If you decide to make a road trip to Oman from the UAE with your own car, there are a few things to keep in mind:
- Get your car registration in physical form.
- Get Oman insurance for your car.
- Get your visa online.
- Don’t bring alcohol or pork with you if you don’t want it to be confiscated.
The last one, though, is that sometimes they check everything, and sometimes they don’t check anything, but it is best not to risk it.
Once you have crossed the border from the Al Ain side, this is the first outpost of Omani civilization you will see on your way. And there is not much else for about 100 kms.
Camping
So, we drove in one Friday night with the intention of spending our time on Jebel Shams Mountain (though it is redundant to call it a mountain, because Jebel is already a mountain). However, it takes about 5 hours (without border crossing) to get to Jebel Shams top, so after making a brief stop at the iconic Shell Petrol Station, we decided to settle for the night just after Ibri City.
Our camping location although seemed remote was still rather close to some village road that people were driving up and down until the wee hours (because it was Ramadan time and Arabs turn into vampires during Ramadan and only live at night). Anyway, we had a good meal, the sky full of stars and adventures promising to be happening tomorrow.
Al Bahla Fort
On the way to Jebel Shams, we decided to stop and visit Bahla Fort – UNESCO Heritage site. The fort and settlement, a mud-walled oasis in the Omani desert, owed its prosperity to the Banu Nebhan tribe (Nabahina), who dominated the central Omani region and made Bahla their capital from the 12th to the end of the 15th century. The entrance cost is 0,5 Omani Riyals and you can pay only by card.
We were the only visitors to the fort (if you don’t count the countless bats in every room of the premises), but we had a good time and were sort of lucky that the weather was overcast, because the large portion of the visit is outdoors.
Al Hamra Village
The next part of the adventure I visited was Al Hamra Village – a place at the foot of the Hajar Mountains. It is one of the oldest in Oman, and is interesting for its well-preserved row of two- and three-storey mud-brick houses built in the Yemeni style. There are many abandoned houses in the upper parts of the village, which make for an atmospheric stroll, and lots of palm trees outside through which you get to drive to arrive at the village.
The view from the top of the village:
The next adventure was supposed to be a drive on a riverbed on the bottom of Jebel Shams, but there was way too much water there (there has been quite some rain this season), so that was out of the question.
As for the drive to the mountain, make sure your car has steady breaks and ability to climb up. The road isn’t always paved and the views are amazing but impossible to capture to show the actual scale.
Once you reach the desired hight, enjoy the crazy view. We had all kinds of weather – wind, rain, sun… even rainbow.
Mostly got hustled by the goats the whole time. Had a couple join us for camping 100 meters away, but didn’t even say hi. In the morning was foggy. We sat at the edge, enjoying the coffee and the fresh air until the sun started to be a bit way too harsh.
All the photos in this post are mostly shot on Ricoh GRIIIx, but the last three are captured on Fujifilm XT-4.
Here is also a video of our adventure in a silent vlog style.
Thanks for tuning in and check out part two of the Oman Road Trip here:
https://playingwiththelight.com/2024/05/03/oman-road-trip-part-2-snake-canyon-bronze-age-towers
Good Luck!
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