It has been on my list to write up this adventure for a while, and let’s be honest, it’s not like I haven’t had time over the last year of lockdowns. I partly blame my segue into painting, which I’m afraid you’ll probably see popping up in these posts going forward. Off topic, but is it just me who only now found out that ‘segue’ is the correctly spelling of what I had always assumed was ‘segway’?
Anyway, this post should really be called ‘activities Asha says will be fun’. Asha is one of my best friends from my university days, and in December 2019 she married the wonderful Bobcy. The pair both grew up in Oman and it remains their favourite place, so they decided to host their wedding celebrations in Muscat, giving us Brits a perfect excuse to explore somewhere which hadn’t really been on our travel radar before. And let me tell you, it is an absolute gem of a country. It terms of scenery, it has it all; mountains, deserts, canyons, beaches and islands. To Stu’s obvious delight, we found that wild camping is perfectly allowed there and is kind of the done thing by locals and tourists alike. Thankfully no, we didn’t wild camp every night (I was in charge of planning this trip). I’ll run through our pretty packed week of activities and hopefully it’s useful for anyone who is thinking of visiting Oman. If you are, we couldn’t recommend it more.
Jebel Shams
After touching down in Muscat Airport on a bright Saturday morning, our first job was to pick up our 4×4 hire. We’d read that this was a must for anyone planning to go further afield than the city, and they weren’t kidding. We had booked a ‘Toyota Rav4 or similar’, but by some happy accident were allocated a bigger Fortuner. We (and by we, I mean Stu) drove our monster truck to Lulu’s hypermarket to stock up on camping supplies and to meet up with the first batch of our uni buddies who had arrived earlier that morning. Enter Cole, a well-seasoned traveller and photographer, and Jamie and Cheryl, current residents of Saudi Arabia and therefore bringing some Middle East know-how. Jamie had brought walkie-talkies, a genius addition for our convoy drive up into the mountains and later to the desert.
Jebel Shams is a mountain a few hours from Muscat. It is known as the ‘grand canyon of Oman’, and you’ll see why. We made our way up through the rocky landscape to Sama Heights Resort which we had booked for our first night. We were staying in what were essentially glamping tents; some fabric walls, but also proper beds and fully kitted out bathrooms. All a bit tired from the early flights and time difference, we had a nap before heading out on a pre-dinner drive to catch our first Omani sunset.
I remember really enjoying the buffet dinner and breakfast we ate at the resort, but I’m afraid I can’t remember the specifics, except that there were pancakes. Well fed and rested, we set off to find the starting point for the hike we had planned for the day: the Balcony Walk. This is a path that follows the rim of the huge Jebel Shams canyon all the way to an abandoned village, As Sab, which is built into the cliff at the end of the trail. The path is in rather than on the rim. From a distance, it looks ridiculously precarious, but it’s not too bad close up. A head for heights would help in some places. We took our time admiring the dramatic landscape and the walk was further than we had anticipated, meaning that we could have done with some more water and snacks. We made it to the village ruins and found our way on a less well marked path to a hidden pool with an echoing overhang. All in all, an awesome hike. Oh and I should probably mention the goats, of which there were many and whose rock climbing skills are inspiring.
Steve Backshall has a show called ‘Expedition’ where he travels to places that people have never been to. In the first episode, he does this balcony walk, but then abseils down the canyon at the end, all as a training run for a 400m abseil into a different canyon. It’s worth a watch. Stu is obviously a fan.
After the hike, our next task was to find somewhere to camp for the night. There were loads of areas overlooking the canyon, but the rest of the group convinced us to scout out a track we had passed which meandered further out into the middle of nowhere. We had some fun here with the 4x4s and very possibly infringed our insurance limitations. After much jaw clenching and coordination with the walkie-talkies over some particularly sketchy rocks, we found a perfect spot to set up camp. Cole, Stu and I pitched our tents on the rocky ground, while Jamie and Cheryl made us jealous with their rooftop home. Another glorious sunset later, we built a fire and enjoyed a super noodle supper. As the temperature dropped, the stars came out in style. I had expected the desert to give us the best stargazing, but this was the winner. We lay out on a large rock slab and played the game ‘one more shooting star and then we’ll go to bed’.
If you’ve spotted the improvement in the quality of photos for this post, credit to Cole Soutter who took several of them.
Wahiba Sands Desert
We were now onto Monday morning, starting with some porridge with a touch too much cinnamon in it; turns out Omani spices are more potent than the stuff we have at home. We then had a long drive out of the mountains and south east to the Wahiba Sands desert. I decided on this stretch that Bryan Adams is the best open road driving music, particularly the soundtrack to Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. It was basically this for 3.5 hours, punctured now and then by excited notifications of roadside camels via the walkie-talkies.
