Sheri village Hike in Wadi Naqab - RAK (Total Distance around 8km)

Sheri village Hike in Wadi Naqab - RAK (Total Distance around 8km)

Note:
Wikiloc didn’t mark the trail properly. Nevertheless we have captured all the key waypoints of the hike correctly. Total distance of the hike should be around 8km, not 4.53 km and Elevation around 500m.

We have tried Sheri Village hike around 2 years back, after we did Red Wall Hike. But we missed the main intersection point and continue on the main valley and came to a dead end where a huge rock standing like a wall. (No, we didn’t have the wikiloc at that time ) We had to came back as we didn’t have ropes / any other way to go across that. So this is our second attempt and this time we reached the summit without issues. One of the long pending hike for us 

Parking & hiking Start point:
We have parked on 25.715031,56.113063. Its 4x4 road, few kilometres away from the main road. Compared to the last time, road is far more better and could see even sedans also reached the same point, may be with careful driving. There is a prominent notice board on the left side on the road. (Refer WP1.1) Opposite to that, there are some empty spaces where we could park the vehicles.

From the place where this notice board is, you can clearly see the 4x4 road you came is continue straight. But there is another clear valley path on the right side. This is the path we took to go towards Sheri Village. (Refer WP1.2 & 1.3)

Beginning & Intersection:
First section of the hike is going through this valley surrounded by mountains in both sides. Soon you will come across some large flat rock formations as well (Refer WP2). Once cross that, then you will see 2 water tanks on the left side. (Refer WP5) Going further, you will come to an intersection. This is the main intersection of the entire Hike and you should not miss this (Last time we missed this). The valley you came is continue straight, but you will see steep hill on your right side, seems going all the way to the top of mountains. (Refer WP3) At the first glance, you will not feel this is the correct path to go ( You feel more like continue on the same valley you came so far) but we need to follow this steep hill. As we are deviating from the valley and start climbing, initial part is having sudden elevation with lose rocks.

Second Part of the hike.
Once you come to the correct path, this will go all the way to Sheri Village. There are no more major intersections. On the way, on the left side, you can see a bat cave as well. (Refer WP4) Its few meters deviation from the hiking path, so we didn’t try to climb and enter the cave. Along the path, you will see cement stairs which are really helpful. Also you will see trail marks made from rocks, as well as some arrow marks. Nevertheless, we just need to continue mainly the same way upwards. As the valley is few meters wide, rather than just trying to go in any path, In each corner, if you look closer, you will see some proper path which is easy to follow. You need to pass some narrow edges as well, so should be careful. (Refer WP5)

Reaching summit:
Once you reached the summit, you will see the Sheri village - a flat land with couple of stone houses. You will also see there are still more houses in further and you can continue exploring more. You will get a nice view of surroundings as well.

Way down:
After a well-deserved break at the top, we descended on the same route as we came. Only at the last section, just before join to the main intersection, we found another easy route which at the end connected to the main valley few meters down from the intersection where we started ascending. (Refer WP5)

Overall:
We wanted to start the hike early, but ended up starting around 07.15. We reached the main intersection in one hour time. With the small breaks in between, it took us another 2 hours to reach the sheri village, so overall 3+ hours for ascending. We took around 1hr break at the top. For descend also it took us 3 hours. We were exposed to Sun specially while descending, so better to start early. Cell coverage was available only in few points along the hike like in summit. As this is well known trail, we came across couple of other hiking groups as well.