Hadash-Wakan Hike

How does one even blog about a hike like this? First step: Lauren is moving and she has an Oman Bucket list. This hike between Hadash and Wakan Villages was on that list. We were really excited to do it with her. I was a little nervous but mostly just because I hate the drive to these little villages. We planned the hike with Jill and invited Brigham Sankar to come along. As I thought, the drive up had some bumps which included me driving Ratagast up a steep incline with the boys pushing. Thankfully he went away from the gully he was about to slide into and up the moon dust. We still had to stop a mile short of our destination which meant and extra mile of hiking straight up. Not the best embarkation but we survived.

The ENTIRE hike was stunning for starters. It was very different from what I'd expected for most of the hike. I'd imagined hiking along a ledge all the way between the two villages. Not so. Instead it was a scramble up a mountain, over the mountain, around the back of the mountain, up again and over the top of the mountain again, and then a fun bit along the edge in between carefully going straight down loose rock. Not for those weak in the knees. Or ankles. Or anything.

The weather was amazing. The heat in Muscat has reached a daily dose of 100 degrees. It isn't quite to the "drenched in sweat in the 45 seconds it takes to get into the car" hot but simply the "walk out the door and suddenly it feels like there's an invisible house falling on top of you" kind of hot. So even though we all came away with salt lines all over our back and necks from the wind drying our sweat so quickly, we were pretty comfortable. These Palm groves and villages are stunning.

This is the part I loved the most. Also what I'd imagined before embarking.

Near Hadash there is a purple mountain. I think it might be the one to the right in this photo but maybe not. Then there are green mountains and grey mountains depending on the color of the rock. When you're just going for hours across a mountain range, things can start to look the same when you look around. But then you notice things like the lone purple mountain and you realize that each bit is so unique if only you can discover its identity. 

Proof that once upon a time this mountain was an ocean floor.

It was all downhill from here. Like mostly straight downhill with a few exceptions.

Once we embarked into the Wakan Village the farming culture popped out. I'd never seen Pomegranate flowers metamorphosis into the fruit. An amazing transformation.  

I can't help singing about popcorn when I see this apricot fruit.

Pomegranate trees can be enormous.

Brigham was not a seasoned hiker and in the end he wasn't prepared for this hike. He didn't take our advice and eat a solid breakfast, he hadn't been getting good sleep and had no idea that it would be so difficult. At the end, I asked him if he thought he was going to make it at the beginning. He said no way. He didn't think so at all. I was super proud of him for continuing on. He actually didn't have much choice but he kept going in spite of the difficulty and he made it to the end. We were glad to have him with us.

The different Mountain flowers were really stunning. There were an infinitesimal number of butterflies out as well.

Growing old together. We definitely aren't getting any younger so to speak. 

These walls were powerful.

We have Alena and Saeida and Jen to thank for watching the kids while we were gone and making sure they had a lovely time. Thankful for Lauren's drive to accomplish and for the amazing conversation of Jill and Lauren.  Jill noted later that it was really nice how we would have one person leading off and for one reason or another they would step back and someone else would take the lead. It can be tiresome to both lead and to follow in their own ways. There was this lovely natural flow to the way we hiked, for the most part, which contributed to our success.  We were also incredibly grateful our car was indeed, still where we'd left it.