Our next stop was due to be the Desert Retreat Camp, with a meeting spot in the town of Al Wasil. Here we were joined by our friends Mark and Hannah, a couple of hard working Londoners looking forward to the pre-wedding escapades. We were guided from here into the desert and to the camp. The shrubby landscape soon gave way to beautiful dunes and a very fun road to drive on.
The hospitality at the camp was great; we were met with fruit and tea and had a good chat with the owner. We were the only guests that night, so had the run of the place. After being shown to our tents, Cole, Jamie and Cheryl were first in line for ‘dune bashing’: being driven around and over dunes in a pickup truck. While we waited, the rest of us had a go at dune boarding. In our minds, this was going to be just like sledding on snow and given the fence at the bottom of the slope we were using, we took to this tentatively. We needn’t have worried; there was absolutely no danger of us going fast enough to reach the fence. We had trouble moving at all and mostly just had a good laugh whilst tiring ourselves out climbing up the dunes.
The dune bashing was another story and required holding on for dear life, but it was a lot of fun. The poor truck was put through its paces, with the arm rest and bonnet jumping open over every bump. At the end, we were deposited on the top of the dune overlooking the camp, just in time for sunset.
Our evening kicked off with welcome showers before dinner. The shower blocks were set back from the tents and had no roofs, letting in the night sky. Loos with views are the best. We then gathered in the food area; a structure with wooden beams and open sides. We sat cross legged around the low tables and enjoyed some lovely exotic grub, with the entertainment being provided by an inquisitive camel spider (not really a spider, more like a scorpion), which was very casually picked up and flicked away by a calm server’s toes.
As alcohol is not allowed in Oman (apart from in some hotels in the cities), the night’s aperitifs were a selection of tea served around a large bonfire while we lay out on rugs and checked out the stars. Magical. We retired to the fold-out rug chairs on the floor outside our tent, before finally getting tucked under the duvet on our mosquito-net covered bed. I did of course get Stu to check for any critters with a torch before climbing in.
Stu thought it was perfectly reasonable to climb up the nearby dune early the next day to explore before breakfast, so we did and were rewarded with some screensaver worthy desertscapes.
Lots of pancakes later, the convoy hit the road again for a long drive over to the coast, aiming for Fins Beach and another wild camping spot. We made a couple of stops, one to explore a fort at Al Wasil and a cool building where some of the group decided to wade through bird poo to reach the top turret, and then later on, a supermarket stop for supplies and marshmallows. I think it was on this stretch of driving that we saw a very happy camel riding along the main road in the back of a pick-up truck, with the wind blowing through his eyelashes.
Fins Beach
After a picnic lunch stop on a pebbly beach, we started scouting out for our camping spot. We had a little trouble finding the right stretch of coastline that we had read about, but when we did there were a tonne of options. Naturally, we settled on the spot that required the maximum amount of off-roading; worth it for the view.
Just on the other side of our rocky outcrop was a cove where we went for an afternoon swim, before freshening up with a shower under Jamie and Cheryl’s sun-heated shower bag hanging off the back of their 4×4 (they know how to camp in style). Stu and I went off on a scramble to find loo spots, and I thought I’d done quite well balancing on some secluded rocks until a boat appeared from nowhere around the coastline; somewhat traumatic but I’ll tell myself they were far enough away not to see. As the evening drew in, we built up a fire and settled in for a night of food and toasted marshmallows.
The sunrise the next morning was glorious. Here’s my attempt at capturing it in acrylics (told you I’d be introducing painting into these):
Wadi Shab
We had an early-ish start so that we could make our way to our next activity, the Wadi Shab walk. Hannah and Mark had opted for a bed since it wouldn’t have been worth bring camping gear for one night, so we stopped by their hotel before heading to the parking at the start of the walk. A ‘wadi’ is a valley or ravine, and this one has beautiful pools along a hike with a cave a the end. It’s one of the more popular tourist spots in Oman, but not overrun and it was very chilled when we went.
We started with a 2 minute boat-trip across a river from the parking, before setting off on the hike into the ravine. I can’t remember how long it took us, but maybe around an hour one way? As you walk, the rocky walls on either side of the gorge rise up higher around you and you skirt around lovely pools of bluey-green water. The first few are used as a water source and don’t allow swimming, but after these you eventually hit a spot where the path ends and the walls rise up directly out of the water. This was the fun bit; in order to continue to the cave, you have swim. We found a rock to leave our stuff on, stripping down to a combination of trainers, leggings and swimming costumes. We then waded into the pool and proceeded to walk, swim and slide our way onward through a series of rock pools. There were some incredibly slippery bits over the rocks connecting the pools, resulting in more than one cartoon-worthy slow motion tumble.
