Cliffs and Heights and Night, Oh My!

After one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life, I did one of the scariest. After duning, we headed up towards the city of Nizwa in order to make our way to Jebel Shams, where we would be staying for the night. Jebel Shams, the highest mountain in Oman, is often called the "Grand Canyon of the Middle East." Read More...

When we heard you could camp (probably more like "glamping") near the top, we jumped at the chance! I had spoken with the resort earlier and after hearing how much they charged to pick you up in Muscat, we decided driving ourselves there would be more economical. They recommend a 4x4 or 4WD car to get to the resort, but unfortunately we were unable to rent one, and ended up with what they refer to as a "saloon car." So, in our quest to save some money, we ended up risking our safety a bit. 

We headed towards Jebel Shams later than anticipated because of the last minute stop for sand duning. I had emailed the resort after learning that we would not have a 4WD inquiring about a shuttle from one of the closer towns, but they did not email me back. When we got closer, we ended up calling and they assured me that my car would be sufficient and then hung up. During the drive, we passed through tiny little villages and some bigger towns. Google maps was going in and out so we kind of just headed north in hopes that we would still be going the right direction. We drove through a town that had pretty substantial stone walls and a couple forts with quite a few people walking around. It was not until later that we had service again that we googled the area and found that we had driven through an ancient walled city had been planned and designed by a woman! I wish we could have stopped, but we were trying to get to the mountain before it was dark. As we were driving, it became clear that we would not be making it to the mountain before the sun went down. This was unfortunate because that would make my drive a little more nerve wracking and also because the sunset at the resort was supposed to be breathtaking, but we made due taking pictures on the side of the road. 

As we got closer to driving up, I got more and more nervous. As many of my friends know, I don't particularly enjoy cliffs or heights, let along driving near them. I also don't love driving at nighttime. So, with all three coupled together, this was sure to be a lot of fun. Terrey was a really great sport as I slowly crawled my way up the mountain. I, of course, jinxed myself halfway up.

After exclaiming that it was not as bad as I had anticipated, as it was paved and had guardrails, both of these luxuries quickly disappeared. My poor, low saloon car was a big trooper as I drove on the unpaved, sandy, rocky road. As we were driving around the blind corners, I could not be sure if there was a huge drop beside the road or more land. Thinking back, I think it was best I did not know what was beside me. I did see a lot of saloon cars making their way down, so that did make me feel slightly better.

At one point, we stopped seeing signs for our resort. We had seen many along the way, but it had been a while since we had gotten a friendly kilometer update. As cell service is not all that reliable on the top of Omani mountains, we had no choice but to pull over and ask someone. The car in front of us pulled over, so we quickly pulled up behind them to ask.

Out of the car climbed five younger men. Truthfully, this made me a bit nervous. As a young woman growing up, you are taught not to approach strange men at night. Let alone in a foreign country on the side of a mountain at nighttime. I hung back with my car keys ready, my finger on the panic button, while Terrey, thinking I am ridiculous, approached them.

I had heard all about the kindness of the Omani people from everyone who has ever been here, and they weren't lying. They were so nice and obviously knew where we were trying to go. They reassured us that we were almost there and we left them, wishing them well with their car troubles.

We finally made it to the resort. The man at reception knew me by name when I went to check in (but he couldn't have emailed me back after I emailed them three times??) and took us to our accommodations for the night. We had booked the least expensive option at the resort, which I thought sounded the best: an arabic tent!

As we had missed the sunset, we quickly ate dinner and headed to bed, determined to get up to watch and photograph the sunrise.

We woke up early before the sun rose and discovered that, for safety, the resort locks all the doors and gates and does not reopen until 8 o'clock- way after sunrise. As I had asked the receptionist the night before what time the sun rose and where we could watch it, I was a little peeved he had not bothered to mention this tiny fact. There were a couple of other people that wanted to leave, so we all called the phone numbers posted and many honked their car horns. I stood by the gate and slowly and sadly watched the sun rise through the grate.

After quite a while of everyone getting more and more frustrated, someone from the resort finally answered the phone and quietly strolled up and opened the gates. We all flooded out and walked up a trail to watch from the top of the mountain.

I got really into taking photos as close to the edge as I could... seeing as my tripod is only one inch off the ground.

We spent quite a while sitting around and taking photos of the canyon. My pictures can in no way capture how deep and quite honestly, terrifying, it was. There is no guard rail and you can get as close to the edge as you want.

It was a quite peaceful experience until a group of guys that had been camping on a ledge above us started screaming and we could see that somehow one of them had caught on fire.  "Holy -" was really the only reaction I could process at the time. They put the fire on the guy's shirt out and quickly drove away, to what I am assuming was the hospital. It happened quite fast and everyone at the canyon edge just kind of stood there in shock for a while until we went back to relaxing. As I said- Oman is completely random.

I went back to take a quick nap then had some breakfast. It was soon after this that I met my new friend.

There were goats wandering around everywhere and this little guy came right up to the fence outside our cabin. I, of course, went right on up and hung out with him.

Soon after, I discovered that one had wandered inside the fence! I tried to chase him down but he didn't want to hang out for some reason.

After I had bothered enough of the goats, we headed back down the mountain. With the sun shining, it was actually a beautiful drive with some scenic turn out points. 

We wound our way through the mountains while we headed back to Muscat. 

That night, we decided to go back to the Mutrah Souq to do some shopping. We wanted to grab some dinner before we headed out but, once again, nothing was open early enough! So, six o'clock at night and we found ourselves at a restaurant called "The Chocolate Room"- the only place open. They had a drink in which you got to "make it yourself" so of course, I had to order it. It ultimately involved me pouring around 1/8 cup of milk at a time to heat over a tiny candle and then place tiny white chocolate chips into the milk until they melted. This was far too complicated for me but I did feel a bit like a mad chocolate scientist. 

We finally headed out to the souq after dinner. The souqs are always more beautiful at night when they are bustling with people and lights and it was really nice to walk around in the cool (relatively) air. We left that night with some beautiful new boxes and Terrey was even successful in her quest for some jewelry!

The next morning we woke up early to head to the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. The mosque is only open until 11 in the morning on Mondays- Saturdays, so in order to spend enough time there, we had to wake up a bit earlier than I really wanted. You had to be completely covered to enter into the mosque and remove your shoes to show respect.

While walking throughout the grounds, I really loved the tile work. The colors were so beautiful and throughout the hallways, the designs changed with each section.

When we finally returned the car that afternoon, we had racked up over 1000 kilometers!

That afternoon, I had really reached the end of my rope. It was a strange feeling, but I kind of missed Doha. I missed my own bed and my own place and was ready to go back home- which felt like Doha.

Terrey and I decided to relax and bought a day pass at a hotel in Muscat and lounged by the pool and drank at the swim up bar until it was time to leave. Then we headed back to the airport to begin our two part journey back to Doha.

Although it felt like a fast trip, it was a great one. After being in Doha with no car and having to rely on a driver for two months, it felt very free to just drive. Driving along the highways with enormous mountains to either side and then rounding a bend to see an ancient fort on top of a cliff was magnificent. It was also really incredible to see camels lounging by the side of the road as you zoom past. Oman is a place that I have never thought about going and am very glad that I had chance to see it.



And as of last week, my next trip planned is a South African Christmas! Stay tuned :)




Disclaimer: As I was driving most of the time and also unfortunately am not Elastigirl and cannot take photos of myself, some of the landscape photos and pictures of me were taken by my friend Terrey.