Camping
Since we've had the Tonka we've been picking up some camping stuff so we were ready to do a bit of touring. We had seven or so days over Eid so we hit the road into Oman.
Day One - Qiyut
By the time we did some shopping and some tidying up jobs we had a late start on Day One. We travelled around two hours down towards Nizwa, the old capital of Oman, then headed up into the Hajars, a mountain range running right through the country. They are massive bare rock mountains sliced by wadis (dry water courses) and canyons. We checked out the Hoota caves, with their big cafe and visitor centre but they were closed so we continued to the road to Qiyut. This was a one-way drive up a massive switchback road that goes up, up, up to Qiyut village, just below a peak called Blacktop. The road was all gravel and rock and just got steeper and gnarlier the further we went up. We climbed onto a plateau, then dropped through a gully with at tiny village tucked beside a dry wadi. There were kids playing soccer and people rounding up the goats, then we climbed again till we were perched on a plateau at about 2000 feet. The village of Qiyut wasn't what we expected, it was a walled compound of 9 houses that looked like they were about 3 months old. Anyway we pitched tents on a bit of flat land, lit the charcoal barbie and tried to keep warm. We'd gone from about 30 degrees to about 12 in the space of the climb and we were dressed in all the clothes we'd brought just trying to keep warm. I went for a walk to see the majestic views and couldn't believe how much I was puffing. When I went to sleep I had pins and needles in my hands and a bit of a headache - Ande attributed that to altitude sickness. Hard case. Matija had a tent of her own and we had one to ourselves. She was very brave and did well getting to sleep in her own tent.
Day Two - Wadi Bani Awf
After cereal and turkish coffee we broke camp and crawled most of the way back down the track. We turned off before the main road, cut through some back country and came out on the sealed road to Wadi Bani Awf. This is the only road in Oman that cuts right through the Hajars so we were keen to have a look. The sealed road climbed to about the same height as where we camped, then it turned to a thin gravel track and descended through the mountains in hundreds of switchbacks. There was very little room to pass anyone, the road was carved out of sheer cliffs in places and the gradient was very steep. We spend most of the trip in low range, using the gears to slow us down. At one point I was meandering along in 4WD low gear when I hit a steep up-slope and didn't have the momentum to get up - had to back up and have another go with a bit more oomph. Ande was a little concerned.
When we finally reached the wadi bed, both sides were lined with date palms and little falaj (watercourses) were concreted along the wadi edges to keep water up to the dates. A few small concrete houses made up the village and it must have been wash day because just about every house had a group of women sitting outside washing duvets and carpets or they were draped over the stones drying.
Day Three - Balad Seyt
We stopped at beautiful little grassy spot for a coffee and dates with friendly local goats, then climbed up a steep little path and through a narrow canyon for about twenty minutes to reach the village of Balad Seyt. It's a picture postcard view, you come out of the canyon into the garden area of the village, where little plots are terraced into the flat land. The village rises behind the gardens and date plantations sit off to the left with a few houses and the minaret of a mosque peeking above the palms. We had a wander around there, waved to a few friendly villagers and Ande got photos of the fabulous little doors that lead into the houses. You can also drive there, but it's much more spectacular coming from the canyon.
We continued on to Little Snake Canyon where you can swim in pools up the canyon (the name comes from it's twisty nature, not the slithery reptiles). It was a half hour walk up to the water and Matija was a bit walked out so we found a tiny little pool full of small fish and frogs just 2 minutes from the car. We needed to wash the dust off and Ande was amazed at the way the fish nibble your toes if you sit very quietly. Refreshed, we headed on to our camping spot, just down from another village. There was a French party at the main spot so we made camp near the local soccer pitch and quickly got the tents up as there were a few spots of rain, the first we've experienced since being in Al Ain. We cooked up some kofta (we'd bought a little fridge that runs off the cigarette lighter and keeps everything cool and fresh) and we were entertainment for three village boys that were bouncing on a tree limb and calling across to us. They were good fun and we ended up giving them some chocolate. They were all settled in to have tea with us till we said goodnight and masalama, at which point they ran back to their mates. As they were watching us the older boys were playing soccer on the rocky pitch. Every village has a pitch, no matter how dusty and these guys were extremely good, far fitter and more athletic than the town boys in Al Ain. We sat around the barbie for a while, smoked a bit of lemon/mint hubbly bubbly and had a good solid nights sleep, despite the 4wds rumbling past every few hours. It was the Eid break and many people were coming home to spend the break with their families.
