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Shortcut from Nakhl to Fanja
A new road opens up new possibilities. Follow our readings to explore them

There aren’t many ways you get across the Western Hajar, and until now the most famous was the crossing from Al Hamra (north of NIzwa) up to Sharaf al Alamayn (wrongly signposted as Birkat Sharaf) and then down into Wadi Bani Auf. This is a thrilling ride, but is good as a destination in itself – by the time you get out you’ll be too battered to think of anything else apart from getting home. Other ways are even more strenuous. Hike up from Misfat al Abriyeen, 5-7 hours to Birkat Sharaf, spend the night there, and then make your way down on an agonising 11-hour journey that will wreak havoc on your toes and knees.

Now, though, you have another option – safe, easy and short – with a brand new blacktop that will let any saloon car wind its way through the foothills between Nakhl and Fanja. This is a charming journey that will see you far away from human settlements, free to stop wherever you want to. Choose one of the wadi crossings – shallow enough for a saloon car when we made it in July – with a spot of shade and you’ll be set.

Getting out at Fanja, you’ll have the Muscat-Nizwa highway on either side of you – an open road with endless possibilities on either side. The road ahead is all yours.

long road home

Kilometre readings

Turn off the Barka-Nakhl road, barely a kilometre after the Shell or 13km before Nakhl’s Omanoil filling station if coming the other way. The sign where you will turn off will mark: Al Hasanat, Al Ajal, A’Taw, Buwah, Halban

Zero your odometer at the first turnoff, 6.5km from the exit on the main road

0 km Turn left to A’Taw (14km away)

7km T-junction. Turn left. Unmarked. Straight ahead is Taw (6km away), behind you is Ajal (7km before)

9.5km Turn right at white room, towards Buwah

14.6km Fork. Turn left following blue Arabic sign

17km Buwah. Go straight, following the road that arcs to the right of the village, towards the left.

21km As you begin to follow its arc left, turn off on the new tarmac road on the left, following the blue sign in Arabic

30km Fanja. Backroad T-junction, turn right, follow narrow road through plantations

36.5km Bridge, turn left on to bridge

36.9km Shell filling station

38.7km Nizwa-Muscat highway