I'll Go Wherever You Will Go!: canyoning

Finally summer seems to be ending and with it the mercury is falling. This signals the time to start getting out and about again exploring the countryside and sampling the adventures that Oman has to offer. Looking for a bit of adrenaline and with a full week of public holidays for Eid, we booked to do the Wadi Ta'ab trip with Muscat Diving and Adventure Centre.

Wadi Ta'ab is located about two hours drive from Muscat just outside the town of Fins. Despite the relative closeness, we decided to drive down the night before and camp over. We thought this would be a much more relaxing option rather then having to get up at 5am. With hindsight, maybe not so!

We met up with Gil and Amy and headed in convoy down the coast. Once we arrived at Fins we turned off the highway onto a smaller road which soon disappeared into a very dusty dirt track. We drove for about half an hour until we were about a third of the way up the Salma plateau and found somewhere to base ourselves for the night.

With the light fading fast we set up our tents, got the barbecue lit and sat back to take in the scenery and appreciate the peacefulness. The temperature was perfect, not too hot, not too cold and there wasn't a breath of wind. After enjoying a hearty bowl of Irish stew (only slightly ruined by Jenny's insistence of adding dumplings) we settled down for the night. That was until about midnight when a hurricane seemed to blow in out of nowhere.

The wind was so strong it was picking up corners of the tent. Given the fact that we were camped on a ledge with about a 500m drop into the gorge, we decide that the best plan of action was to decamp, let the tent down and move to the back of the jeep to sleep. All was going to plan until the jeep developed some kind of fault such that the interior lights would not switch off. After about an hour searching in vain for the fuse panel, I surrendered and taped up the lights only for them to go off by themselves about 10 minutes later.

However, it was not just the wind that was an issue, the temperature seemed to rise by about 10 degrees making it practically impossible to sleep. One of the benefits of not being able to sleep was being up early enough to see the sunrise.

So after a eventful and restless night, we were joined in the morning by our guides for the day Justin and Rob and two other gentlemen taking part in the trip.

The trip starts with about an hour long hike into the Wadi. By the time we actually reached the entry point everyone seemed pretty glad to be getting out of the hot sun and into the shade.

We started with a nice short abseil into the wadi. Despite the simplicity of the first abseil it did signify the point of no return.

After a short walk on we reached the first 50m abseil. It has been a very long time since I've done any kind of abseiling, but once I was over the edge it all came back like it was yesterday.

We descended into "the cauldron" which is sometimes filled with water. Unfortunately for us it was empty which meant we had to climb out.

Waiting to go over the top

Climbing through "the keyhole"

Climbing out of "the cauldron"

After a short walk we arrived at the second 50m abseil. This time it ended with a jump into the water which was nice and refreshing.

As we continued on through the wadi clouds started to appear overhead. This was concerning because if it does start to rain the wadi is not a good place to be. We started to speed up a bit just in case.

After a couple more shorter abseils we made it to the bottom of the wadi. It hasn't rained in a while so the pools at the bottom of the wadi were full of weeds which got tangled up around your ankles and wrists as you tried. I swear I'm going to have nightmares about this for weeks.

To get out of the wadi we had to climb. The MDAC has set up a via corda which meant we were protected as we climbed. On the way up, our guide Rob had to remove the rope and one of the carabiners got stuck so it took some time to get it removed. By the time everything got sorted it was dark. Luckily for us it was nearly a full moon. Although a little bit nerve wracking, climbing out in the dark added to the excitement.

We had a great day but I was glad to get back to my bed.

Big shout out to all the staff at MDAC who are fantastic and seriously know their stuff. Really easy to book the trip, good level of training prior to it and a great blend of fun and adventure on the day. I highly recommend using professionals like Justin and Rob for this kind of adventure!

One of the things that has been on the "bucket list" since arriving in Oman is to go canyoning in Snake Canyon. Snake Canyon is a narrow gorge in Wadi Bank Awf, which gets its name from the way it winds its way through the Al Hajar mountains (rather than being full of live snakes!).

We met up with our guide Rob from Oman Adventure early doors before setting off on the 2 hour drive to the start of the trail. There were 6 of us on the trip, Jen and I, friends Gill, Dawn and Amy and another girl Kristal. We left one of the cars at the bottom of the canyon (and remembering to take the keys with us!) we drove the other 2 up to the starting point which is about a 10 minute drive away and got kitted up.

We were very fortunate that there had been some rain in the week preceding our trip so the pools were quite full. However, due to the rains the depth of the pools had also changed due to rocks and silt being washed down. After a 5 minute walk into the start of the canyon, Rob took the plunge first to test the depth of the water and once we all took the initial plunge we were committed to keep going as climbing back up the algae covered soft rock is near impossible.

The walk through the canyon involves hiking, jumping, climbing and sliding across and over rocks.

There are 2 main walks through the canyon. They have different starting points, but come together in the middle for the final section. When we reached the point where the 2 meet, we decided to take a walk into this area of the canyon to see what the next trip would be like. Just a few minutes walk in there is a rock about 6m tall, just asking to be jumped off.