Tag Archives: Jebel Shams

Day 259 – Hospitality

Slowly, the valley and plains appear out of the darkness

We got up really early today – 5.40 am – to see the sun rise over Wadi Ghul. It was uncomfortably cold outside, but the colours playing across the vast sky made up for it. At least for a while. Once the mornings glow had played out and the sun was up, it would take another 45 minutes for it to reach “our horizon”, the steep mountain across the valley. We decided that the time would be much better spend warming up and catching up on sleep hiding in the tent.

Ready to leave our little spot in the sky now

Once the sun was fully up and the tent warmed by the morning rays, we were ready to get out and start our day. We knew it would be the last packing up for a couple of days, so we took our time. Even so, the bike was packed and the road beneath us at about 9 am.

There was plenty of time in the day and our goal was only 300 km away in Sohar with no point being there before 5 pm. Based on that and the great condition of the gravel roads up here, I was able to convince Nina to explore a bit further. The highest point of Jebel Shams is another 1000m up. An Air Force radar station was build on top, so the map showed a road going all the way up. Naturally, I wanted to see how far we can go. I think the highest we had taken Rocinante so far was around 2400m.

Had to capture the epic-ness one more time

It turned out that this would have to stand for a while longer since there was a gate and guard house with a sign telling us that entry is prohibited. As we were about to turn around, an Air Force guard came out and after a moment invited us over. I am always up for coffee and we had nothing to do, so we accepted. Nasser and his aid Adi were amazing hosts. We got Omani dates and coffee until we thought we could take no more. Then they brought out the chai tea. We spent an hour with them, talking about out trip, their families and the world in general. What an amazingly warm experience.

When we were too full to eat any more dates or have any more tea, we received a “small” bag of dates for the road, about the size of a head. Glowing, we got ready and back onto the bike to leave Jebel Shams. Thank you Nasser and thank you Adi for such an amazing experience.

The beehive tombs are up on a ridge next to a dry wadi

There was one more box to tick before it was all about getting “home” again to Lina. Oman is famous for its many archaeological sites – the last one on our list was one of the groups of beehive tombs on the way. These towers were build more than 3000 years ago as burial mounds, but not much else is known about them. When we reached the site some time after lunch, we were surprised on how low key this was compared to so many other destinations in Oman. No big sign or infrastructure around. Just this amazing site at the other side of a wadi. Luckily, we had a point of interest in the GPS.

Wadi, gardens, a mosque and the mountain range give great context to the beehives

To get to the tombs, we had to cross a horticulture and gardens and then the dried up riverbed of the wadi itself on foot. It was actually pretty cool to get a good close up view of such an integral part of everyday Omani life. There were about a dozen towers in varying states of conservation, but for the most part it was pretty clear how this must have looked like. We wandered around a bit, took a heap more photos and walked back to the bike. There, we got talking to a farmer on his way back from his field. He told us that he emigrated 20 years ago from Islamabad and invited us for tea. With a heavy heart (we had 200 km to go) we declined as politely as we could and got back on the road. What a welcoming country!

The road between Ibri and Sohar leads through the mountains once more

The ride back was beautiful once more – even though we almost got lost at a road closure on the way. Oman is the country where our GPS data is probably most outdated – mainly because of the incredible speed with which new roads are being build or expanded. This road from Ibri to Sohar will soon be dualised and in prime condition. For now, it was still a beautiful highway through the mountains and then down a wadi towards the northern coastal plain.

The day ended in a little surprise. Last week, we checked with our friends whether they would be around during the weekend, to hang out one more time before we had to move on. We knew that we would arrive earlier in the week, though, and had sent texts to confirm today’s arrival. As it turned out, our texts got lost in limbo and Lina and Michael were quite surprised to have us right at their doorstep tonight. Soon the surprise had worn off, though. We got a nice dinner and the room prepared for us. It is so nice to be welcomed, even if one shows up “unannounced”.

