the relatives of our hotel staff (no smiles today). They offered no menus so ordered 2 juices and asked about food expecting a menu but just got blank looks, so asked
Wadi Shab
Getting narrower if they made omelettes, got a nod. The juices where OK and the omelettes were plain which is OK but they were served on a plate with no knives and forks or a serviette to be seen. The waiter had disappeared as soon as it was put on table so after a few minutes we ate it with our hands – interesting. Scott decided it was no use ordering coffee so I would have to put up with him being caffeine deprived all day, on top of him being alcohol deprived for a week; not a happy camper.
Thankfully the day improved as we walked around the corniche to the dhow yards to see the teak wooden boats being made. While standing outside the yard an Omani man came up to us and took us in, he explained that his grandfather used to be a captain on a dhow and he was coming to check on the progress of a friend’s boat. It was fantastic to get up close and watch the workers as they caulked the hull. When you examine the hull closely you can see how much work goes into constructing them. It was great
Wadi Shab
Looking down having a short tour of the yard and asking questions about the construction methods, and we discovered that the boats are constructed from teak timber from Borneo. These days the boats are launched using cranes but he told us that years ago the boats were rolled into the water on logs with men pushing it to the beat of drums and singing, standing there with him giving us a brief song it conjured up images of the loud noise and energy of the task and of a time now long gone. We thanked him and said goodbye and hit the pavement again back to the hotel.
The town rolls up the carpet between 12noon and about 4pm and as it was now about 2pm we did the same and hibernated for a couple of hours before heading out for dinner. Returned to where we had dinner last night and instead of Shwarmas we had a big feed of Indian, washed down with some great fruit juices. Walking back along the corniche the goats were being called home for the night, they were coming up from the beach and snacking on the trees before getting locked up.
Wadi Shab
Some of the ugly piping Day 9 - Wednesday 27th January 2016 Up extra early for the next leg of our road trip, which felt good to be leaving those hard beds, excluding a bathroom tiled floor I have never ever slept on something so hard before. Because our hotel doesn’t supply breakfast we just packed, checked out and hit the road before 9. We had a good old fashioned Aussie travelling breakfast today and it consisted off a warm can of lemonade and a mars bar while we drove. As stated before Michele is a great navigator and Oman sure stretched her abilities. The roads are of good quality it is just that there isn’t a lot of signage, in English or Arabic. Speed signs are even rarer and you are always sort of guessing what speed you should be doing, not that we should worry when you see how fast the locals go. Some stretches of the road we could do 120km/hr and the locals would pass us like we were standing still, really scary how fast they drive.
The terrain started out today with
Wadi Shab
Time for a swim rocky dry mountainous, but it soon flattened out to scrubby desert and then eventually to sand dunes. The land remained fairly flat through most of the drive but was interspersed with some amazing rock formations. Scattered along the way were small towns, where we were able to pick up petrol and also some cokes, but otherwise it was a straight through 6 hour drive. Arrived at Duqm around 3.30pm and the whole place has been turned upside down because the main drag through town is being widened. Took us a while to find our hotel, and perhaps we should have not bothered and just slept in the car. Duqm is on the coast and the port part of town is being rebuilt on a huge scale. Read somewhere that it will be the second largest port in the world eventually, which I find hard to believe as it is in the middle of nowhere with no rail connection, but there is a lot of work going on around the place. Didn’t bother driving out to the port but could see a lot of site cranes from the road coming in, but the town of Duqm is a fairly small town
Wadi Shab
Grey Flamingo that boasts only 2 hotels one we only discovered on arrival called “the Malabar” which maybe more for local taste and the other is where we are staying “the Duqm City hotel”. There are two more out at the port which were more expensive so that is why we chose this one. It is a less than ordinary hotel run by apathetic staff, and we could cope with that except for the ridiculous cost of the room for one night, you can really tell that they have a near monopoly on the half way point from Muscat to Salalah.
For dinner we drove into the centre of this small town and found a local eatery where we got an interesting feed of Pakistani food once again for about $8 AUD.
Day 10 Thursday 28th January 2016 Another early start because we had another long drive today. Breakfast was okay but we then had to fill out a 3 page survey/questionnaire on how good/bad our breakfast was. Today we are off down the coast to the town of Salalah, and we wanted to go by the coast road which is
Wadi Shab
Unattractive entrance to the Wadi scenic but unfortunately the road has been under construction for some time and we are unsure if it is finished. Everything we looked at on the internet kept showing the inland route as the only way or it would show the coast road as taking an extra 2 hours despite it looking like the shorter route, so I thought I would ask at the front desk before leaving and our conversation went something like this.
Scott: Driving to Salalah today can you tell me if the coast road is open
Concierge: Yes you take the second roundabout
Scott: We don’t have a 4 wheel drive, is it okay for a normal car on that road
Concierge: Yes you take the second roundabout
Michele: Is the road a sealed road
Concierge: Yes you can see it from the second roundabout
He couldn’t really explain where this second roundabout was and in the end despite wanting to take the chance on the coast road we couldn’t spot any sign pointing down the coast and ended up going on the inland route.
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Where's my coffee? As stated before, the road signage is really bad in Oman, even the Arabic signs are few and far between. Since we were going inland we decided to check out the nature reserve where they have the endangered wild Oryx. Quickly reread the Lonely Planet on how to get there we discovered that to visit we needed to get a permit in Muscat; DAMN. Plus the road in about 50km on a dirt road and we are in a hire car so could not do it anyway. We have since read mixed reviews about it, on June 28, 2007, the reserve became historic as the first ever to be delisted and removed from the
World Heritage Site register.
