Walking the Hajar mountains and the wadis

This is not a trekking destination in summer. Not a difficult one, not a hot one, not one requiring an early start. Not one at all. From May to September the Hajar mountains are dangerous to walk in, and the wadis, which look like the answer to heat because there is water in them, are worse, because a gorge in bare rock at 110F (43C) traps and reflects heat with no shade and no breeze. People are rescued off these mountains every summer and some are not rescued in time. We will not build a walking route here between May and September and no amount of asking will change that.

From November to March it is a different range entirely, and one of the better walking regions in the wider Middle East.

What the Hajar actually is

A limestone range running roughly 400 miles (650 km) down the eastern edge of the Arabian peninsula, from the Musandam inlets in the north through the UAE and along the length of northern Oman. Bare grey and ochre rock, sharply folded, almost no vegetation, rising abruptly out of gravel plains. Jebel Shams, the high point, reaches about 9,900 feet (3,009 m).

There is no forest, no meadow and very little soil. What there is instead: gorges cut hundreds of feet into the rock with water at the bottom, terraced villages built where a spring emerges, falaj channels carrying water along contour lines for miles, and abandoned stone villages on ledges that people walked to for centuries and left in the last fifty years.

The walking is on rock, on donkey paths and on falaj edges. It is more exposed and less waymarked than European hill walking, and the rock is sharp on hands and boots.

Jebel Jais, in the UAE

The most accessible mountain day from Dubai, about two and a half hours by road into Ras Al Khaimah.

The road climbs to around 6,345 feet (1,934 m), the highest in the country, and the temperature at the top runs ten to fifteen degrees Fahrenheit below the coast. In January it can be close to freezing at dawn up there, which is not what people packed for.

What is at the top. A viewing park, a restaurant, and a lot of built infrastructure. There is a zipline and a via ferrata, both commercially run, both genuinely well operated, and both a set piece rather than a mountain experience. That is a fine thing to be and we book them for people who want them.

The walking. There is a marked trail system on the mountain of varying quality, running from short viewpoint loops of thirty minutes to longer ridge sections of three to four hours. The paths are rough, the drop-offs are real, and the marking is inconsistent by European standards. This is a genuinely good half day in January and February with a guide who knows the route.

Honest verdict. Jebel Jais is worth a day from Dubai for the drive, the air and the change of register. As a walking destination it is a taste of the range rather than the range itself. The real thing is across the border.

Wadi Shab, Oman

The single best half day on the Omani coast, about two hours from Muscat towards Sur.

The shape of it. Park at the roadside. A boatman takes you across a pool at the mouth of the gorge for a couple of dollars, which takes three minutes. Then roughly 45 minutes of walking on a rock path along the side of the gorge, above turquoise pools, with some scrambling and a few exposed sections but no technical difficulty. At the end, three linked pools you swim through, and at the back of the last one a narrow slot in the rock, barely wider than your shoulders, that opens into a cave with a waterfall falling into it.

Real difficulty. The walk in is moderate: uneven rock, some hands-on scrambling, hot even in season, roughly 40 to 60 minutes each way. The swim is the part people underestimate. It is about 100 metres of swimming in total across the linked pools, in cool water, carrying nothing, and the slot into the cave requires you to be comfortable in water in a confined space. If you are not a confident swimmer, walk to the first pool, sit in it and turn around. That is still a very good morning.

Practicalities. You cannot carry a bag through the swim, so you take a dry bag or leave things. Wear shoes you can walk and swim in. Start at 8am. By 11am on a Friday it is busy.

Time budget. Four to five hours from car to car including the swim and sitting still for a while, which you should.

Wadi Bani Khalid, Oman

Roughly three hours from Muscat, on the eastern side of the Hajar, usually combined with the Wahiba Sands.

This one is the opposite of Wadi Shab in effort. The main pools are a short flat walk from the car park, they are large, deep, green and permanent, and there is a restaurant beside them. You can be swimming five minutes after parking.

That accessibility is why it is busy on Fridays and Saturdays and why some people arrive expecting solitude and find a family day out. On a weekday morning in January it is close to empty and it is beautiful.

The walk beyond. Past the main pools, a path continues up the wadi for an hour or so towards Muqal cave and a series of smaller pools, and this is where the people stop being. The cave itself requires crawling and a torch and is optional. The walk up the wadi bed is worth doing on its own.

Modesty in the water. Both wadis are used by local families and both are in a conservative country. Swim in shorts and a t-shirt rather than swimwear. This is not a formality, it is a courtesy that is noticed.

Snake Gorge and the Jebel Shams balcony walk

Two more, for people who want the real thing.

The Jebel Shams balcony walk (W6). A path along a ledge cut into the wall of Wadi Ghul, the deepest gorge in the region, ending at the abandoned village of As Sab. Roughly 4 miles (6 km) each way, three to four hours return, almost flat, with a continuous and substantial drop on one side and no barrier. If exposure bothers you, this is not your walk. If it does not, it is the best half day of walking in Oman.

Snake Gorge (Wadi Bimmah). A canyon descent with swimming, jumping and downclimbing, three to five hours, guided only, wet throughout. Genuinely adventurous and genuinely requires a guide with the route and the water levels in their head. We arrange it for people who want it and we do not put it in a general itinerary.

The comparison

The heat, said once more

One more hazard that is not heat. Wadis flood. Rain falling on bare rock miles upstream arrives as a wall of water in a gorge where the sky above you is clear. It happens a handful of times a year, mostly between December and March, and it is the other reason we use guides who check the forecast for the catchment rather than for the car park.

What to bring

Shoes with grip that you do not mind soaking. Far more water than you think, three litres a person minimum. A hat and long sleeves rather than more sunscreen. A dry bag for Wadi Shab. Something warm for a mountain night, which genuinely surprises people. A head torch if you are anywhere near Muqal cave.

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