On to Muscat
The next day we cruised on through the remainder of the wadi. The rock walls climbed straight off the sides of the canyon, about 50m apart and it was still a spectacular, twisty drive along the river bed. You could see where floods had previously wiped out the road, but it looked like they ran a grader over it and life went on. We broke out onto a highway and after about 15km took another turn. This one took us past a village then up a wide gravel wadi bed. The tracks disappeared after a kilometre and the gravel was soft and deep in places, we were a little afraid of getting stuck but Ande kept her foot down and the Tonka powered through it. We eventually came to a little streambed with pools. After a 200m walk we came to a beautiful deep pool where we could swim, relax in the sun and let Matija have a swim. No-one else was around and we had the whole place to ourselves. The only shame was that day-trippers had left cans and rubbish here. That's the case at many of the beautiful spots close to town and it's just laziness really - no excuse.
After a few hours chillin' we hit the road for Muscat. We drove across a big plain (mostly barren) and there were gardens and roundabouts for about the last 50km of road heading in to Muscat. The whole road was lined with Omani flags for National day. They must have spent a fortune on it. We did come across an accident where a truck looked like it had smashed into a semi-trailer and had the whole cab sheared off it (unless they'd cut it off to get the driver out). Nasty. We carried on past the business district and came to the port area, with the Sheikhs luxury liner and his dhow parked in the harbour. Muscat is low-rise and quite beautiful, there are strict building codes around the old part of town and it has been preserved nicely. There was also a cool souk with antiques, clothes, etc etc. Ande bought a couple of richly decorated hangings while Matija and I kicked back with an ice-cream.
We'd heard there was camping at the Dive Center about 15mins south of the port. When we drove there we were told there hadn't been for 6 years. We drove a little further south and headed to the coast. There was a big area (acres) of fill, as though someone had started a property development and when we got up close we saw a breakwater and a little beach. We ended up camping there and found out that it was the Dubai Sheik's land, he was going to put a palace there, but the recession struck and it went on hold. It did give us a lovely camping spot. That night I read about Masirah Island, a desert island about 5 or 6 hours south. It sounded exciting so the next morning we headed out for that.
Day Four - Road to Nowhere
We took a wrong turn trying to get back to the highway and ended up going through a township tucked under some hills. It was the morning of Eid and there were sheep and goats being slaughtered left, right and centre. People were slitting throats, (as Muslims and Kiwi sheep farmers do) cutting up carcasses, washing away blood or carrying away plastic bags of meat (they keep a third, give a third to family and a third to the poor). There were hundreds of men standing around, drinking tea and chatting. It was a real local experience and well worth getting a little lost for.
