There's nothing shabby about Wadi Shab

Jen and I have had a couple of very busy weeks recently, so last weekend when our friend Julie suggested heading out of Muscat for the day to go and explore Wadi Shab we jumped at the chance to escape into the country and get a bit of exercise and fresh air.

‘Wadi’ is the Arabic term for a riverbed which is typically dry except for in the rainy season. Wadi Shab is about an hour and half’s drive South East of Muscat.  We decided that as Ralph hasn’t really been exploring that we would take him with us and give him a good run. So, we threw Ralph in the boot of the car, stopped to pick up Julie and a picnic and headed off.

Now, when you arrive at the Wadi the car park is on the other side of the riverbed to the start of the walk. Usually, there are fishermen with their boats who will take you across the water for 200 baiza each (37p or 52c). However, when we arrived we found that there were no boats as it was Ramadan. So after a lot of beard scratching (and that was just the girls), we decided to leave anything important in the car and cross the water ourselves. There was another couple who arrived at the same time as us who had the same idea, so we graciously let them go first. Having seen them stumble around a bit we were able to map out a route across. The water got to about waist height in some places and there were a few near misses, but eventually we all made it across in one piece and with all our electronic items still dry.

                

Now allegedly the walk into the Wadi is only about 40 minutes, but I don’t know where we went wrong as we walked for well over an hour. We decided that we should stop and as there was no one around (have to be careful eating or drinking in public during Ramadan) we could have a drink and our little picnic. With the temperature being up at the 40 degrees mark, both Jenny and Julie were suffering a bit and were getting tired so it was good to get some food and drink before their moods deteriorated further. Whilst we were sat there we met someone who was heading back from the cave and asked them how far it was to the waterfall. They said it was about a 10 minute walk and then a 5 minute swim. I’m not sure what they’d been drinking as once we packed up and turned the corner we were right there. Can’t believe that we’d stopped just short of the cave.

We ditched the bags and dived into the crystal clear water. It’s about a 200m swim from the rocks to the entrance to the cave. After some initial trepidation Ralph jumped in and swam around with us enjoying the opportunity to cool off. 

The entrance to the cave is very narrow as you can see from the video below. Fortunately, you can swim under the water to get inside the cave as otherwise there was a risk that my slightly larger than normal head would become jammed between the rocks. Inside the cave is quite small, but there is a waterfall where someone has attached some ropes so that you can climb and jump off. I can’t remember who I’d been talking to, but I’d imagined a cross between Niagara Falls and something out of the film The Beach, so I was a little bit disappointed. Preconceptions aside, it was pretty cool and the water was nice and refreshing. 

Doing this walk at midday in the middle of summer here probably wasn't a great idea but Ralph found a way to keep himself nice and cold.

There are so many wadis to explore around Muscat which we are planning to do but from what I hear this is one of better ones !