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Published: February 8th 2016
Misfah
Laneway of old part of townLast night we sat up till 11 poring over our plans trying to make things work and we sort of hit a bit of a brick wall. There is a lot to see in this corner of Oman but the accommodation in some of the towns is either REALLY expensive or non-existent. Was going to try and go to the top of Jebel Shams, the highest mountain in Oman but everything we have read said you need a 4WD, so we cut that out. Contemplated staying in this hotel for a bit longer and doing long drives out to some of the other areas, but after being ripped off last night they have sort of broken that trust thing you have with the place you are staying at, and we just want to be out of here. So we awoke with all the travel worries of the world on our shoulders (which let’s face it, isn’t a great deal). Over breakfast we bumped into another couple from Australia who were staying here and they told us how we could drive an ordinary car up to Jebel Shams and gave us
Jibreen Fort
Outside the walls a recommendation of where to stay so almost instantly our problems disappeared. They were such a lovely couple and were from Coffs Harbour and were able to give us some more details on things to see around this area.
Straight after breakfast we jumped on the lap top and locked in the accommodation at Jebel Shams, we then took our dirty washing to the laundry a few doors down from the hotel. The hotel said they could “arrange” for laundry to be done but after last night, just didn’t trust them. The laundry in Oman is priced by the piece, which we sort of find strange when it is just tossed into a washing machine and then a dryer. In India where they pound your laundry on a rock by the piece you can understand it, but here, no. Was going to get our Laundry done at the hotel in Salalah but the laundry was going to cost more than the room so we dragged our smelly clothes here and they had to be done. The guy had to count our smelly pants, socks and undies twice to work out a price and you had the distinct
Jebel shams
Shelley at the canyon feeling he was calculating how much he could rip us off. The price of 4 Rials ($16 AUD) was pretty ridiculous but we needed it done and so gave him the job. With this done we headed off in the car and the first stop was the town of Nizwa to check out the fort and adjoining Souq.
Signage down the freeway to Nizwa was fine but in town at a major intersection we went straight ahead instead of turning left, wasn’t till we ran out of town and backtracked that we guessed our mistake; sure would appreciate a little more signage. Eventually stumbled upon the souq which was filled with all manner of things that were generally large and/or overpriced. A lot of the jewellery was made with low grade Indian silver and Michele suspected that maybe quite a bit of it actually comes from India. Large clay pots were also the major item on sale as that is the specialty of the town but isn’t exactly tourist friendly. Did find a few of the shops selling rifles, and they had quite a good selection, but likewise isn’t exactly tourist friendly, unless of course you are
Jebel shams
Sunset from our room having issues with the locals. We now wanted to move onto the Nizwa Fort directly behind the souq but once again there was no signage of how to get there, wandered around the walls for ages till Scott did a dummy spit, and then finally found the entrance.
The Nizwa Fort was built around 1620 and has undergone some major renovating in recent years. It has some fairly interesting displays throughout its many rooms, mainly dealing with local customs and practises, but doesn’t take too long to skim through. The crowning glory is the circular citadel complete with cannons giving you a full 360 degree view of the surrounding area.
From Nizwa Fort we drove onto the town of Jabreen to visit yet another fort, (Shelley is just so lucky). The Jabreen Fort is a real gem as it is more original than restored, and the rooms are filled with rugs, cushions and knick knacks, making it feel more real. The place is a labyrinth with lots and lots of stairs but most of the rooms are labelled so you get a better feel for the history of it. The highlight was a room
Nizwa Fort
Inside the citadel called the hall of the Sun and Moon, which was a reception hall with what looks like large eyes painted on the ceiling. The eyes are meant to be the eyes of God watching over you, whilst the high latticed windows were designed to keep the heat of the day out whilst allowing the light from the moon to filter in. The Sultan who built the castle back in 1680 was killed when the castle was attacked in 1692 and is buried in the basement. The Jabreen Fort was sort of neglected and forgotten after the Sultan was killed and this may be why it is today so well preserved, it was far more interesting than the Nizwa Fort.
After our epic fort day we headed back to the hotel and picked up our laundry, which the guy had pressed despite us not asking or paying for it to be done, so we now have nice clean ironed undies. Hung at the hotel for an hour before heading out for dinner, found a Turkish restaurant down the road and got a huge feed of kebab meat, salad, hummus, flat bread and drinks for 3 Rial.