: The sky has leopard spots…

: Slowly, the valley and plains appear out of the darkness

: So bloody cold for a sleepy Nina. Had to wrap myself into the sleeping bag

: It’s a brand new day and the sun is high…

: Ready to leave our little spot in the sky now

: Which is still looking impressive

: Had to capture the epic-ness one more time

: It’s an adventure!

: After our “how much coffee and dates can you take?” invitation we went into Wadi Ghul for a bit…riding on pebbles is quite hard work

: …and since we were late by now, we called it after a while

: These shaggy goats have been shaved

: The beehive tombs are up on a ridge next to a dry wadi

: Only access is on foot

: Nicely silhouetted by the blue sky

: They still stand quite tall

: Looking along the row of them

: There’s a tiny entrance but we didn’t dare trying it for real. So all you get is a fake shot

: Wadi, gardens, a mosque and the mountain range give great context to the beehives

: Looking into the other direction

: A whole plastic bag full of dates courtesy of Omani hospitality

: So yummy as a roadside snack

: The road between Idri and Sohar leads through the mountains once more

: And as always, it is pretty!

: And the road is still perfect, too.

Day 258 – Encounters

Good bye, camping spot! Back onto the road

I underestimated how cold it would get up in the mountains. After a hot night in the desert, I now had to put on an extra layer of clothing every time I woke up in the night. It made for some much interrupted sleep. Given that we had quite a bit of extra time, since our plans with Jebel Akhdar fell through, we took it slowly, slept in and generally enjoyed a cool morning in the tent opposed to trying to pack everything before the sun is up.

Even the most relaxed morning has to come to an end so we got back on the road to drive the last 60 km up to Jebel Shams, our camping spot for this night. A short day of riding indeed.

Picturesque abandoned village in the bend of Wadi Ghul

Before starting on the incline of Jebel Shams, you come through Wadi Ghul, a large wadi that still had some water left. We followed its path for a while and found an abandoned mud-brick village on a bend with picturesque gardens in front of it. The new village is on the opposite side of the wadi but the old one just looks nicer.

The road up to Jebel Shams is about 20 km long with 12 km of gravel road. Pretty close to the start of the incline, we passed a truck that was lying in the ditch so we took a bit of extra care. Further up, just before the gravel part started, we stopped at a tiny coffee shop which had run out of coffee. They also didn’t have any non-meat food so we both enjoyed a Chai tea and some hands-and-feet conversation with the staff.

Fritz drove from Kenya to Oman and was looking to get to Asia from here

The Lonely Planet recommends the “Sunrise camp” if you want to camp but it is on the flank of a nearby mountain instead of on Jebel Shams itself. So the first thing to do was get up on Jebel Shams and check out the view there and the so-called Grand Canyon. The gravel road turned out to be in quite a good shape except for one part which must have had a landslide and thus was now bumpy. Shortly after, we passed a big truck which could only be an overlander. Both parties stopped simultaneously and we had a nice roadside chat with Fritz from Austria who had driven here from Kenya. Fritz also told us about a wild camping spot up on Jebel Shams which would mean that we didn’t have to pay 10 rial (about NZ$40) to pitch our own tent in the Sunrise Camp.

Vertigo much? Good that there is a fence for once

We stopped one more time on the way up as there was a viewing platform for the canyon. Again, it is so vast that pictures cannot reflect it adequately. 300 meters further away we came to the Jebel Shams Resort right on the top of the mountain. We had no ambition to stay there as it clearly was out of our budget (a pool on top of a mountain, huh?) but while we had food for dinner and breakfast with us, we still needed to find a roadside lunch. The coffee shop here was pricey but chances of finding any other eatery up here were pretty much zero so we both had omelette on toast.

While in the process of ordering and sitting down, a Dutch couple returned to the resort and recognized our motorcycle as one they had seen around Sur. So we started talking over lunch and ended up spending the next couple of hours with Heike and Robin who were camping in the resort. We relocated to their “living room” in the shade under a pagoda, had tea and cookies together and enjoyed meeting other travelers once more. We haven’t had that since Chiang Mai.

