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HIKING BETWEEN JISSA AND YITTI
Old routes between fishing villages
“You’ll be guaranteed a few scratches through the brittle stalks and thorns, and a few strategically placed razor-edged boulders�

Local folklore has it that in the old days, before the roads that make Bandar Jissa and Yitti accessible ever existed, villagers used to walk over the mountains from their coastal settlements and drop a token pebble on the top �a reminder that they were there and a pointer to future travellers. Today, even though tons of vehicles rush towards both bays, this pile of stones lies forgotten, as useful as the track that was once used long ago, before concrete was poured down the landscape. It is difficult to imagine Bandar Jissa and Yitti today without the monumental man-made changes to the landscape. Most of what you see now is the result of industrial-strength dynamiting,
quarrying and construction. Hundreds of men have spent years carving their way through the hills, cutting up the landscape to make the roads and hotels that now exist. But it wasn’t that long ago when there was nothing here �just the wadis, mountains and a few fishing villages spread over sheltered bays. Villagers often started their hike from the mouth of wadis and made their way up through the channels carved by water when it rained. In time, these paths have faded from memory, into the landscape of scrub and rock. One such route started just after what is now the turnoff to Qantab village, as the road curves up and to the left to the Oman Dive Center and the Shangri-La’s Barr al Jissah Resort and Spa.

There, under the built-up embankment, you will find the remnants of a service road that runs parallel to the tarmac above and to its left. Follow this till you reach the point where the hills meet, and start walking up the wadi. Some prefer walking up the middle, some try to find the old path that you sometimes think you have found on the slope to the right. Whichever one you choose, you’ll be guaranteed a few scratches through the brittle stalks and thorns, and a few strategically placed razor-edged boulders. Your destination is at the top, in the little crook of the hills, where people have crossed over possibly on their way between the villages that existed in the areas we now call Bandar Jissa and Yitti. This is where they threw down their stones, and you will find this pile right at the top �an earthy, humble prize on a walk that doesn’t offer you much else. It is much too hot to attempt the entire way to Yitti �leave that for the winter. Instead, make do with the bit of a peek you can get of the beach far ahead, with its signature rocks rising out of sand and sea, and the knowledge that you have slogged 45 minutes up a route everyone has forgotten.