We eventually got on the right road and did a big days driving. After a few hours driving we got to the road that runs between the coast and the Wahiba Sands (an area of desert about 200km long by 30km wide) the road had a funny sign saying "under construction" on it. Anyway the road was good initially, but none of the towns on the map matched the ones in real life (if they even had a sign), and they got progressively rougher, till there was absolutely no greenery, the houses were little concrete boxes with a bit of graffiti and boy racers were cruising up the roads in groups of 5 or 10. Certainly not the tourist zone! After every village there were fishing boats pulled up on the beaches. That's where people made their money and obviously there wasn't much else to do. The wind got up and sand was whipping across the road, visibility dropped and we were now coming across rough Bedouin camps with camels and goats and shacks of tin, tarpaulin and cardboard. There were 4WD's at many of the shelters and it was very hard to tell if people were actually living there or not. It was getting late and the road was now unmarked, we were wondering how soon it was going to run out or turn to a goat track. Anyway we struck the road construction crew just on dark. The road went from seal to gravel to rock to goat track within about 300m. Luckily our turnoff to the island was just at the end of the roadworks. If the boys had worked another couple of hours they would have finished the job before Eid! We took the turnoff, drove across massive salt flats then arrived at a tiny town with a jetty and very little else. We got talking to a bloke from the island. He got on his phone and found out that the ferries had stopped at 1pm that day due to the wind and the next ones were expected in the morning.
We blew up our air bed and hunkered down beside a building, trying to keep out of the wind for the night. I cooked some pasta on the gas cooker, but it was too windy to get any heat. Eventually I climbed deep into the breakwater, which was made of big concrete star shapes and found a little spot big enough to get the cooker going out of the wind. Some local bedouin lads came over to see what was going on and thought it was the funniest thing they'd ever seen. I had to pose for a few photos for them.
Day Five - Mayhem at Masirah
Anyway, the wind died a little overnight. We had some breakfast and had a wander along the jetty. People had been arriving through the night and there were about 60 cars and a few trucks waiting. We sat and had a chat with a friendly Emirati from Dubai and he explained that it was a bit of a rush for the ferry and you'd have to get in quick if you wanted a place.
By 9am the ferry was chugging into view. There were about 15 cars on it, coming to unload, and no room for any more than that. Well, we joined the rush to get on. Cars tore up to the end of the ferry dock, jammed in tight and waited. When the ferry got there the cars were too close for it to dock, so they yelled and waved to get everyone to back up a bit. Eventually they moved a few metres and the ferry docked, but it took about an hour to force a gap so they could unload the cars already there. Then the ferry backed off again! It faked as if it was going halfway along the wharf and half the cars bolted that way. We waited with the rest. Unfortunately it pulled out a bit, faked back, then went in halfway along the wharf.
It was chaos. There were no tickets and no system. Everyone got in bumper to bumper, beeping, yelling and waving, one car lost a tail light and we had a car bump our wheel. Cars finally started going on, but they were turning them around on the ramp and other cars were nudging into the way preventing them turning around. There were about a dozen guys on the ramp, yelling waving and cursing. Ande was outside, trying to gain us some space and someone bumped into her leg. She pretended to be critically wounded, but they just honked and yelled for her to get out of the way. A bumper got torn off. Lots more yelling. The local we'd talked to the night before only turned up when half the boat was loaded, but miraculously he managed to be the last car on board. He knew the captain. Finally the ferry was loaded and we were about three cars back from it, still on the wharf.
Fortunately Ferry #2 arrived just as Ferry #1 departed. We'd maintained a good natured attitude at the first ferry docking and quite a few people knew we'd spent the night at the terminal, so we had a few friends now. Everyone else was facing the ferry, so when we were jostling for position I backed the Tonka in, so I didn't have to turn it around. Anyway, with a bit of help from our friends we got a space, hustled on board and finally steamed off towards the island. It was a 1 1/2 hour trip and still a bit choppy. It was standing room on the bridge and quite a bit of salt water splashed over the vehicles on the trip. Matija thought it was good fun.
We berthed at the main town, with a population of 6000 or so. There are a couple of hotels there, quite a number of little shops and a few fish processing factories. We picked up a bit of water and headed around the west coast of the island. It's a real desert island with sand, some bare mountains in the middle and very little else. There were a couple of run-down date plantations on the far side, but the west coast was basically empty apart from a few beaches of fishing boats and some rudimentary shelters.
