#YES_TO_OMAN

Exploring upper part of Wadi Bani Kharus

By Khaled H Abdul Malak — Early last year we went to Jabal Akhdhar to study the upper part of Wadi Bani Kharus. Our friend and “adopted son” Mihai Catrinar came on 8 March at dawn with the first flight from Abu Dhabi were he used to live. He worked there for the Canadian School as a sports instructor. He came to  join me and Marta my wife to explore the canyon starting from Al Soqrah. We did this trip to finish studying the canyon from both ends to do the full crossing later  in the same year. We began walking on the donkey trail on the east bank of the valley, crossing the abandoned village of Al Soqrah (inhabited until late last year) and going up in the mountain very steeply. The trail is still in good condition as the people from Al Soqrah are still using it to go and maintain their terraces in another abandoned village Al Kharrar around 2 kms downstream.

It took us roughly  one and a half hours to see the remains of the first  houses of Al Kharrar. The gardens are very well maintained and at that time of the year the peaches were in blossom with their superb pink flowers. We spent some time to take pictures in the village and had lunch under a walnut tree before we continued walking downstream  and  reached after around one hour  near a gigantic  waterfall of around 150m high. This was the end of our exploration of the upper part of the wadi and decided to walk back to our car in Al Soqrah following the trail on the west bank of the valley. At one place we saw a bridge built in the cliff with big trunks of trees and stones. The view of Al Kharrar is breathtaking from the other side of the canyon with its  stone houses and falaj system (irrigation canals).

Around two hours later we had to come down into the wadi bed and climb on the other side of the canyon to reach our car. The trail traverses another abandoned village called Mkheiti. There are numerous houses and their conditions show that it was deserted long time ago. The last part of our journey was quite tough as the ascent to our car we parked in Al Soqrah was extremely steep and our legs were tired after around six hours of hiking. It was almost 5pm when we reached our vehicle. For Mihai this kind of trips are his dose of oxygen for the next few weeks before he comes back to his beloved country Oman for another “Majaneen trip” (crazy trip).

Monday 03rd, March 2014 / 01:03 Written by Khaled H Abdul Malak 

in Features, Main