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Wakan at dawn

The near-perfect experience, with flowers and views that are easily accessible for anyone

It is five in the morning and we’re braving the last bit of cold breeze of a just-finished winter, rushing towards flowers in the dark. Wakan had always seemed too close to Muscat, too accessible to any city slicker Friday morning off-roader to take seriously enough for a destination. But its flowers last just a season that lasts little more than a month – and we were poised in the dark at the end of this window of opportunity.

The highway was a featureless background at this hour, quickly over, and it started to get light as we turned off onto the thinner road that led to Nakhl, and then turned off this as well, into a hard gravel wadi. This is the Ghubrah Bowl, its name evident from the mountains that encircle you as you make your way in. The floor of the wadi itself we left unexplored: a hard, bumpy road that we drove over, leaving nothing behind except a cloud of dust. It is a long way straight down, until you get to the foot of the mountain, the back of which will eventually rise into the Jebel Akhdar.

This is when the journey begins to get faintly interesting, and the drive up is steep and curvy. Park your car above at the little parking lot – itself a scenic terrace looking over the wadi below – and walk up the path, between the houses. The gardens open up as you come to the last house, a lush green that anyone will think pretty. But there’s something different about the foliage of Wakan, a lushness to the grass, the height of the plants, the sheer weight of so much unbroken greenery, that sets it apart from most other places across Oman. And it is stunningly beautiful at dawn, as the sun rises late over the bowl of mountains. There are a lot of places in the country that are green, but Wakan is greener, so much so as to be completely out of place in the barren landscape it looks over.

And then there are the flowers, little white and pink ones that have all the studied delicacy of a Japanese sprinkling of salt, set off against the background of green. Where the houses end and the gardens begin is also the point at which you’ll find yourself on the walking path. It will lead you all the way up the slope, with gardens on either side, and you can plod along looking at flowers, greenery and the flowing falaj until, perhaps a half hour later, you are at the end.

The gardens of Wakan are undeniably gorgeous and so, by default, the path is a pleasurable one. But once the novelty of greenery in Oman subsides, there are a few things you might want different in the newly made walking path.

Firstly, it doesn’t really go anywhere, a dead end in the side of the mountain. It’s last outpost of a mini tower and a few benches are pleasant enough, but owe their geographical position to no apparent reason. A better choice for you is path W24b (refer box).

Secondly, this is hardly a hiking path, especially when compared to others you can do in the surrounding mountains. They are, as this one is, marked out by painted flags on the rocks around, and are generally kept as close to their original condition as possible, i.e., as natural paths that have been used for centuries by indigenous inhabitants. Building up of existing paths, like that on the Grand Canyon or even Bander Jissa, has been done only where necessary for safety, and even then with a light, non-intrusive touch. In comparison, the path over Wakan is a superhighway, extremely easy and comfortable for anyone to do, but removed from its surrounding experience.

Still, apart from such nitty-gritties, walking through the gardens of Wakan is a guaranteed success, and an absolutely essential experience, whether you’re in time for the flowers or not.