There's a sealed loop road around the island and you head off on sandy tracks in your 4WD to get anywhere else. We drove for half an hour then headed to the coast and found our own deserted little beach. There was a fisherman laying a net and he said it was a good spot and that we were above the tideline, so we set up camp. It was a lovely relaxing afternoon, the sea was very shallow at this point but we snorkelled around a bit, played in the sand and went for a lovely walk in the late afternoon. There were literally thousands of crabs scuttling ahead of us and whenever we stopped walking we could hear them clicking and clattering over the rocks and sand.
Day Six - Crabs at sunset.
The next morning our fisherman friend was back checking the nets and he dropped us off a medium sized fish and three lovely big crabs with beautiful blue legs. We kicked back for a while, then headed around the island and stopped on the East Coast. The water was more choppy here and obviously deeper. Ande and I both went snorkelling and saw thousands of fish, from little schools of bait fish to big silver ones, some that looked like catfish, parrot fish, a groper and schools of a tasty looking blue fish. I also saw a sea snake tucked in some rocks. Fantastic. There was also a big turtle carcass up on the beach among crab holes. I'd been snorkelling for a while and started to get really itchy. I didn't think much of it till Ande came out scratching like anything. The water was a little murky with little jellyfish and they were upsetting her a great deal more than me. We chopped up some crab and chucked it on a hand line. We were getting it stripped in seconds but nothing hung about long enough to get hooked. Never mind.
We cruised around the rest of the island and found a deserted well by a half-dead date plantation. It had a bucket and everything so we hauled up some water and had a wash in fresh water - the first for a couple of days. It was far more satisfying to haul up your own bucket than to stand under a shower nozzle. Everyone should do it more often!
We continued up to the top of the island, to where turtles nest at night. The main turtle beach was pretty exposed and close to town. It was very windy so we agreed to camp a little further south. Heading off the main beach though we stopped for a couple of camels who were crossing the road. Ande leapt out and took some pictures while the camels came to say hello. Matija was a bit worried when one poked it's head in the window, but it was only being friendly.
We found a spot a little to the south and luckily didn't get too far off the hard sand as we saw some locals bogged up to the axles and two more 4WDs were needed to drag them out. It was blowing a gale by then but luckily Matija was happy to sleep in the car, we tied our tent to that and used chair and sleeping bag covers filled with sand to hold the tent down. We managed to get the charcoal bbq going, grilled the fish and boiled up the crabs. It was a bit of a feast really, along with some fresh bread we'd picked up in town and a salad (and a bit of sand).
Both Ande and I woke at different times during the night and went walking to look for nesting turtles. We didn't find any, but talking to the guys at the ferry the next day it didn't sound like there were any turtles around while we were there.
Day Seven - Homeward bound
We broke camp and arrived at the ferry just in time to be the last car on. After the crossing we crossed the salt flats again and when I saw some Indian guys shovelling salt into sacks I had to go back and take a photo for cousin Matt (who sells salt). Unfortunately I thought I had space to do a U turn, but the side of the road dropped off very steeply. The oncoming traffic was doing about 140, flashing their lights and tooting as I completed the 3 point turn. Ande told me she thought I was taking it a little casually!
We got the shot, then continued up the more inhabited side of the sands. We were making good time so decided to complete the haul back home that night. We arrived in Nizwa about four and had a poke around their awesome souq. Ande found some silver items and we came across a big National Day parade where the locals were singing and marching. They circled a big square waving their swords then tossing them into the air. The people we saw were very much Omani's rather than imports from India or Sri Lanka or Pakistan, which is the norm for the UAE and Qatar. It was all very cool, but we were prepared to run at the first hint of 'death to the Christians' (kidding). Had a shwarma or two in Nizwa then we did the last couple of hours at night. No-one really likes to dip their lights out there, the speed limit is 120 and drivers don't mind tailgating. We were glad when we got to the border crossing, got our entry and exit visas and made it back to our own beds for the night.
All in all a fantastic holiday in awesome Oman.
