Day Trip to Oman

We were invited by friends of ours to join them for a day trip to Wadi Madbah, just a few hours away in neighboring Oman. We knew it would be hot, but jumping into cool swimming holes fed by a mountain stream was way too tempting to turn down, so off we went.

Hannah took this nice photo of beautiful flowers against the rugged mountains of Oman.

After about 5 kilometers of driving on a very rocky road, we reached the start of a short hike to the wadis.


Goats do roam, on the way to the wadi.


The lower wadi was small, but deep enough to jump into.


More jumping...


Our friend Tim, jumping in.

There was another wadi a few minutes up the trail. This one was just deep enough for wading, but we saw lots of fish and a nice row of frogs keeping cool in the shade. A small water fall fed the wadi, but the cliff surrounding the fall was too steep to climb, so we turned around and headed back to the cars.

At the last minute we decided to drive around the cliffs to check out the upper wadi. This was the best wadi yet. The pool was bigger and deeper and had lots of options for jumping. The canyon got so narrow at the far end that there was only room for swimming. If you stretched your arms out, you could touch both walls of the canyon.

We jumped from higher and higher cliffs.

The view from the plateau at the top of the cliff.

We picnicked nearby, at a place called Wonder Wall.

Wonder Wall is known for rock climbing. We didn't have ropes, but some of our group still had the energy, even in the heat, to hike up to some shallow caves.

The view from the caves.

A cool striated mountain next to Wonder Wall.

Hannah had so much fun at the wadi that she wanted to go back again, with a few friends, to celebrate an early birthday party. And so we did. Just this past weekend. More on that later.