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roadmap

the new QURIYAT–SUR highway

14 PAGES and 200KM of EXCITING ATTRACTIONS

“A real, concrete road was necessary, and inevitable.
And it’s finally here�br>
OPEN SESAME
Down the coast

For decades people have driven down the coast between Quriyat to Sur on a dirt track that meant crawling up and down the foothills of the Eastern Hajar and hammering one’s differential �and passengers �into submission. For those interested in adventure, this was an exciting drive, but even veterans grow tired. And it was never any fun for those who actually lived along the coast. A real, concrete road was necessary, and inevitable. And it’s finally here.

LOSING
The silver lining

And yet, for all the romantics who loved the thrill of driving off-road, kicking up dust and pairing this with the most beautiful coast in Oman, something has been lost forever. Whizzing by on the new highway, you will no longer explore anonymous by-roads, never pass through most of the fishing villages, never really feel the landscape at all. Ironically, you might be doing the environment a favour. After all these years of bearing the brunt of construction, the coast will get a break. Cars will finally stick to where they should be �on the road. Fewer people will get off the tarmac, which means that native flora and fauna will be left alone. It might just work.

WARNING
Driving blind

After too many years of massive construction, hammering away at
a mountainous coast and kicking up tons of dust, we’re told that
the highway from Quriyat to Sur might be open this September. Well, it’s been open, sort of, for some time now, but we hope such announcements mean that the finishing touches are completed too.

For months you could drive down this stretch, as we just did this August, but driving conditions at the time of going to press are abysmal. One half of the dual carriageway is always shut, but you’re never quite sure which. Signs generally involve a half-hearted assembly that leaves a lot to interpretation. None of the turnoffs to any of the coastal towns along the way are marked. The road has been kept open to traffic without being officially opened �which means that people are driving down each way at considerable speed (of course there isn’t any radar either) on a road that has few signs, side protection, warning indications, markers. Worst of all, you’re never quite sure if you have the lane to yourself or if you’ll have incoming traffic.

Still, once it is completed, it might cut the drive time from Muscat to Sur by as much as half. It barely took us an hour to get from Quriyat to Sur on the road in August, and once the existing stretch between the capital and Sur is widened �which is being done as we write �you’re in for a real treat.

ATTRACTIONS
Wadi Mijlas to Quriyat

There is another way to get to Quriyat from Muscat, one that was used before the days of highways and filling stations. Driving down from Muscat to Quriyat, turn left at Sawaqim (N 23º 15.444� E 058º 46.437� and into Wadi Mijlas (N 23º 15.686� E 058º 47.660).

The wadi is of monumental proportions at the beginning �all massive rock faces, twisted and gnarled over millions of years, stretching upwards into bright sunlight. The ground is loose gravel, and the track is wide and very easy to drive through. To the sides, as the gravel clears, you will see the larger rock underneath, smoothened by flowing water over the ages. Run your hand over what was once riverbed and you won’t find a single break in this surface of smooth curves. You will probably be the only one in this narrow wadi, and the feeling, hemmed in by those gigantic walls, is incredible.

Towards the end the rock seems to get softer in form and hue, and the walls on either side start falling away. That last bit, with the wadi suddenly opening up to the sea, is the best part. You have broken through mountain range to the sea, and, after the confines of the wadi, the expanse is thrilling. Just ahead is Quriyat harbour and the souq.

SINKHOLE AT BIMMAH

It used to be a lot better untouched: a massive sinkhole between the beach and the mountains. Over the years it has been developed, which means that concrete has been poured around, stairs have been made into it, tiled walkways radiate above and palm trees have been introduced. Still, with the fantastic, otherworldly-coloured spring within, it’s always a good idea. Even if we’ve tried to make it better.

Now, though, the complex basks in the glory of its new name: Hawiyat Najm Park. There’s a signboard on the old coastal road that points to it �the only problem is that you will be on the new highway. Good luck. Follow our kilometre readings for a short stop here.

Tiwi, Wadi Shaab and the two-day hike

The mouth of the wadi was fantastic �until the bridge that sustains the highway plonked right through it. Although the new road will bring more tourists, you can still hopefully find solace deep inside the wadi. For those who want more �about two day’s worth of hiking more �it is possible to walk up the wadi, up the mountain, across the plateau, over the range and down the other side. Down to Wadi Bani Khalid. Which means that you would have spent about eight hours the first day and perhaps 11 the next walking from the sea to the desert. So why would one do this instead of just lolling around on a beach? For the sheer exhilaration of looking down on ocean from mountain slopes and the sense of achievement of having made it across. No part of the hike is particularly difficult �anyone can do it �but the sheer length of it demands stamina.

