A day at the Wadi

After a long week of training at work it was time to get out and about to see some of Oman. Together with Dale, Cath, Sophie and Jessie, we went on a day trip to Wadi As Suwah.

'Wadis are (usually) dry gullies, carved through the rock by rushing floodwaters, following the course of seasonal rivers'. (n.b thankyou again residents guide to Oman).
Dale and family picked me up in their family 4WD early and I hopped into the back seat, with the other kids, and then settled into a 3 hour drive with the girls and Winnie the Pooh on the in-car-headrest DVD players.....who'd have thought that 'fun' ryhmes with 'sun'.....thankyou Tigger!

We drove for about an hour South Eest on the bitumen before we entered the rocky and barren Hajar mountains for a bit of 4WD action. The road was fairly good with only a couple of roughish spots to negotiate. Cath was navigating from the 'Explorer Oman Off Road Guide', and after only one wrong turn near 'The Big Tree Trunk' we arrived at our Wadi a further 2 hours later. The guidebooks directions were to park under the sign proclaming that 'Drowning accidents are now popular'! So we did.

After parking we glanced upon our oasis in these semi-arid lands. Staring back at us was a beautiful little green watering hole surrounded by cliffs, with a half meter wide, four meter high waterfall feeding the little pool. Well this was all well and good, however there didn't seem to be any easy way to get to this little slice of heaven, especially with two little girls and all their supplies, and three Australian adults and all their supplies, obviously with a large esky in the equation.

After scouting around for an easy way down we gave up and decided upon the least hard way! Dale went first, in thongs, down the hot slippery rocks, with Sophie in his arms, myself following with small esky, chair and my supplies. The first party made it down safely to the edge of the water then started a short wade through the pool to our lunch spot. It turns out the rocks were small and slippery, and on our way up the slippery rock bank Dale lost his left thong in the water in amongst the rocks, and I lost lost my right!

Undefeated though, and with one good pair of thongs between us, Dale headed back up the hot precipice, in odd looking thongs, to ferry down his remaining daughter, while I remained to look after his first born and attempt to retrieve our lost thongs. A task that was to prove more difficult than it sounds!

After 10 minutes or so Dale was back down. I grabbed Jessie, while Dale ascended again with my emptied out swimming bag to bring down his supplies, and to guide Cath down who also had her arms full of supplies....Pheeeeew!

With all the group now down the cliff, with most of our gear, we now got on with the enjoyable business of relaxing. Camp was set up, lunch was taken, then it was time for a swim. I donned the goggles and flippers and went on a thong retrieval mission, much like my University days....hang on, where did that come from?

The gaggle of Crowe's joined me in the search which managed to turn up Dales left one after about 10 minutes. After another 10 it was time to abandon my lost Brown Havaiana and check out the watering hole. (n.b the small, thong stealing rocks are far too F*&^$g hot to negotiate in bare Australian feet!)

The water was a nice temperature, maybe 27 degrees, full of tiny little fish of unknown parentage, rocks, the odd empty wine bottle, and also little worm-like creatures which may be responsible for a couple of bites on both Dale and I. For a small pool the water was quite deep and very pressurised. I did a couple of dives but could only just get to the bottom, maybe 5 meters, before the pressure was too much and I had to come up....strange for such a little pool.....maybe the enclosed space and heat have something to do with the water pressure?

We fooled around for a while in the water, before relaxing over a beer and some more food.

After some chip eating, we swum and played again, thong searched again, then decided on the best way to get ourselves out of the Wadi. If you look to the left of the waterfall, your right, you may just notice the previous 'course of the seasonal river', which was our prefered option of climbing out.

As you can imagine, a flowing water course makes for slippery rocks, and it was with great skill, effort, and determination that we got 2 young and tired girls, 3 adults and supplies out of our haven, and with only one thong swap, we managed it without any injuries!

(n.b Fortunately Dale didn't have the camera handy to snap a photo of me in my left thong and right flipper on as I made my way back to the car :)

Thankfully two tired girls made for two sleepy girls on the way home which meant I could watch the Wiggles Big Red Car in peace. I also saw the history of the Wiggles which was very interesting, seriously! Those two little girls don't know what they missed...although Cath tells me they may have seen them once or twice before.....and going by her knowledge of the lyrics I reckon she has too!

I think I could have been a Wiggle, I think Jeff with the purple skivy is just my style. Although I can hear a few of you out there saying WAKE UP CRAIG!

A tiring, however very enjoyable day in Oman :-)