Road Trip Around Oman by Tarun

Our road trip began on 19.3.2021. It was a 7 day drive around Oman covering the districts of Muscat, Dhofar, Al Wusta, Ad Dhakiliya, and Ash Sharqiya. We were to drive to Salalah on the 1st day and while returning along the coastal road, making stops at Duqm and Masirah Island.

Day 1

Our journey began at 7 am from Muscat. After stopping at Adam for breakfast, we continued our journey towards Haima. The road was barren and the trucks were our only companions. Once we reached Haima, we refueled our car and ate some ice cream! We reached Thumrait (a town close to Salalah) at around dusk.

On reaching Salalah we checked into the Crowne Plaza Resort. Spending my entire day in the car had made me quite restless, and I hit the pool without any further adieu. We had dinner at the Ocean Blue restaurant on the hotel premises.

  

Salalah is famous for its coconuts. A large number of coconut stalls can be found where fresh bananas and oranges are also sold!

Day 2 -  West Salalah

Today we were going to explore West Salalah. Our friend who we met in Jebel Shams was going to guide us around. 

We visited the magnificent Mughsail Beach. It was a long strip with many seagulls and cranes.

The Camel Kindergarten by the Shore

                                         

The Salalah beaches have an abundance of juvenile and adult camels. If you are lucky, one might even pop its head into your car window ( as it did for us!)

Then we visited The Mughsail Blowholes. There were 3 of them but as a result of the low tide, only one actually spewed water. The others were all noise, no water. 

It looked like there was some sort of cave under the blowholes. When the sea was in high tide, the water would go into the cave and splash around which would make water gush out through them.

About an hour later we did some off-roading through a Wadi. We were hoping that it would end up at a sea shore with a beautiful beach! But, when we reached the beach it wasn't a very pleasant sight. It was littered with garbage, plastic bottles, polythene bags etc... . It is such a shame that people had the heart to be so insensitive to the highly fragile marine ecosystem.

                                     

The Turtle with a Noose

 

We then drove to the Oman-Yemen border. We had to stay around 80km from the it as the border would not be safe in close proximity. There was a military check-post 100 km from the border where they checked all our ID's. Our destination was a small village called Shaat. There were 2 tourist attractions there- a sinkhole and the cliffside views. The Sink hole was unapproachable due to its sheer size! But, the cliffs surely didn't disappoint.

 It was a stunning sight with the sea crashing into the cliffside. It was 4pm to our astonishment, how I wish time would fly like this when I study.

Day 3 - East Salalah

The next day we were going to explore East Salalah, with a little help from google maps (quite a lot of help actually).

First we visited a store to get our snorkeling kits for the following day. On the way there, we took a detour to visit Wadi Darbat. It was a stunning site. The waterfalls and the aqua coloured water, left me spellbound. 

Further upstream was a beautiful valley with lots of camels. As we approached them by foot, they seemed to welcome us! It was a pleasant day, sunshine dotted by the shade of the trees, complemented with a cool breeze.

                                        

Our next stop was the Mirbat sands where sand dunes can be seen merging with the beach in perfect symphony. A few flamingos were spotted too. We were hoping to have lunch at a restaurant at Mirbat, however, when we reached, it was what looked like a small broken down fishermen village, with a few "commercial stores". So we had to settle with cupcakes and chips.

We had dinner with our friend at 'The Island' at Hawana Salalah. We went back to our hotel after that.

Day 4 - At the hotel

Long hours driving and walking during the last 2 days had left us exhausted. We spent most of our time lazing around at the pool and health club.

We had cup noodles for lunch, and for dinner we went to an Indian restaurant called The Udipi Restaurant at the heart of Salalah.

Day 4 - Drive to Duqm

The next day, our friends took us to a beach where we were supposed to be able to swim with dolphins. These dolphins ( only the mom and the babies ) would be just off the shore as they need to escape from their predators like killer whales and sharks. It was a 2-hour drive to that beach.

Sadly when we reached, there were no dolphins in sight. The only thing in the sea that could be seen were fishing boats and nets(The fishing boats must have warded them off). That didn't stop us from getting in the water. While snorkelling, we spotted bright yellow and gray fishes.

After that, we had some snacks and continued to Duqm while our friends headed back to Salalah. We had 100 km remaining on the deserted and dark road to Duqm. To our relief, we found another car and followed it untill the streetlights of Duqm started .  