Nizwa Fort
Trinkets for sale in the Souq Day 16 Wednesday 3rd February 2016 Today we are heading for the hills and in particular the highest mountain in Oman, Jebel Shams (mountain of the Sun), which at 3075m is a fair slab of a rock. On the way there we first took a detour out to the town of Misfat. The Lonely Planet sort of gushed about this traditional village perched on a hillside above date palms, and to be fair it was very picturesque but just not sure if it was entirely worth the effort. Parked in a carpark across a small valley from the town and then had a 20 minute walk down into the valley and back up the other side and this was (except for the ascent) a great walk. Locals were up the date palms harvesting their crop as we went through, which added character to the occasion. The town however was perhaps a bit of a letdown, the top part was all deserted collapsing old buildings and you had to weave through narrow laneways and under balconies and homes, but then after 2 minutes you were in the modern part of town with concrete block homes
Nizwa Fort
Fortress walls with satellite dishes.
Thankfully the drive afforded us some fine views of the surrounding mountains that we were soon to be tackling. Today the signage was a lot better and the road to Jebel Shams started out sealed so it was an easy drive. It got extremely steep as we went along and then 15 kilometres from our destination it turned to dirt, but this only lasted for 10 kilometres. The Lonely Planet banged on heaps about how you could only do this in a 4WD, and I would agree with that if it was wet, but it seriously wasn’t that bad. Fortunately had some experience in driving on dirt roads so it wasn’t an issue at all, the only problem was the steepness of the grade and if it was wet a 2WD might not have the traction. Finally made it up to the top near our accommodation and stopped at a lookout over the spectacularly deep Wadi Nakhr, the “Grand Canyon of Oman”, what a sight. Just down the road was our bed for the night, The Jebel Shams Resort. We arrived a bit early and was given an upgrade to a sunset villa for
Jibreen fort
Looking out a window free which was very nice of them. We had splurged on this accommodation so it was nice to get a bit extra again. The room is great and the place is laid out nicely and even has a pool for those that want to freeze to death. Being winter and on top of a tall mountain you can feel the temperature difference and we were happy for the heater in our room. At night the temperature drops to about 5 degrees.
Took it easy in the afternoon and watched the sunset over the mountains from the back of our apartment, the view was sensational. We get half board with our room so at 7pm we wandered up to the dining area for dinner with all the other guests. Food was pretty good considering, and the main topic with everyone was the lack of WiFi. After dinner we all took in turns to go to reception and complain, and they kept insisting that they do have WiFi but it is slow. Everything on my computer tells me that they have a router but no internet. Started to get really angry with them as we are desperate to get
Jibreen fort
Shelley relaxing in touch with home but to no avail. This always annoys me when they advertise WiFi and don’t deliver but it is so much worse for us at the moment when we really need it.
Day 17 Thursday 4th February 2016 After a good breakfast we donned our hiking boots and jumped in the car for a 3km drive further up the mountain to the start to do the Balcony Walk. The walk starts at the top of the rim of the Wadi Nakr gorge, and descends down a narrow track which gives you the most amazing views of the canyon walls right down to the floor. The balcony walk clings to the edge as it winds its way down to the abandoned village of Sap Bani Khamis about 90 minutes from the top. 15 families used to live here until the mid 1970’s when they were moved. All that is left now are the small rundown mud brick homes some still have their ornate wooden doors. Nearby the villagers had built terraces for growing their crops as I guessed they got sick of carrying their groceries down the steep track. Not
Jibreen Fort
Fortress walls sure why or how they came to live here although it does have the best views and at certain times of the year a good water source which is not now in winter.
We were lucky we had the small village all to ourselves and had a good wander around in peace with only a few goats as company. Started to head back up and about 15 minutes into the walk came across about 25 people coming down, we were so lucky. Of course the walk up was a bit harder but in general this is an easy walk and only takes about 3 hours including lots of photo and gawking stops for the round trip, plus extra time at the village depending how long you want to stay.
Back at the hotel we relaxed for the afternoon catching up on some reading and looking out at the view from our room as the sun set on another day in Oman.
Day 18 Friday 5th February 2016 Slept in accidentally today when I didn’t set the alarm, thankfully
Jibreen Fort
The Eye of God it was only 15 minutes, but I enjoyed every minute of it. After breakfast we hit the road once more and made our way back down the mountain, taking in all the incredible mountain scenery. Today we are heading back to Muscat but along the way want to stop and see a few of the sights, starting with some ancient tombs at the town of Bat. We got back to the freeway with no problems but because of roadworks we couldn’t get to the road that led to Bat, so we had to improvise the Australian way with a bit of bush bashing and radical moves, and we were than back on track.
The ancient tombs at Bat are known as “beehive tombs” due to their unique shape and were built around 2000 – 3000BC, around the same time as the pyramids in Egypt. Unfortunately time has not been very kind to the tombs and all are now just piles of rubble, and as you drive into town you can see dozens of lumps of blocks on all the hills. Nearly all of them are fenced off so you cannot get near them but we discovered a
Jibreen Fort
Internal Courtyard couple that you can walk to. Fascinating to archaeologists but not so to camera totting tourists. It is a bit of a shame there isn’t more being done to preserve them or signage to tell their history.
