Teacherinegypt: Mountain Trek

Friday morning Adrian, Helen and I set off on a mountain trekking adventure. We met at the Dolphin Club, where I left my car, and we rode in style in a brand new pistachio green jeep Wrangler. We met up with the other caravan members at a service station outside Muscat. The tour was arranged by the company Guide Oman. There were about 35-40 4x4s and quite a few people. The tour guides brought along all our food and a portable kitchen, where they prepared a feast for us at every meal, (4 in all). We drove along the highway for about an hour until about a half hour from Sur and then we turned off onto a mountain road. We climbed from sea level to 1350 meters. There were countless hairpin turns and on the switch back road. The road was alternately a very steep climb and steep descents. The road has been carved out of the side of the mountain, in fact the very roads I was looking at two weeks ago and thinking to my self, “I don’t want to go up there”. The sides have been shored up with the rocks taken out when making the road , so it was like a guard rail. Helen and Adrian drive like professionals and the Wrangler was very stable, so I wasn’t scared at all.

We climbed till we reached the plateau and we stopped for an awesome buffet lunch. Very good and lots of it. From there we went to see a huge sinkhole, which contains the world’s second largest cave. I stayed away from the rim.

We drove from there to a landing strip in the plateau, which made a very good camp site. We picked a spot, unpacked out gear and set up camp. In our circle we had 3 vehicles. We made a camp fire after a delicious supper and sat around till members started falling asleep in their chairs. Helen brought me a blow up mattress and I bought a sleeping bag, so I was all set. Next morning we were all up early and had some of Adrian’s coffee, before we went for breakfast at 8:00. The donkeys that live close by were up and braying and running around. The camels who most likely know they can get hand outs from campers, started coming in to camp as well. There were about 15 of them, and some were following people trying to eat their food. On the road again we drove on more of the same switch-backs, steep ascents and descents and more roads on the side of the mountain. We saw many beehive edifices, which are ancient structures, with their purpose still debated. They are made of stones and shaped into stout stone towers of many sizes. After that we began our descent into the valley. The way down was very rocky and bumpy, if I had a cream churn, we would have made butter long before w e reached the bottom. In the valleys we often drove in the wadi roads, which are roads in the dry or partially dry river beds, with lots of rocks. After about 30 or 40 Km of bumpy dusty roads we reached a large wadi with a deep pool. We were glad to have a swim while dinner was prepared. After dinner we set off and drove and drove over about 30 km of wadi roads, crossing streams often, till we reached the flat top road. Great time!