That length also presents a logistical problem, in that you have to carry enough food and water with you, and lug all that over the mountain. An even bigger issue is your transport, for you won’t be returning to the place where you started (unless you fancy a four-day round trip). What we did was organise for our guide to have a car pick us up from Muscat, drop us off at the start of the hike, and pick us up on the other side.
We strongly recommend you take a guide who knows the way, even though much of it can be found following the paint markings upon stone. Call Ahmed al Abri on 99348440.

Fins and the road to Selma

Fins is another village along the way that you are in danger of bypassing on the new highway. When on the old road, you would look for the dirt track to the right of the settlement and just after the last houses. This route winds its way up the mountain to the Selma Plateau on the top. This is a road you must not miss out on, and one
that you will have to tackle in 4WD. It offers what is probably the steepest, most thrilling off-road experience in the sultanate. And the stories it leads you to aren’t too bad either.

Selma, the legend goes, was a young shepherdess who left her flock while she went to fetch water. She found a leopard eating her goats when she returned, and she bravely fought it off with an axe �a great battle that killed them both. For her memorial, the heavens sent down seven stars to the spot where she was found, and these became the seven caves that people from around the world now come to explore. And the village nearby, along with the plateau, are now named after their bravest ancestor.
It is just 14km to the plateau but it takes quite a while because you’ll be crawling up. At the top is a flat landscape of limestone riddled with fissures. Be careful: you aren’t likely to come out if you fall down one of them. Selma is home to an intricate cave system, many disappearing into depths of more than 160m. At the epicentre of these subterranean attractions is the Majlis al Jinn, the star of the caves. Sheltered from the outside world, such caves have been carved out by water millions of years ago, leaving behind exposed layers of rock that tell stories we try to understand. You can’t read those stories above ground most of the time �you have to head below ground.
Once up on the plateau, the dirt track forks into two: to the right is the Majlis, with three holes in its head that you have to abseil down from. If you don’t have specialised knowledge and equipment, stay above ground. The surface is interesting enough, with strange rock formations that periodically tumble down into blackness.

Turning left just before the Majlis, it is possible to drive over the top of the plateau, and cross over to the other side, towards Ibra, or return to the coast, coming down further east near the white sandy beaches.

Qalhat and its ruins

The ancient town of Qalhat is home to what is probably Oman’s most famous, most photographed ruin: Bibi Mariam’s tomb. You will find the town towards the end of your journey, just before the Qalhat LNG plant.

Islamic, Persian, Indian and Ming empires, all connected by an umbilical cord of seaways to Qalhat, made it one of the most fantastic cities of its time. Ibn Batuta, that great Moroccan explorer, had walked its streets, marvelling at the city in the 14th century. “Were the world a ring,�he wrote, “this would be a jewel in it.�Qalhat grew fabulously rich on trade, with Arabian horses being its highest-value export. Marco Polo wondered at their sheer numbers in the late 13th century, when they were shipped to the sultans of Delhi, the Rajputs in Rajasthan and the kings of south India.
The tomb is, quite fantastically, the only standing structure in the city, and juts out of tons of rubble and the weight of centuries. Bibi Mariyam, a former Turkish slave who later became governor of the city, built it for her husband. It was made with corral, rock and plaster and finished with glazed tiles, the chipped remnants of which can still be found on the interior arch.

Although the port reached its zenith between the 13th and 16th centuries, its story goes back much further. On a bank that dips gently into the sea, Neolithic flints hint at human habitation 7,000 years ago. These settlements of Ichthyophagi, or fish eaters of the Indian Ocean, probably developed into the early maritime communities that were the crucial link between the Indus Valley and Mesopotamian civilisations. What is fascinating is that Stone Age man chose this spot for the same reasons that made Qalhat prime real estate thousands of years later: access to fresh mountain water, nearby fertile valley, a natural wall of mountain and that legendary deep sheltered harbour. Look for the dirt road that climbs the mountain behind the tomb. This is the same track we came across on our two-day hike from Tiwi to Wadi Bani Khalid.

Attractions ahead

All this has just been a short list of the things you can look forward to between Quriyat and Sur. But there are endless possibilities ahead. Sur itself, although done to death, offers its famous dhow-building yards, and beyond lie the famous turtle nesting sites along Ras al Hadd and Ras al Jinz. Beyond, the town of Ashkhara beckons, with its incredible mix of desert and sea.
And after that: Oman’s next stretch of coast, with the Sharqiya Sands on one side and the Arabian Sea on the other. If possible,
this part actually outdoes the Quriyat–Sur stretch. But that’s another journey, and another issue.