The most awesome camping spot

Around 4 pm to 4.30 pm we actually made it to “the” view of Jebel Shams. By this time, the SD card of the camera was full and we had to make room for more pictures by deleting a couple of old ones. Then, we rode around a bit in search of the best camping spot; in the end we decided to stay right at the edge as there was a bit of a sandy patch to pitch the tent.

Dinner was another round of the horrible spaghetti. It started getting windy and cold so we put on more layers to watch the sunset with a hot cup of tea before hiding in the tent until next morning.

: Good bye, camping spot! Back onto the road

: And what a road it is!

: Looking over the ranges and the cities in the plain

: Further down towards the plain

: Picturesque abandoned village in the bend of Wadi Ghul

: S’up, Flo?

: That’s…slightly worrying. Luckily, we are on a motorbike: Almost the brakes of a car with half the weight of one

: Windy but sealed road leading up

: A photo stop was in order

: Found the gravel part

: Fritz drove from Kenya to Oman and was looking to get to Asia from here

: The whole valley is beautiful

: It’s really hard to get the scope of this canyon on a picture

: Vertigo much? Good that there is a fence for once

: Yeah, not very confident

: “The” view

: Looking around for the perfect camping spot

: Aaaaand back at the edge. A pretty view and a sandy patch convinced even me

: The most awesome camping spot

: Shaggy goat with a little kid

: Eating spaghetti of doom of the second night now

: Sunset over Jebel Shams

: Looking over the plain and the cities at night

Day 256 – Desert Road

From 3000 old stock this wadi has been upgraded to 10000 plants in total

Two days in Salalah were over. The only thing we hadn’t really seen are frankincense trees as the ones in the wadi yesterday seemed quite sad. However, a plantation of frankincense trees was marked for a location between Salalah and Thumrayt. Since it was on the way, we went to see it. Given it doesn’t look like much at all, the smell of the sap was incredibly incense-like right there.

From here, our gaze went northwards again, towards the mountains of Jebel Akhdar and Jebel Shams. The first city at the foot of the mountain ranges is Nizwa…about 900km from here. And the road leading there directly is straight through the desert, with the Empty Quarter (2000km of desert separating Oman and Saudi-Arabia) to the west.

First glimpse of what was to come …

The Lonely Planet states that you can do the journey in one go. In a car. There is no way we can do it but we still wanted to get as much done today as we could so that we’ll arrive in Nizwa tomorrow.

The first couple of hours were fine since we started early enough to have a fresh breeze from moving. Landscape-wise it is rather unremarkable because it’s simply lacking in any features. After a while, it becomes a drag. I took a photo every hour or so to show “yep, still flat and empty over here”. We made incredible progress though with the kilometers just flying by.

Three hours later, no change

There are a couple of roadside rest houses, usually attached to an oasis, with a gas station and a tiny restaurant. When we hit the third one, we had Indian food once more, which is still really nice and filling. When we got back on the road after lunch, the heat became harder to bear. Flo thought that I started to be stupid but I just couldn’t think straight (or fast) anymore. I was already good for a siesta at 1pm but Flo pushed it out to 2pm and a 100 kilometers further down the road.

At this point we reached Hayma, a bigger town along the road. Here, Flo put me in another shaded pagoda where I just sat while he organised juice and water before I took a one hour nap. That was sorely needed and quite comfy especially because I took my shoes off.

This field of sand dunes after 650 km was a small hint of the empty quarter behind

We kept going again at 3pm for as long as we could. Starting to look for a camping spot turned out to be a bit tricky in a vast, flat area. When we came past some sand dunes, Flo took the chance. It was probably still too close to the road for a perfect spot but it gave us some privacy nonetheless.

Dinner was had on top of a sand dune while watching the sunset. A tiny lizard hung around to pose for our pictures which we were thankful for. The night turned out to be rather hot with an approximate 30 degrees until dawn.