Chasing the rain in Wadi Bani Kharous

We love Wadi Bani Kharous: it is a beautiful wadi close to Muscat, accessible by salon car and offers plenty of hiking opportunities - you can read about all our visits here. There are many villages in the wadi as well and this time we decided to explore these. It also happened to be a weekend with rain-forecast and we hoped to experience it - when rain comes, people in wadis flock the streets and it is really special to be part of it!

The most famous village is Al Alyla or Al Ulyah in google maps - it is a starting point of multiple treks but the village itself is also worth to explore. It has been developed as a tourist destination - there are signs, viewpoints and stairs making it an easy stroll. Here are the details and locations:

👉You can park in multiple places but for exploring the village the most convenient is around 23.1802,57.6488. This is in the wadi bed and you will see a sign pointing into 2 directions.

👉The marked wadi path will take you to a nice trek where you eventually can reach a farm, Ad Dar or even continue to Jabal Akhdar which is a multi day trek - we only did a part of it, it is quite steep and challenging.

👉The farm path will take you to a view point and you can follow the falaj into the plantations.

👉 Or you can walk up to the village - you will see the stairs leading up from the wadi bed.

The village is lived in and super charming with beautiful doors and amazing details - it is well worth to spend time just to wonder around in the narrow streets. From the view point you can enjoy the beauty of the oasis and the view of the whole wadi.

The clouds were gathering and eventually we got lucky and got rain, a lot actually, the kind when impromptu waterfalls started everywhere - check out the video at the end of the post to see it for yourself!

The other village we explored does not seem to have a name or not in google maps at least but it is close to Murrah, maybe it is a part of it - the location is 23.1864,57.6320. It does have an absolutely stunning mosque partly hidden among the palm trees - very picturesque. The village is small but has a few old buildings and old doors. It is also very close to the cluster of Yemeni style houses, I wrote about them here (their location is at 23.1852,57.6356).

 

And finally here are some details and pretty shots from driving around in the wadi!