Jebel Akhdar

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We set off to the north of Muscat this morning. Our first stop was a fish market. We’d carefully made sure we had our walking boots on, in anticipation of fishy water and entrails flowing across the floor, but this were a spotlessly clean, modern market like none we’d ever seen before, with a man mopping any small spillages the moment they happened. There was the usual collection of skinny cats gathered outside in anticipation of scraps. Inside, fish were on sale at one end, while at the other end you could, if required, take your newly acquired purchase and get it gutted and chopped to order. Hisham led us out to the back of the building, onto an empty jetty. We wondered why, when he suddenly pointed to a large turtle swimming up. There were two turtles, and we watched entranced. As we headed back indoors, two gnarled and weather-beaten fishermen were with much effort unloading a pair of sharks from their pickup truck onto a trolley. They were heavy, and tricky to move. Once indoors they were auctioned, amidst much noisy bidding, raising £300 for the pair.

We left for the mountains, starting with a hour or so, where Hashim warned us we would ‘enjoy’ a back massage from the bumpy roads. The first hour or so was on good roads smooth enough to read a book, crossing flat boring scrubby desert, but we soon turned off. Before long we were on narrow unmade dusty dirt roads, winding up steep switchbacks into the mountains. The rock here seems to fragment and turn to dust very easily, creating billowing clouds of the stuff. The massage warning proved only too accurate as we bumped and jolted our way along. But the discomfort was worth it for the sheer grandeur of the scenery. Most of the time, we could not see where the road was headed, as it twisted and turned its way up one range and down another. Every now and then we passed small villages, making a living from growing date palms and keeping goats. Extraordinarily, we passed and waved to a middle aged European couple on touring bicycles, contemplating the switchback below them, and a grizzled Frenchman on a motorbike. “We get lots of them”, said Hisham. We stopped at the top of the final range to admire the view, only to discover it was 12 degrees and blowing a gale. None of us had a sweater to hand, so we took a quick photo and retreated back into the 4WD. As soon as we reached the summit, the road became metalled again, and the journey far smoother. Though this in itself was quite stomach churning as Hisham enjoyed taking the slaloming curves at pace. It is very reassuring on roads like these to be in a 4WD Toyota Land Cruiser with a 3.9ltr V6 engine.

We stopped for lunch at a roadside café, run – inevitably – by Indians and enjoyed a tasty and cheap chicken shawarma. A few miles on, we stopped to visit Jabreen Castle, built by the Imam who ruled this inland area in the 16^th century but heavily restored. It had 55 rooms, but none of them contained more than a few pots or cushions, so it was a relatively quick stop. Another 45 minutes driving took us to the checkpoint at the base of the Jebel Akhdar mountains. The police check to be sure you’re in a 4WD as they consider the road unsafe for regular vehicles, which seemed a bit of a joke given the far more challenging roads we’d just driven with no such check. The rationale seemed to be that the roads up to Jebel Akhdar are metalled, allowing higher speeds which increase the risk of an accident, and apparently some people in 2WD only vehicles had lost control descending, and gone over a precipice to their doom. Or maybe it was just that more people wanted to drive this road.

Either way, another 45 minutes of twisting and turning brought us to the Alila hotel, which is built overlooking a deep gorge on a rocky outcrop in natural stone, that blends perfectly into the landscape. We checked in and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in our room, the balcony being a bit too cold for comfort. We enjoyed a gin and tonic in the bar and a delicious dinner, with far more food than we were able to eat. The executive chef (ex Oberoi Hotels) came out to check all was to our satisfaction.

We wondered why we were both gasping and suffering pounding headaches before we realised we were at 2000 metres and suffering the effects of altitude!

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