The next day we took a tour to Wadi Shab. Wadi Shab is another top tourist draw for Oman. It is basically a canyon with an oasis in the middle, and with a hiking path through it. The route to get there was not easy. At first it started easy, along a modern highway.
We visited Quriyat, where we explored an old fort. As we turned towards the coast, the highway turned into a dirt road, as it was still under construction. The dirt road went in and around the new highway. We’re not sure when the highway will be open all the way to Wadi Shab – even the semi-completed (but unused) sections were in bad shapes, as we saw several places where rains had washed out the side of the road. Not a good start for a road that’s not even open yet! Given that, our recommendation is to take a tour to get to Wadi Shab. The signposts were not clear, and the road was rough. We were left wondering several times how our driver chose a dirt road from the many forks.
When I visited in Dec 07 the roads were still poor. Our driver took a “short cut” that turned out to be a trip in a rocky field. The new highway was still being constructed by the Turkish and the Chinese, and was not open. We also saw lots of sections that had been washed away by the flash floods after the rain.
Definitely not a drive to be attempted on your own.
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The new road is now open, blacktop all the way to Wadi Shab. Very easy drive.
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Bear in mind that Oman suffered a devastating cyclone in mid-2007. There was immense damage to roads and infrastructure which had probably not been fully repaired at the time of your visit.
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