Oman – Day One: Wadi Shab

You’ll see the word wadi all over the place in Oman, and that’s because it’s the Arabic word for valley and there are a ton of them here. It’s an extremely vertical country, which is a big change from Qatar. Wadi Shab translates, more poetically, to “gorge between the cliffs” and it’s one of the top tourist attractions in Oman.

To get there, we took our ballin’ SUV out on a relatively new stretch of highway southeast from our home base of Muscat. The four-lane highway is all new in the past twenty years. Before that, the 1.5 hr trip would have taken half a day. First the road climbs up over a range of low mountains and then stays on a pretty isolated plateau before descending again towards the sea near Quriyat. The drive was pleasant and smooth, with pretty good English signage. We caught up on some of our regular podcasts and enjoyed some tunes.

Upon arrival, we found a well-marked parking lot about half-full (or half-empty, if you’re an optimist) but filling up fast. Groups were being ferried over 10-15 people at a time,  across a small lake to start the trek up the valley. The roundtrip cost for two was two Omani rial, or about $5. Don’t confuse this with a two Qatari rial, which would be worth about $0.50!

There were about ten boats ready for action, but only two were activated, which was plenty for the volume of tourists. Seems like this place can get pretty busy though and they’re ready to scale up!

We started by hiking up the valley; plenty of beautiful scenery and artifacts from several different eras of water management.

We hiked for an hour or so, all uphill. As the trail continued, it became a bit trickier to follow, however it was impossible to get lost as the wadi walls were very high.

Eventually, we came to the place. We knew it was the place because it’s where all the people were. Probably about a hundred in all with very western swim attire (decidedly not what you would call Omani beachwear) in a beautiful pool that snaked up the valley, around corners of rock outcroppings.

We didn’t know how far it went, but we were prepared for action. We donned our water shoes, ditched our pants and tops, and started swimming/wading up the fjord. It was a series of pools so it wasn’t flowing much, except over the waterfalls. We didn’t bring our camera/phone because they weren’t waterproof, so I’ve stolen two images from the internet and the internet. Credit where credit’s due!

After about twenty minutes of winding around, we came to what appeared to be the end of the line. But wait, there’s more! We saw some people disappear into a tiny crack in the cliff wall, and sure enough there was just enough room (roughly one head-width) to move forward into a cave-like pool.

We did dare, and it was worth it. But we were starting to get tired. For most of this latter section we were treading water — there were only a few handholds, which weren’t too easy to grab onto. I was wondering where the theme park managers were hiding the life guards and safety cameras, but I’m sure they were there! I’d estimate we swam for a good 15-20 minutes without touching bottom, so high school health class prepared us well.

We worked our way back to where we’d bared our bods and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon snack. Then we hoofed it back down the valley to the parking area. The whole time, people were still coming up the valley.

Once we grabbed our ferry ride back over to the “mainland”, we stopped for coffee and bizcuitz. I made a friend. Here’s the story:

After all that excitement, we still had time to stop at a nice beach nearby to enjoy the sea before the drive back to Muscat.

It had been a long day, but we cleaned up and still had time for our first foray down into the Muttrah Harbor for a wonderful meal at a swanky Indian restaurant right on the Corniche. Amazing food and good company (just the two of us) to top off an exhilarating day.