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HIKING FOR LIMES

written and photographed by PINAKI CHAKRAVARTY

“Perhaps a thousand years ago someone had
walked up the wadi, looking for the source of water
that still flows out of rock today�br>
SINT, SANT, SHIDYT

Licking lime juice in the sun

My head felt a bit like the soft-boiled egg I had forced down a few hours ago for breakfast. That seemed a lifetime away: a distant, fast-fading memory as we trudged over the northern slopes of Jebel Kawr to a spot 1,300m up the mountain. This is where we sat and dreamt of the limes we would find in a mountain oasis a three-hour hike from the last bit of road, limes that we would squeeze into our bottles on the way back, licking the juice off our fingers as we dried under the sun.

Shidyt is so remote the military sends helicopters there to help out, not just for medical emergencies but also to airlift their most precious commodity �limes �to civilisation. For anything less urgent there’re always the donkeys braying in the gardens when not clambering down to the village of Sant below, where the road ends. There is no road in-between, and never will be.

Sant is also where the hike starts, a satellite village of the local big settlement, Sint, which sits bang on top of a plateau between Bahla and Bat (explored in our last issue). Sint is practically a metropolis compared to Sant; it has a concrete road (just one), concrete houses, a fleet of heavy equipment for the road being built over the plateau to Wadi Ala, and, most importantly, a school and medical facilities. Sant, in comparison, a few kilometres uphill, has nothing, just the dirt kicked up by 4WDs and a few wild children who aimed catapults at us.

Sant also has an ancient falaj system that leads you out of the village, and we followed it into the wadi where we left it to start our climb. But just there, on the last curve of the falaj, are a few ancient earthen workstations, even a little hollow where ingredients might have been mortared: to make dye for instance, a spot away from the houses with a steady supply of water.

SHIDYT

Gardens, donkeys and one spring

Shidyt is so tucked away in a nook of the mountains you cannot see it until you are at least an hour into your hike. It first emerges in the distance as a patch of dark green against the expanse of bare rock face, brought to life by the thousands of date palms and lime trees that are crammed onto its ancient, man-made terraces that cling to the side of the jebel. Perhaps a thousand years ago someone had walked up the wadi, looking for the source of water that still flows out of rock today. It is so high up there isn’t much flat ground around, so rocks had to be put into place, building up the walls and lower layers of terraces, while soil, scraped from the surrounding landscape over centuries, filled the fields and allowed vegetation to take root. The water was channelled into a falaj, which runs through the gardens today.

Shidyt was deserted as we walked in, except for the drums of chemicals lying in the midday sun �pesticide, insecticide or fertiliser �sacks full of limes and a single rooftop carpeted with the fruit, baking in the sun. Everyone, it seemed, had gone downhill, to the roads and electricity of the plains. Shidyt could have been a ghost town, eerily silent until one of its four donkeys started braying: a deep call that echoed off Jebel Kawr and over the plateau, over the falaj of Sant and the concrete of Sint, right till Jebel Gibeel on the other side.

That’s about when Shidyt’s seemingly only inhabitant leaped into view, chasing a donkey over the mountainside. Hamood al Hinai is 20 years old and hopes to join the army in Muscat after a while. He did his schooling in Sint and apparently doesn’t do much now, in between his first job and his education, apart from managing the donkeys and keeping watch over the rooftop of limes. “The Hinais,�he said, “are all over Jebel Kawr, over Shidyt, across the slopes to Nadan and down below through Sant and Sint.�

But that’s about all I can pry out of him, and to make up for the silence that quickly builds up he takes us on a tour of the gardens: over the channel that snakes its way from the spring and concrete tank, under the one-room mosque below peaks and through vegetation so thick sunlight doesn’t hit the soil. Ten minutes later, on the other side of the wadi, we burst into the open again: Shidyt has ended, and there is nothing more than dry rock that tumbles down to Sant.

DIRECTIONS

Kilometre readings

Zero your odometer at the Al Maha filling station on the Rustaq–Ibri road, where you have to turn off towards Bat. Fill your tanks �this is your last chance in this direction. Once off the highway, follow the sign to al Wahrah, 10km away 16km Turn left off the tarmac on to the dirt road with the sign pointing to Wadi al Ain, 23km away. This is the road just after the little tarmac road turning left towards al Hajar. This dirt track will take you past the tombs on the left and quickly make its way out of Bat to open landscape. You will come to a dusty settlement after about 20 minutes of driving 39km Concrete road, T-junction. Turn left to Sint, 25km away (right will take you to the Ibri–Nizwa highway) 44km The road curves left towards Sint. Follow it. The right fork will lead you to the village of al Ain. As the road straightens, you will see the tombs on a ridge of mountain to your left. Ahead are Hail, Rikzah, Berut, Dham and Jill 54km Roundabout. Turn right towards Sint. The road will then meander a bit and climb to the top of the plateau, where you will find Sint 64km Sint. Follow its lone concrete road straight through the town. Careful of the two unmarked speed breakers 67km Take the right fork where the dirt track begins. This will head towards the mountains to your right, climbing a bit at first and then going down steeply, past a massive football field (with three ancient stone grave sites to the left) and then down to Sant, a few kilometres later

HIKING

GPS waypoints in UTM

Park your car at Sant and head to its right, looking for the falaj on one side of the wadi, both of which lead towards the mountains. Follow the falaj till you are out of the village and then, when the wadi forks to the left and the right, start climbing up the mountain. It is easy �no scrambling or actual climbing required, but it is tough because it is pretty much entirely uphill all the way. You will walk up till you reach a ridge about 45 minutes later: follow this ridge to the right, and then, with the wadi of Shidyt to your left, climb up the mountain to the knobby peak you will see. In time you should come across a donkey trail: look for stones and rocks put into place running across the slope. You will zigzag up the slope until you get 1,400m up (look up our GPS waypoints below), and then walk to the left of the mountain and then slightly down to Shidyt.

Sint
40 Q 0509016, 2558332
Elevation: 940m

Sant
40 Q 0507137, 2555373
Elevation: 916m
Gnarled saar tree on your way up
40 Q 0506765, 2555037
Elevation: 934m

Walk over to the left side of the mountain
40 Q 0505432, 2555172
Elevation: 1,389m

Mosque and spring at Sant
40 Q 0505092, 2554743
Elevation: 1,303m