There is apparently better preserved ones at the town of Al-Ayn, but that was another 27km down a badly corrugated dirt road. Contemplated pushing on but was worried we would get there and they would be fenced off like the rest, and they day was getting away from us.
Left the piles of rubble and headed onto Muscat, again through spectacular mountain scenery on a great country road. It was a great drive except for having to watch the risks people took when overtaking other vehicles, there sure was some close shaves. Was also going to stop at some forts on the way but due to great planning on my behalf they were all closed today, due to it being a Friday.
Roared into Muscat late in the afternoon doing 120km/hr in the slow lane, and thankfully at that speed didn’t miss our turnoff. Staying at the weekend Apartments again, as it is a
Jibreen Fort
Internal Courtyard great place to stay and also because the room comes with a washing machine. So whilst we checked up on 3 days of emails we washed our clothes and hung them all around the apartment. For dinner Michele got all dressed up and I took her to a local coffee shop for a 2 Rial ($8) meal.
Day 19 Saturday 6th February 2016 Breakfast these days are starting to change for us, we still get an omelette and toast but we are now adding Falafel, Foul (spicy baked beans), Hummus, Taboulie, goats cheese and chickpeas. The range of olives and dates look pretty good so might go those tomorrow morning and give up on the omelette. The locals tend to have just 1 very small cup (thimble sized) of coffee and I am sure they think I am some sort of caffeine monster when I have 3 normal cups each breakfast.
Today we needed to drive out to the bus station to get tickets out of Oman and the bus station is located in the suburb of Ruwi on the other side of Muscat from us. In an effort
to help us get there we downloaded an offline map on to our tablet that would we hope get us there. I think in the end it was more of a problem than a help and we managed to get lost several times before we got there. The freeway that cuts right through Muscat is great except that you really need to be doing 120km/hr otherwise you will cause an accident due to all the other drivers doing 160. And at that speed you don’t get much chance to read the occasional sign. The suburb of Ruwi is described as “little India” but to be honest you could probably put that tag on the whole country of Oman. It is a bit of a transport and commercial shopping hub and therefore chaos reigns supreme, so it took some effort to find where we needed to be and get parking. Managed to get our tickets and then went in search of a nearby museum. The “Sultan’s Armed Forces Museum” was supposed to be a great museum filled with not only military hardware but also cultural stuff, so it seemed like it would keep us both entertained. We found the entrance to
Bahla Fort
Fort from outside it, which is located on an army base but the two soldiers didn’t like the look of me (the feeling was mutual) and told us (in broken English) to go away and find another way onto the base. Drove around trying to find another gate and came to the conclusion the only way in would be to join the Omani Army, so we gave up and headed on to the Mutrah Souq.
We spent some time wandering round the souq and the port area, which we saw last time we were here before sitting at a café for a juice, and some people watching. Headed back home in the afternoon stopping at a service station to fill up with petrol and to get the car cleaned. First the car went through the automatic car wash then it was cleaned inside by hand for about 15 minutes all for 1.8 rials (less than $8) what a bargain. When we hired the car we were told that if we returned the car dirty they would charge us 20 rials ($80) to clean it, so figured this was the better option.
Day 20 Misfah
The town from the walk in Sunday 7
th February 2016
Up early and on the road before breakfast to drop our car back. No problems with the drive out to the europcar office at the airport or with dropping the car off, it was just a bit sad saying goodbye to our car after nearly 3500km. Got a taxi back to our hotel with a driver that looked about 99 years old, and as we went along he pointed out landmarks and what to see, as well as giving us a song or two. Because he had picked us up at the airport he thought we had just flown in and he had the most puzzled look on his face when we got to the hotel and he popped the boot and realised we didn’t have any luggage. The taxi driver must have seen some amazing changes in the country, when he was born the job he has did not exist and now they have a road system that is changing daily.
Had our breakfast and then bludged for the rest of the day. Had sort of seen everything we needed to in Muscat and the cost of the taxi
Misfah
Date palms around town journeys means that you think twice before grabbing one. Spent the day planning ahead and catching up on this blog of course. For dinner we splurged on an Asian restaurant a couple of blocks from the hotel that was expensive but tasty. Tomorrow we are heading back to the U.A.E.
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traudy glasencnik
non-member comment
Which way now?
Great rant and pic's yet again. God! If I was on this trip I would be in constant panic/anxious mode. I can't find my way around with signs let alone with out them. The canyon looks amazing....and I guess the goats are the sheep of Oman. Nice pic of you relaxing to Shell. All good here. Booked my ticket ..WHAHOOO! Fly out on the 22 August. ps...how are you finding the 28 degrees card...was it a good choice so far? love us 3 xxx