Wadi Habel - a wadi in Muscat with fun rock-formations
We continue to explore the wadis at the outskirts of Muscat - so many of them! And they are all different. Wadi Habel was a great surprise - it is very close to the famous Aqbiyah pools, in fact they are neighbors, you can see Aqbiyah from here and it also possible to hike between the two locations. There are not many people left in this settlement, we only saw an old man tending the goats but it is clear that it used to be a busy wadi - there are many dried up terraces around and most likely they used to have much more water .
It is a bit tricky to find the way into the wadi - there are some arrows, but they tend to blend in - they were red on reddish rock, white on a rock with loads of white patches and green on a rock next to a tree - keep your eyes open. Some pointers:
- you park here: 23.4640, 58.2987. From here you have to keep towards your right side to the direction of the wadi. The entrance is pretty nice, it is worth to explore as well.
- around here there a mushroom shaped rock: 23.459514, 58.298226. From here you keep towards right, later we saw that used to be a path on the side of the mountains but it seems it got washed away so now it try end error a bit.
- this is where we saw the first white arrow followed by a few: 23.458955,58.298324. You climb up on what seems to be abandoned terraces until you reach a plateau. From here towards your right is the wadi. It is worth to explore the plateau as well, from here you can see Aqbiyah: the palm trees, the old watchtower and the abandoned old village ruin.
The wadi itself it pretty straightforward, the trickier parts had some pointers (arrows or stone stack). Around 23.4513,58.2909 was the point of return for us - the wadi seems to end here, but looking at the map it continues on the other side of the wall. This wall, or dry waterfall did have an arrow, so I guess it is possible to climb up and continue on the other side, but it seemed to be above our skill level.
Other: we came in the morning and the wadi was mostly in shade so probably pretty doable even in warmer weather.
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