 

In Duqm we stayed at a hotel called 'City Hotel Duqm'. We tried to order room service for dinner, but they already had 50 orders pending and told us it would take an 1 hour for the food to arrive. So we had another cup of pot noodles and had a hearty sleep.

Day 5 - Drive to Masirah

Today, we were going to drive to Shannah Port and board the ferry to Masirah Island. After having breakfast we started for the Rock Garden, before heading to the port. Google maps took us for a spin, but finally after making it to the garden, we found it to be closed.

We returned to our hotel, packed our bags, and continued to Shannah Port. On the way, we visited Al Khaluf Caves. The entrance of the cave continued to evade us, and after conducting an extensive search I finally discovered it. If not for the low tide, the cave would have been inaccessible.The pools of water within the cave had many colorful fish.

There were a lot of pink shells and we collected them.

The cave provided shade, making it a convenient lunch spot. Our next stop - 'The Pink Lagoons'. 

The pink lagoon wasn't even filled with water, just pink coloured mud. The lagoons were about 30 m from the beach and after clicking a few snaps, we headed to Shannah Port. Our ferry was scheduled for 5.

We reached the port at 2:15pm and headed to the ticketing office where we discovered that they required us to be present only 30 minutes prior to departure. So we had our tickets rescheduled for the 3pm ferry.

                                           

We stayed in a hotel apartment called 'Maan Hotel Apartments' because there was only 1 resort on the island which was full.

The Sunset at Masirah

We had dinner at a local restaurant called 'Restaurant Yemani'. The seafood there was fresh and delicious (it isn't too expensive). After dinner, we went for a drive along the east coast. There weren't any street lights, so we cut it short.

Day 6 - Masirah Island

Having decided to explore the island on road, we took route 51.

Route 51 of Masirah Island

We had lunch at a restaurant called 'White restaurant', where the seafood was simply delicious, especially their delectable fish fry. After that, we went to the NFC (National Ferries Company) office to get our tickets changed from that day at 11AM to the following day at 9AM. 

We stopped at a beach before reaching the village of Shiinzi. We tried wading our way to an island not far from the shore since it was low tide. Unfortunately, our attempt failed and  we continued our drive.

We stopped at many beaches with signboards saying 'TURTLES - BE CAREFUL' etc etc. Just like the beach at Salalah, most beaches here were also filled with litter. At one particular beach however, there was minimal litter and we tested out our amateur snorkelling skills. We returned to the main town about an hour later.

After having dinner, we took a nap and woke up at 10:30 PM for trying our luck in spotting turtles. We went  to the beach where we went snorkelling that afternoon to see if we could find turtles nesting. Sadly, we couldn't find any and returned disappointed.

    

Day 7 - Drive Back Home

We had a quick breakfast of boiled egg and toast and headed to the port. Just to let you know there isn't exactly a 'port' in Masirah Island, there are simply multiple docks, out of which one is used for transport from the mainland and back. 

After we reached Shannah Port we started our drive 3 hour drive to Sinaw where we would be stopping for lunch. We encountered many sand dunes on the road. Once we reached Sinaw we headed towards Lulu hypermarket where we bought some lunch. 

We then continued towards Muscat. We reached our home at around 4pm in the evening. 

Tips to Follow :

1) Adam - Thumrait road ( Route 31 )

• This is the start, from Adam to Salalah. The road is empty and barren, have enough emergency supplies. 
• It is a 3 and a half-hour drive from Adam to Haima
• Mirages are a common occurence on this road and it is best to drive with your lights ON.
• I recommend a short break at Haima as it takes another 5 hours to Thumrait. 
• There is cell reception on this road but for a few short stretches, there will be no signal.
• Also, beware of sand dunes on the road as they can act like ice at high speeds (>100 kmph)

2) Salalah - Duqm road ( Route 42 )

• This is the coastal road which has stunning views of the sea.
• It also happens to be a 7-hour journey without any stops. Clicking photos and counting in lunch breaks can extend it to about 8-9 hours.
• You may stop at some beaches before Haasik to go snorkelling. There will be a lot of fish.
• It is best to start early in the morning as it will get dark and there are no streetlights during the final 2 hours of roads. If it does get dark it is best to stay in the vicinity of other cars as it is not safe to drive alone in the dark especially in such a barren place.

3) Masirah Island

• This island is popular for kitesurfing.
• You can drive around the island on route 51. There are beautiful beaches where you can swim.
• Do not miss out on the amazing sea food.

Let us know in the comments if you are going to plan this amazing road trip. Don't forget to like the post!