The Ade Tour – Day 10

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Well today was a HUGE day. We got started really early as we couldn’t wait to get out of the horrible hotel that we were staying in. I have to say that it was probably the worst hotel that I have ever stayed in (and I have stayed in plenty), in terms of the overall impression of the place. So if you are ever in Muscat STAY AWAY from the Majan Continental Hotel. Go somewhere else.

So we were all up nice and early (5:30am for Chelle and a little earlier for the elder Ade’s) and managed to get out of the door of the hotel at 7:45am. We hit the road out of Muscat with quite a bit of glee inside us (very glad to get away from that horrible hotel). Ma Ade was a little bit sad to be leaving the civilisation of Muscat behind us as she knew that we would be back in the wilderness today, bumping up and down roads. We were heading for Wadi Dahqat and Wadi Silafh as we had shunned the tar sealed, easy inland road route to Sur in exchange for the more challenging, and rewarding, coastal route, with the added bonus that you can exchange the graded road for some wadi tracks for part of the way. Fantastic. Although probably not as fantastic for the blue rinse brigade that was with me in the car. We will get to the moaning later on. 

After we had negotiated our way out of Muscat we headed off through the hills to find our way to the start of the first wadi. This series of wadis was amazing and was a through road to the coast, which Ma Ade was ecstatic about as it meant that she wouldn’t have to come out again the same way if the road was a little troublesome and steep. The road however was just fine, practically like a highway, although this didn’t stop the blue rinse brigade (or the egg head brigade in the case of my father) from complaining about the scariness and steepness of the road. Honestly, it was a pretty easy road.

And it was just beautiful as well. However we soon found out that there was a lot of cyclone damage here as well. Still. Many of the houses seemed to be damaged and the road was washed away in places. It was still truly beautiful though.

We also managed to get lost again. I have come to the conclusion that our navigator ( Pa Ade) feels the need to get lost at least once a day. And in true male form, he was most reluctant to stop and ask for directions from the locals when we concluded that we couldn’t be heading in the right direction. Luckily we managed to convince father that asking would be a good idea, as they told us that we had to go back the way that we came, and take a different turning.

We saw some great sights today, from the local boys washing their carpets in the stream, to completely washed out roads and bridges, to houses and palm trees that had been flattened. The wadis themselves were just lovely as well and many of them actually had pools of water in them, which is a massive change from the UAE.

The series of wadis that we went through first through us out on the coast at Dibab and from here we headed down the coast road towards Tiwi. However the coastal route is not paved in a lot of places and this caused a lot of comments from Pa Ade, who kept looking longingly towards the new, tar sealed highway that was being built about 1km away. He kept asking if we couldn’t go down that road. I kept telling him that he would miss the wonderful coastal views if we went on the highway, but that certainly didn’t stop the muttering and moaning from the back seat, especially every time we hit a wee bump in the road.

The coastal road was very good to us however and deposited us at a most delightful lunch spot. We soon found out however that all the traffic from the main highway had been detoured onto the unsealed road at this point as the cyclone had washed out the new road. We couldn’t work out where all the traffic was coming from as we ate our lunch as we hadn’t seen many other cars on the coast road up until that point. You can see from the photos what I mean about the road being washed away in places. It certainly made for interesting travelling as you never knew where you were going next, at times we were on the new highway, and then on the old tar sealed highway, and then diverted through a riverbed and then back on the unsealed highway.

We finally managed to find our way part way down the coast to the little town of Tiwi. It was a bit hairy driving through the village (very narrow streets) and then out the otherside again on towards to the second wadi of the day. I really wanted to do a hike in wadi Tiwi, however I had another mutiny on my hands at this point in time, with the elder Ade’s refusing to drive further up into the wadi. We got about 1km into it and managed to see some of the damage that it has suffered in the cyclone. A lot of palm trees had been uprooted and the previously tarsealed road (according to the explorer guide) was now gravel. The wadi was just lovely though, with beautiful little pools and family taking picnics beside them. I will have to return here someday to actually do the wadi proper, with out my blue rinse brigade in tow.

After leaving the wadi we continued on the medley of different types of roads down towards Sur. On the way down the coast you pass a massive LNG storage and loading area. Here we were very surprised to see an army check point. They stopped our car, and asked for my license and then proceeded to search the car. We can only guess they were searching for terrorists and explosives. They were very very friendly however and mum and I had a great conversation with one of the guards who seemed very surprised that mum was my mother. Either she is looking very young, or I am looking very old. He was also very surprised that I was an only child and told us that Arabic families usually have up to 10-12 children. Mum just recoiled in horror at the thought of 10 of me.

After we passed by the LNG plant we hit Sur pretty much straight away. And I have to say that our accommodation tonight is one million times better than our accommodation last night. YAY!

Tomorrow we leave Sur and head off to Nizwa. That will be our last night on the road before we are back at the Ranches in Dubai. Just in time for New Years Eve.

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Photos

Mum and I having lunch
at the heavily trafficked roadway. We got quite a few toots and waves

Ma and Pa Ade
and the mighty Jeep

Yet another fort
we saw rather a few of them

The new bridge
to nowhere