Wading in the wadis

Wow, life is hectic! Have lapsed a bit on the blogging and have fallen badly behind on all the things I've been wanting to share with you about life here in Oman. This is a good thing, as more and more I'm out there doing things rather than in here writing about them, but I don't want to slacken the pace - my mission to persuade people what a lovely country I live in continues! You won't be able to resist for long!

Peering down into Wadi Shab

So, this week's fab activity is wadi walking - we actually did this during the Xmas hols, but anytime outside the stinking summer months is a good time to be in a wadi. A wadi is a valley or gorge created by a river, although this being the Middle East, most of the wadis have little or no water in them (remember Wadi Rum?). But some of them are blessed with trickles or even streams, and this one, Wadi Shab, turned out to have a proper river flowing through it.

Wisened old ferryman takes us across the mouth of Wadi Shab

So after parking up at the mouth where the wadi meets the sea, and getting fleeced for a whole 1 rial by the little ferryman to get across to the start of the valley floor, it was goodbye civilisation and hello wilderness ... Once we'd left behind the picnic crowd who seem incapable of walking more than 100m, it was just us, the odd plantation, a few hardy trekkers and divine colours - white rocks and blue-green water below, the odd splash of vegetation on either side, and the reddish mountains towering above us.

Water, water everywhere ... a sight for sore eyes in arid Oman

The stonier upper reaches - and me feeling very small ...

In the lower parts of the valley, there were still some signs of humanity, using their ingenuity to coax as much as possible of the precious water towards trees and vegetable gardens. 

Date trees in the lower valley, fed by the water channels called 'falaj'

More falaj further up the valley

But eventually even the water channels run out, and the nice easy path peters out too, so that you end up having to abandon the trekking gear altogether and just swim up the river - not exactly a hardship! Ah, what bliss ...

A well-earned dip ...