Day 1
After a quick trip through and up Wadi Bani Awf in May 2007, I had planned to return with some friends on a more relaxed slower trip to appreciate this wadi with less of a time restriction.
Over the summer months I had discussed this with a few of my friends in ME4x4 and due to other circumstances some were unavailable, however a group of seven of us made up the final party.
The group consisted of, David & Karen (Discovery I), Shaun & sons (Discovery II), Mike, Jen and Robert (Mercedes G500), Ruba (Prado), Stefan (Prado), Killian & Monica (Prado), and of course myself with family (Discovery II).
All of us except Shaun met up at the EPPCO Dragonmart on what used to be the outskirts of Dubai at 0600, and headed towards the Hatta-Wajaja crossing for Oman. When we arrived at the UAE passport control we found queues of people crossing the road, it was a nightmare as three UAE immigration officers tried to cope with an onslaught of hundreds of people going to Oman for the weekend.
Queue at UAE Hatta passport control - Photo by Stefan Berg
After ONE hour we were processed and in the meantime I had also acquired Ian & Sheila Barker’s and Dave Aldis’s passports, giving them only a 10 minute wait.
The Oman side at Wajaja was more organized, although we had a minor hiccup when Mike (G500) had to return to the Omani customs post for a slip of paper that he had not been given. Shaun at this stage was past Sohar, so we decided to move on at 100 kph (David was running in a new engine anyway) and by the time we stopped just after the Rustaq turnoff for lunch, Mike was only 15 minutes behind and Shaun was at the turn off for Wadi Bani Awf. Dave and the Barkers passed by about 5 minutes before Mike heading up the same route.
Some Indian lads admire a young camel in the back of a pick-up truck
After re-fuelling at Rustaq we carried on to the turnoff for Wadi Bani Awf, where we met up with Shaun and collected some firewood, all of which was strapped to Stefan’s roof rack. We now began the trail into the wadi, which had a reasonable quantity of water flowing through it, with small fish I may add.
Running water
Soon we reached the point where low ratio was selected, and CDL engaged as we began the climb to 2,000 meters. The track was reasonable and although there were a few oncoming vehicles passing was not too much of a problem.
Well signposted
*****
