Wadi Dayqah overflows, a river is born

By Khaled H Abdul Malak -
kamkam@omantel.net.om -
LAST Friday, I had no plans for any outdoor trip. Early morning I was checking new posts on Facebook and I saw a video clip filmed from the air the day before showing the dam of Wadi Dayqah full and the authorities opened the dam gates to reduce the level of water. Actually heavy rain  fell the day before in Wadi Tayin.
I thought this is the chance to see the pools downstream in the wadi full of water.
I woke up my wife  to ask her if she would join me for the trip and she agreed. We packed quickly some food and drinks and took-off around 8am  towards Qurayat.
Just a few kilometers before reaching the exit to Wadi Dayqah I realised that I forgot my hiking shoes on the roof of my car when I put the bags in the vehicle. Too late to go back and find them somewhere on the road in Mawaleh or somewhere on the highway.
I decided to carry on and spend the day with my Crocs.
A few kilometres before the village of Mazara’ we drove into a lateral branch of Wadi Dayqah. When we reached the main wadi we were shocked by the flow of the water. We parked our car and started  hiking upstream in the canyon around 9.30 am. There was so much water that the wadi reminded me the rivers in Lebanon,  my motherland.
We encountered some young people playing in the water with inflatable boats letting themselves carried away by the current of the water.
In many places we had to cross the water from one side to the other side of the wadi in order to progress in the canyon. The flow was so strong and we had to be very careful not to fall in the water and hurt ourselves with the rocks.
The geology in Wadi Dayqah is fascinating! One can see the stratified colourful layers of the rocks hooting up towards the skies in a wavy movement.
The water was crystal clear and the colour of the pools was just marvellous with plenty of reed growing in some of them.
The place was very different since we came last time a few years ago.
After around 4 hours of hiking, swimming and “Croc-climbing“ we decided to stop and find a place to have lunch.
We hid from the burning sun in a shallow cave and had some snacks. After this short break we started walking back to our car. In one place the water carried a trunk of a palm tree and placed it on two boulders forming a natural bridge! On the left bank of the wadi we could see the remains of a fantastic old falaj built with stones and “sarooj” (traditional Omani cement). I wished I could travel in time to see this water channel when it was still flowing.
After 7 hours of trekking with my Crocs, my feet were hurting and I was happy to reach our vehicle; it was almost 4.30 pm.
Luckily the light was very good that day and I managed to do some good pictures.