Recently, I professed my love for Muscat and its surroundings. There’s another area in Oman which I’m incredibly fond of, namely Musandam. Musandam is a peninsula next to the Strait of Hormuz. It’s an exclave of Oman because it’s surrounded by the United Arab Emirates, so to get from Muscat to Musandam, you have to drive through the UAE.
It’s actually quite easy to reach Musandam from Abu Dhabi, you just drive the whole way along the coast; past Dubai, past Sharjah and finally past Ras-Al-Khaimah. Then you cross the border into Oman. This border crossing is quite administrative (pay here, pick up a ticket there, drop off the ticket at the next counter) but it’s hassle free when it’s not busy.
The road from the border town Tibat to Khasab (the capital of Musandam) is gorgeous. It’s only a 90 minute drive because Musandam is not very big. The whole way you drive by the coast with a view over the Strait of Hormuz.
Bukha Fort
On the way you can drive up to Bukha Fort to enjoy the view over the area. You’ll have the mountains at your back while you’re looking over the town and towards the sea.
Tawi
lkAccording to the Lonely Planet of Oman, UAE & Arabian Peninsula, there is a village called Tawi with pre-historic rock carvings of boats, warriors and houses.
And this is a prime example of how sometimes tourism in this region can fail. According to the Lonely Planet: “to reach these petroglyphs follow a track up Wadi Qida, just before Qida village for 2.3km. The petroglyphs are etched into two rocks on the left, just before a large white house with outdoor ovens.” However, there are no signposts. Sure, there is a sign for Tawi and Qida, but the signs are all pointing in different directions. There is no sign at all of Wadi Qida. The same happened when we were driving around the Muscat area, looking for Wadi Mayh. We ended up driving for about fifteen minutes, until we came up to a dirt track which seemed to be someone’s back garden. No white house with outdoor oven or petroglyphs in sight…
Khor An-Najd
Then we decided to drive past Khasab to go straight to Khor an-Njad. The only khor accessible by car (4×4 is not needed). It’s 24.5km south-east of Khasab, so it’s not a very long drive. The view from the khor is gorgeous. There is a reason they call Musandam: Norway of Arabia. The structure of the mountains of Musandam resemble the fjord landscape in Norway.
I didn’t have my DSLR back then, I bought it a month after this trip, so the pictures are not the best quality but they should give a good impression of the immense beauty of Musandam and its khors.
You can drive all the way down to where the ships are and you can probably take a boat into the khors, where you can spot dolphins, but due to a long day of driving we decided to skip this activity.
Al-Khaldiyah
Instead we drove back the way we came, but not back towards Khasab, we drove a little bit further to Al-Khaldiyah. I had heard so many stories about the beauty of the trees of Musandam that I had to see it for myself. And luckily, Al-Khaldiyah was a perfect place to spot these trees, it’s an inland bowl full of mature trees. I love the desolate feeling you get when you look at these melancholy trees, but at the same time it looks otherworldly. I have never seen trees like this before with those mountains in the backdrop.
Khasab
That wraps up one full day of driving from Abu Dhabi to Musandam and sightseeing in the area. The reason for the trip was to go on a snorkeling excursion, which I will describe in my next post. Extra Divers came highly recommended so we booked the accommodation (a great guesthouse for a very reasonable price) and the trip with them before travelling to Musandam.
The town of Khasab has a few sights worth seeing according to the Lonely Planet, but we arrived in Khasab on a Friday and everything was closed. The next day we would be out on the water all day so I can’t tell you how the sights in the town were. There are not many hotels in town, but we found one which has a great view over the mountains and delicious hamour, Atana Khasab.
Conclusion
I’m sure I have lauded Oman plenty, but I can’t stress enough how beautiful this country is! Not many tourists go to Oman, but they’re missing out. I’ve only been to Musandam and Muscat which are gorgeous, but I’ve heard there are so many more beautiful places further inland. I’m itching to go back one day to travel through the country properly, but for now all I can share with you is my enthusiasm and maybe it’ll catch on. In my next post, I’ll describe my snorkeling experience in the fjords of Arabia.
