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 !

Ramadan Mubarak

So yesterday was the first day of Ramada in Oman.  This is my first experience of Ramadan and having heard many stories and seen a mass evacuation of the local expat community I have to admit that I’m a little nervous.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. As the Islamic calendar is based on the lunar calendar, the exact dates can vary depending where you are in the world.  You would have thought that with all the world’s scientific knowledge it would be easy to determine the cycle of the moon. I mean, what on earth was Jenny doing at university for 4 years? No, don’t answer that! So it turns out that Oman has an official “moon sighting committee” who gaze into the sky and decide when the new moon will be seen. In my mind I think it’s an old man sitting on a hill gazing into the sky waiting for the moon to appear and then sending signals into the village with classical music playing in the background Something like one of those old Warburtons adverts. However, I guess in reality it’s a bit more complicated than that.

Ramadan is the Muslim month of fasting. Each day during this month, Muslims all over the world abstain from eating, drinking, smoking, as well as participating in anything that is ill-natured or excessive; from dawn until the sun sets. Restraint from everyday enjoyment and curbing wicked intentions and cravings are considered as an act of compliance and obedience to God, as well as amends for sins, faults, and mistakes.

Here is a list of all the do’s and don’ts.

So, in reality what this means for us is that we can’t eat or drink in public during the day, including water. Everything seems to take twice as long to get done as people are tired and have a lack of energy. It must be pretty tough to get your body used to it and would take a lot of discipline to stick to it.

So 2 days in and it’s not too bad. Only 27/28 more to go…