The road to Sur

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mct-sur via coastal road, tiwi, wadi shab

I woke up early this morning and walked down the street to the Mutrah fish market. The fishermen were just bringing in the morning's catch and was fascinating to see all the different types of fish for sale. Baby shark is a popular dish here. There was also a meat market with the obligatory live chickens and sheep heads. We then drove to downtown Muscat and the Sultan's palace, which was undergoing renovation/construction. After stocking up on snacks and water we set off on our way out of town. The road headed inland a bit before splitting. We had two choices to Sur, the coastal road or the inland road. The inland road was paved all the way but longer, the coastal road wasn't yet totally paved and there were more interesting things to see. We decided to chance it with the coastal road although most books said a 4WD was preferred. The road was still paved after Quryyat but about 20km later the road dead ended in a village. D went to ask directions for the road, he learned this is where the paved road ended and we had to drive up the gravel road in the wadi. While he was asking some directions, a group of Omani schoolgirls passed by, saw us in the car, and started giggling and shouting Hello! They were dressed in traditional form, with a plum colored dress and white hijab. The dirt road was in good condition and wound its way through the mountains. We passed very little traffic, and the heat was scorching, so it would be a bad luck to break down out here! The sky was hazy with dust and we could barely see the surrounding mountains. The road here will be paved all the way through to Muscat eventually. We finally came to the end of the plateau where the road descended down to the plains below. There was a cairn of stones at the edge of the plateau, a tomb of some kind. Once we reached the bottom, the road was paved again for a few more kilometers. The Bimmah sinkhole was nearby, and we hoped for a quick swim, but we must have missed the turnoff as we kept driving towards Tiwi. We planned on stopping at the Wadi Shab, an oasis valley near Tiwi. Our map didn't have the Wadi listed, so once we arrived to the town of Tiwi, we asked for directions, only to be told the Wadi was literally around the corner. We drove down the hill, and there before us lay a gorgeous splash of green palm trees and water. After seeing nothing but brown desert for the past few hours this was a wonderful sight. The book had said that the locals would row you across the creek to the valley, but this was out of date as there is now a footbridge across. We spent the next few hours walking up the valley before finally taking a break and a relaxing swim in a pool. On the walk up we had to cross through the creek a few times, on one of these crossings there was a concrete path through the water, this turned out to be incredibly slippery. After Dean and my wife had both slipped on the path, I walked through on the stones which turned out to be OK. Scott ended up slipping as well, and broke his camera when he fell on it! The trail up the wadi was in good condition, with handrails and steps along the way. We could have gone on for hours, but we needed to get back on the road to Sur, it was my turn to drive again once we reached the car. It was another few bumpy hours to Sur, but the road was mainly flat at this point. We stopped at a few beach points along the way, gorgeous blue water but pebbly beaches, I'm sure in a number of years this will all be developed. We stared across the water towards Iran, only a few hundred miles across the Gulf of Oman. We passed the huge LNG plant as we approached Sur in the late afternoon. When we reached Sur we headed directly for the dhow harbor to grab a few photos before the light faded. We spent quite awhile looking for a hotel, most wanted $70 or more for a night, before settling on the Sur Hotel in town. It was a basic hotel, but fit our needs. Scott went out looking for a new camera, then we all went to Pizza Hut for dinner!

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