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WAAL

UNKNOWN BACKROADS OF THE HAJAR

written and photographed by PINAKI CHAKRAVARTY

“For those who have tired of the usual tourist trails,
this one guarantees the thrill you haven’t felt for years�br>
GUARANTEE

A thrill for the weary

While Muscat reeled under September heat, torrential rain, flooding wadis and gale-force winds lashed Jebel Waal. Of course, no one in the capital saw any of it, because no one knows where Waal is. And that’s exactly why you must head out this October for one of the last stretches of tough, steep, raw dirt track still left in a country increasingly slapped over with concrete. This journey will take you from the ancient tombs of Bat, near Ibri, deep into the mountains, over largely forgotten trails down into the pockets of flatlands behind Bahla, through the mountains again and out into al Hamra, just under Jebel Shams. For those who have tired of the usual tourist trails, this one guarantees the thrill you haven’t felt for years.

At Waal, the topography that traps clouds that burst and flood wadis �like notorious Wadi Bani Auf on the other side of the massif �while leaving the surrounding plains bone dry is all around you. Which is why we, at the fag end of the afternoon, were scrambling for our lives, slithering down dirt roads turned to slush. In a matter of minutes, waterfalls were transforming the slopes, filling up valleys; and by the time we made our way down them wadis were spilling across the roads leading out of here. Everyone was either running away or heading into the storm to hunker down home.

Chances are you might not get stuck in floods if you wander in between these mountains this month, but keep an eye out for changes in the weather.

WADI AL AIN

Start with Bat

Most people head to Bat to see the famously misnamed ‘beehive�tombs (they are, as you can see now that many have been restored, tapering at pyramid-like angles and flat-roofed). But this journey begins where the tourist trail ends. After hitting the dirt track just off the main road through Bat (detailed directions at the end of this story), head down Wadi al Ain, past the fence that tries half-heartedly to surround the tombs and, after a few swerves of the road as it extricates itself out of habitation, head into open landscape and freedom from the tourist circuit. All it takes is a couple of minutes and then you have a broad track that unravels through the plain, occasionally dipping when crossed by the dried remnants of a water channel. You will find yourself easily cruising along at 80kmph at the minimum, so be careful with the channels, which don’t look like much from a distance, but contain enough ruts and stones to inflict real pain.

The unmistakable serrated edge of Jebel Misht is to your left, with the bulk of the Hajar mountains straight ahead, and a few bumps of hills to the right. The road ahead meanders through the flatlands in between, and its immediate vicinity offers endless opportunities for picnicking or camping. The dirt track into Wadi al Ain provides 23km of unending open space and privacy. And just when you think you’re heading into something secret, you will hit the little settlement where it meets the tarmac: at a T-junction enveloped, like its residents, in dust kicked up by pickups and road construction. Head left on the concrete, following the sign that points to Sint, 25km away. After three hours of drive from Muscat and a glorious 20 minutes spent off-road, your journey has just begun.

Ironically, it is the concrete that will lead you deep into the mountains (before abandoning you for the really hard part), and while the dirt track is good enough to race over, you will slow down considerably as you move into the folds of the mountain, past the postcard-quality ridge of tombs at al Ain, along the side of Misht and finally behind it. And there, just before the mountains take over, you will come across a little roundabout, and three choices. We will leave the left fork for another issue.

STRAIGHT

Abandoned terraces

Head straight ahead and you will soon leave the tarmac, hitting the dirt track just before the village of Dham (or was it Baroot? They were both signposted at the roundabout). The settlement gets over without much ado, after a couple of massive houses still being plastered over, and extensive plantations of dates from which a few fortifications peek out. Above all of this stands the unmistakable lopsided peak of Misht, like a silent, all-seeing soothsayer. As you make your way away from habitation and up the mountain on tracks no one uses anymore, Misht will be your only company: just the peak, the wind, a deep gash in the mountain and a rusted gate at the end of a road overgrown with plants and peppered with fallen stones.

You have come too far to make this the end of your journey, but it is a good spot to explore on foot, and has enough flat space to picnic, before backtracking to the roundabout and heading east. It would be extremely interesting to hike up this side of the mountain and see where that puts you on the map.

RIGHT

Sint and everything else

Head right from the little roundabout for the real adventure. After a handful of houses the road starts winding its way towards the mountains �road construction at the base marks the beginning of the road that climbs onto the plateau, itself ringed by peaks,
and the sleepy, splayed-out expanse of Sint, with its sprawl of new construction, earthen ruins and the inevitable patches of palms. This is also where you will hit a brief stretch of concrete road, which ends with the settlement. Just after the last bit of tarmac, the road will fork: left to the mountains and right towards dusty date palms. Turn left.
You will have to endure a couple of minutes of road construction, which peters out after a couple of bends, leaving you with a wide, flattened dirt road that will probably be turned into tarmac over the coming future. This initial part is not unlike a highway �the only difference is that this one has a loose surface, although it is quite hard-packed underneath, and smooth as silk. Some of the highest mountains in Oman are ahead of you, to the left.

Just over the lip of the mountain starts the rougher part not yet completely chiselled away by construction crews. And then, a few bumps later, a steep drop down that gets tougher the lower you get, until you will be crawling at a snail’s pace in the lowest gears of low-range 4WD. Don’t even try to brake your way down �use your gears instead.

ALA

Blind spot

You will land between places, in a blind spot of the mountains called Wadi Ala, with date palms and fields of blazing green surrounded by mountains. You will enter through the backdoor of Ghafat, a town baking under the mountains, and hit the main road half a minute after getting off the jebel. Turn right and you will hit the Nizwa–Ibri highway in 16km, from where you can drive back to Muscat.

Or, if you’re still up for even more adventure, head left. A couple of kilometres in that direction will take you off the concrete onto yet another dirt track that dives headlong into a narrow wadi, past the sleepy collection of huts that make up the settlement of Jufoor. And then, barely 14km after you left the blacktop at Ghafat, you will turn a corner out of the wadi and find firm concrete again. A couple of minutes more and you will have twisted out of the mountains, landing among the western by-lanes of al Hamra, under the massif of Jebel Shams.