UNESCO cited Oman's decision to reduce the site by 90%!a(MISSING)nd the decline of the population of Arabian oryx from 450 in 1996 to 65 as a result of poaching and loss of habitat. At that time only four mating pairs remained. The Oman government from a survey dated 31 December 2011 stated that there were 263 oryx, not sure what the population is now. Others have said the local Harsusi tribe are still working hard to save the oryx herd, let’s hope they
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Caulking a Dhow are winning.
With our plans in tatters we pushed on through some of the flattest, driest, lifeless, most boring landscape we have ever had the displeasure to cross through. Only the occasional camel gave us any chance for something different in our “I spy with my little eye game” R for road and S for sand was our only other options. Like yesterday our only stop was for fuel and cokes and around 3.00 we hit the mountains just outside Salalah. The road was one of the steepest I have driven up and then down the other side into town. It was amazing that as you go over this mountain the terrain changes and suddenly you see trees, shrubs and grass. This area is hit with what they call “the Khaleef” every year from June to September and it is basically a heavy moist laden mist that turns this whole area lush and green. That was 4 months ago so everything is looking a bit dusty at the moment but you do notice the change in the vegetation.
The city of Salalah is a sprawling town of 172,000 so it was a bit of
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Stern of a new Dhow a battle getting through the traffic but eventually arrived at the door of our hotel. The room is fantastic and half the price of last night so it will be a good base for exploring the area. This is a bit of a foodie town and nearby the hotel we had a large choice of restaurants, unfortunately most are Indian, Pakistani restaurants. Really hard to find an Omani restaurant and in fact haven’t spotted one yet as a large (almost half the population) are Indian and the Omanis really like their Indian food. We love Indian food as well but it would be nice to try some local fare. Tonight we didn’t find an Omani restaurant but we did get a feed of Lebanese, which is getting closer.
Day 11 Friday 29th January 2016 Shelley wasn’t feeling the best today so we had a slow start. Breakfast was okay with a vast selection of condiments and leftovers from last night’s buffet dinner which is fairly typical of hotels anywhere in the world. Being Friday which is the Islamic holy day, most things are shut or have restricted hours so there wasn’t a
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Dhow under construction lot we could do. The one thing that we knew was open all day was Job’s Tomb so we jumped in the car and headed for the hills. Job is the guy mentioned in the Bible, Torah and of course the Quran that God strips him of everything he holds dear to test his faith and resolve. Of course he hangs in there, despite losing his family and wealth and God rewards him with more money and family, a sort of double or nothing situation. There are three tombs for Job in the Middle East, One in Lebanon, one in Turkey and this one in Oman. Apparently the Old Testament states that Job came from Dhofar, and Salalah is the heart of Dhofar so I guess it makes sense that this is his last resting place.
His tomb is located on a hill 20km out of town in a very modest structure next to a small mosque. Half expected a grand mosque built over his tomb but it was very simple and we actually stood in the small concrete shed with him for some time before anyone else turned up. Not very religious and the scientific side
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Completed Dhow of me would love to see one day that tombs like this are opened up and examined to determine if there is any basis for the claims, but then again I guess it is nice to have things in the world that are just left to faith.
Day 12 Saturday 30th January 2016 Up at the reasonable time this morning for a day of site seeing the first stop was the ancient site of Al-Baleed only to find the opening hours have changed and there is no morning session so will have to come back after 3.00pm. So we kept driving to the next stop Khor Rouri (Sumhuram Archaeological Park) which was built about 1
st century BC as a port town for the trade of frankincense and continued to the 3
rd century AD. This is a fairly small but great site to walk around with good signage as to what you are looking at. We enjoyed looking over the ruins and then looked at the museum attached which is tiny. Back on the road we decided to take a detour on a smaller road just a see a
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Late afternoon snack bit more of the countryside before heading to Taqah which is on the way back to Salalah. Again no signs but luckily you can see the fort as you approach town and hoped the castle was close by and we were right. The fort is closed to the public but the castle which is a large fortified house built in the 19
th century of local limestone for a Sheikh was opened to the public. Later the castle was converted to the official residence of the local governor (walis) and it contains artefacts to show how the family lived and would greet dignitaries. This was definitely worth the stop.
A bit after three we went back to Al-Baleed which has the Museum of the Frankincense Land attached which sounds like an Arab Disneyland but actually is a modern museum that is beautifully presented if on the small side. The weather has not been great today as it has been very, very windy and we have had sand and dust blowing in our faces all day and at times the gust of wind would nearly knock us off our feet. We walked over a small bridge to the ancient
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Our bags on the worlds hardest beds site of Al-Baleed and followed a long winding paved path around the ruins and yes it was mainly rubble with no signage to explain what you were looking at even though the Lonely Planet says it is well labelled, maybe it blew away in the wind. We know it was a 12
th century trading post with frankincense being shipped to India in exchange for spices. Apparently Marco Polo called in here on his travels and marvelled at how beautiful it was; 600 years later and it is looking a bit sad. By now we were totally sandblasted and decided we had seen enough, so onto the souq to see the frankincense for sale. Wandered around looking at the shops and finally brought some frankincense and an incense burner hopefully it makes it home as we are not sure how long we are travelling for or how many countries it will have to go through.
That was enough walking for today so drove back to the hotel and went out for a pizza for dinner just for something different.
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RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew
A proper road trip...
Your photos of Wadi Shab are gorgeous. Hope you had some good music to get you through those long, straight, flat road bits. I know Indian food is now global, but it seems odd that it was the only option in some of those places... hope the food gets more local as you venture further on.