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RAK/Mussandam - Coast to Coast trip - Day 3

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Trail stats

Distance
16.68 mi
Elevation gain
1,250 ft
Technical difficulty
Very difficult
Elevation loss
4,022 ft
Max elevation
4,166 ft
TrailRank 
32
Min elevation
1,104 ft
Trail type
One Way
Time
8 hours 28 minutes
Coordinates
29730
Uploaded
October 9, 2016
Recorded
January 2012
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near Ghabīb, Musandam (Sultanate of Oman)

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Trail photos

Photo ofRAK/Mussandam - Coast to Coast trip - Day 3 Photo ofRAK/Mussandam - Coast to Coast trip - Day 3 Photo ofRAK/Mussandam - Coast to Coast trip - Day 3

Itinerary description

After Camping the 2nd night at Ghabib on the plateau we set off to continue on the ridge south. However we were met with a vertical wall with an exposed and committing corrugated ridge line. We circled the plateau area looking for the best decent routes. Initially following a small stream leading us to a vertical drop of a couple of thousand feet, before taking a foreboding looking wadi on the eastern side, initially exciting but a smooth sharp drop meant returning back up. We finally found a descent path, presumable used to get the the farm which was very faint and hard to follow which worked its way along the south side of the wadi with absolutely stunning views.

(The maps available in the UAE have roughly a 90m level of detail for topography, meaning that anything smaller than that tends to be smoothed out. Therefore 'steps' and gorges inthe landscape are sometimes unpredictable and a lot of time must be left for re-routing and re-routing again.)

We then descended with the path become very unclear so navigated our own route down to the village at the start of the flat wadi section. There were a few exposed scrambles on loose sandy rocks in this which could possibly be avoided. (Needs further exploration).

Once at the village we walked out along the relatively flat wadi section with cliffs towering on either side, before finally arriving down in Wadi Bih.

Once here we walked along to the military post situated at the Dibba/Rak junction, with gps tracking finishing in this section. This was a long and slightly less exciting part of the trip.

The military post only allows passing for GCC nationals and people with Oman Residency Visas. It can be approached from the dibba side and the side we came from, but without meeting the criteria (or a lot of persuading) you can't pass. The section between here at the RAK UAE border control point is again out of access to none GCC nationals.

Therefore this route would greatly benifit from either a supporting pick up from the khasab road, or a return route back to the west coast.

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