We made it to the final pool and here the gorge seemed to come to an end. However, as you swim to the far wall (too deep to stand at this point), a tiny channel opens up; just about wide enough under the water, but only a head’s width above. Absolutely not somewhere you would think to try and go into unless you knew what was on the other side. A shout out is needed to Cheryl here, who had only recently learned how to swim and tackled this with pizzazz. After a breathless squeeze down this creepy channel, a beautiful cave opens out, with light spilling in through openings in the rock above. And if that’s not enough, it has a waterfall. Incredible.
There was nowhere to stand and just a few finger holes in the rock to cling onto, so we treaded water while exploring and watching Mark and Stu climb up the waterfall and jumping back in (did I mention it was slippery?). Stu then climbed up and out of sight through the hole above the fall, leaving me to mutter about killing him if he died. Thankfully we all left in one piece, even Mark’s glasses which he had forgotten to remove before embarking on his waterfall shenanigans.
Once we had made it back to the car, it was time to start our journey back up the coast to Muscat. Not being quite done with stunning aquamarine rock pools for the day, we stopped by Bimmah Sinkhole for a dip; it’s a huge crater with a pool at the bottom which starts shallow and then falls away into inky blue at the back. Honestly, Oman has natural beauty in spades.
We stopped for food and petrol at a roadside cafe, followed by the remainder of the drive and an extended tour of Muscat airport as we tried to find the correct place to return our 4×4 hire. We taxied back through the city with just enough time to get ready for the first wedding-related event, a wonderful henna party with Asha and Bobcy’s family and friends. It was so great to catch up with the bride and groom after spending the last five days galivanting around Oman on their recommendations. They also put on an incredible spread of food which we did not hold back on.
Daymaniyat Islands
We had arrived back in Muscat on Wednesday and the wedding was to be on the Friday, so we had the Thursday to fill with some more organised fun. The Daymaniyat Islands are a nature reserve around 18km off the coast of Oman, with beaches and coral reefs to explore. Four of us had signed up for a couple of dives, with the rest opting for snorkelling. Stu and I hadn’t put our PADI skills to use for a good few years, so had done a bit of theory swotting and were looking forward to getting back into it. Not quite like riding a bicycle, but definitely worth it once you’re under. There were loads of fish and urchins to see, and a particularly charming moray eel.
The snorkelers, on the other hand, casually saw a shark. Stu was gutted we missed it. Before leaving, we pulled up to one of the islands and had an explore of the idyllic beach. Our dive company was picking up a group who had camped there overnight which definitely sounds like something to add to the to do list. This particular group seemed to be intent on being wooed by the dive instructor, making for some fun entertainment on the boat trip back to the city.
Muscat
After a sweet snack in a snazzy restaurant at the marina, we checked out of our Airbnb and into the Crowne Plaza for the wedding (wonderfully fancy). On Asha and Bobcy’s recommendation, we strolled down the seafront to have dinner at a restaurant called D’Arcy’s Kitchen, which was fab; delicious food and delightfully bizarre decor reminiscent of Little House on the Prairie.
We spent the morning of the wedding taking full advantage of the hotel’s infinity pool, before making ourselves look presentable for the main event. The wedding was just stunning. The ceremony was down on the beach, with Asha making her way down the cliffside steps towards Bobcy with her mum and sister whilst the rest of us teared up at the beauty of it all. Ocean, sunset and smiles all round. And then drinks, and then the party until goodness knows what time in the morning. It was so great.
At some point the next morning, we arose, ate some leftover camping porridge and enjoyed some beach time before meeting up with the newly weds for a delicious lunch in a nearby restaurant. We then decided we should probably use our final afternoon to tick off a couple of the must-see attractions in the city. We explored the Mutrah Souq, a historic bazar which was as vibrant and bustling as promised. As Stu and I had an early flight the next morning, we also crammed in an evening visit to the Grand Mosque with its brilliant gold dome.
So there you have it, a jam-packed and magical week in Oman. I don’t think we’ve done a trip with so much variety before and am very grateful to Asha and Bobcy for giving us a reason to visit. Sunsets, campfires, stargazing and celebrations; what more could you want?
Thanks again to Cole for being chief photographer; check him out at @worksploration on Instagram for more.