This weekend was another great couple of days. The kind of days where you didn’t go to a mall, didn’t sit at home, didn’t watch TV, didn’t play on the iPad instead, we had 48 hours of fun-filled, adrenaline-rushing excitement in the wild of mother nature far from civilization and life’s usual comforts.
It was an event where the sister groups of Adventure Oman and Adventure Emarat joined hands once again for a great outdoor adventure. We had a combined team of 10 cars and approximately 30-35 outdoor enthusiasts. The Dubai convoy met at 8am on the Omani side of the Hatta Border and then drove another 1.5 hours to meet up with their awaiting Omani buddies near Al Ghizayn. It was a great moment for us to reconnect with each other, share stories of the past, and excitement of the new adventure ahead. After a bit of chapatti and coffee we set off as one convoy through the winding narrows of Wadi Hawasinah. The road was washed out in a few areas with flowing waters still crossing. This added to the excitement as we knew we would have a treat ahead of us with water in the wadis. We came to our turnoff into Wadi Ad Dil (also spelt Wadi Dilah) and from here we drove on the rocky wadi bed crisscrossing the flowing river from time to time. After about an hour we reached the end of the wadi, which was the beginning of our hike to The Chains.
The hike to The Chains saw us crossing a modern falaj system, which is used to help transport water from the wadi to the farm and crops. We instantly were waist-deep in pools and streams of flowing water. The water was clean, clear, and very refreshing. The climb up The Chains was a bit precarious and as such, not all opted for this. Those who stayed down however, had a lovely pool and rock for playing around and swimming or simply relaxing and enjoying the vibe. The folks who ventured up The Chains were able to keep hiking further up the wadi boulder hopping and swimming through more stretches of the winding canyon. If you took a minute to stop and look up, you realized you were in a very narrow canyon with walls 200 meters high on either side of you; it was quite breathtaking. At the end of the hike, there was a very large and deep pool for us to all swim in and enjoy before retracing our steps back to the The Chains and down to meet up with the others. It was an awesome first stop for the weekend!
We saddled up back into our cars and headed out of the wadi and up onto the tarmac. We drove for about an hour to our campsite. We found a nice spot right off of the quiet road. We set up camp quickly under the remaining bits of daylight that we had. As night feel, we were sitting around the campfire playing games, having drinks, and watching in amazement of how the dinner crew magically produced a meal fit for a king: chicken curry, rice pilao, bbq chicken, paneer, veggies, and more. It was a festive delicacy and very enjoyable and pleasant to share dinner with everyone. The night was calm and comfortable and the stars seemed to continuously turn on and light up the sky. We had an early start the next morning so decided to hit the sacs (relatively) early.
Around 5am folks started to awake and meander around the campsite. Some were preparing a lovely omelet breakfast with tea and coffee, others were busy packing up their camp, and others were still walking around in a sleepy daze. By about 7am everyone gathered around for a grand breakfast. It was so good we even had families of goats roaming through the campsite looking for their share. By 8am we had all been fed, watered, coffeed/tead, and packed up. We had our safety and plan-of-the-day brief and were back into the wadi.
We drove through various wadis and climbed to mountain tops reaching 1300 meters. The wadi beds were rocky with water flowing through them and various pools from time to time. We crossed tight, narrow, steep turns passing farms and villages before ascending to the top on rough, slightly graded, slightly washed out tracks. This was not a drive for the faint at heart as at times, there was little separating you from “learning to fly.” We stopped at the top for a magnificent view over the valley and snake gorge.
By 9:30 we had descended the mountain and reached our destination, which was the starting point of the main snake gorge. Here we had a group brief and planning for logistics. We then split into two groups: one group who would do main snake gorge and one group who would do little snake gorge. Each group went into their respective snake gorges for adventures that involved hiking, climbing, waterfalls, abseiling, cliff jumping, swimming, and lots and lots of water. The main snake gorge group took about 4 hours to cover the ~4km gorge and the little snake gorge group took about 2 hours to cover the ~2.5km gorge. After completing the two hikes, the group met up again in the tiny little village of Az Zammah. By this time, it was mid-afternoon and everyone was feeling the fatigue starting to set. We shared a simple lunch and snacks and coffee and drinks with each other and reflected on the great weekend we all had just experience together.
It was about 4pm when we all said our goodbyes and well-wishes to each other. We had big, grinning smiles reflecting the exciting weekend that we had just had. The Muscat Convoy headed out of the wadi in one direction for their 2-hour drive home and the Dubai convoy headed out in another direction for their 5-hour drive home. It was another great weekend of fun and adventure shared by two sister groups Adventure Oman and Adventure Emarat. A huge gratitude of thanks to Captains Ajay and Arun for leading the teams and all of the members who made the trip worthwhile! Very much looking forward to the next one.
