Way back when I first arrived in Oman Wadi Bani Awf was my first wadi and remains to this day my favourite. Of course back then it wasnt black topped (at all). Frequent repeat trips were always a new unpredictable experience as frequent rain and floods in the mountains and wadis regularly ensured a new and different track. The ease of access was controlled by the Asian contractors who semed to be permanantly on site to bull-doze a new track to local villages.
I’d read about flash floods and how dangerous they were, and on an early visit when the sky darkened and thunder crashed around me and all hell was released such that the sides of Wadi Bani Awf spouted water far out into the wadi. Not waterfalls but shutes of water landing far away from the base of the cliffs. I’d read that flash floods arrived quickly and with the sound of an approaching train. It was hard to believe as those who told the tale were referred to as “lucky” or “survivors” or both. I experience my first flash flood in Wadi Bani Awf.
Just as I approached Snake Gorge i saw a “wall of water” ahead of me. Well actually it was a wall of sticks, platic bottles and carrier bags and all of the assorted rubbish left behind by locals and visitors in most of Oman. It was about a foot high and moved with the power of a parish council and the speed of a hobbled camel. They were the days when signs saying “if the water is at red do not cross” baffled tourists.
But these simply referred to red and white painted poles by the side of dips in the road (and even the fast highways) and saying if the water is up to the white paint on the pole, drive with care, but if it has reached the red it is too deep to enter.
How to get there.
(Hint: Click on any of the red waypoints and you will redirect to Google Maps which will give you a route with timings etc from your current Locaton)