Oman road trip: swimming wild at Wadi Bani Khalid

After a fantastic couple of days seemingly on top of the world in mountains we felt it was time to descend into the heart of the country. We didn’t know how this would go as we were still at the tail end of the hot season, so we could be in for some uncomfortably warm nights and hot days with no guarantee of much shade.

From Jebel Akhdar to Wadi Bani Khalid is a pretty long leg of driving (some 350km depending on your route), so we were awake and away promptly. We drove back down the steeply winding Jebel Akhdar road, through the police checkpoint and on to the main road to Nizwa. The mission here was to get a quick sight of the Nizwa fort – a quick sight only though because several people had told us it wasn’t really worth going into these days.

There would be little to note about the drive to Wadi Bani Khalid save for the fact that we saw our first camels by the roadside. At the time this felt quite an event, and for the kids it was the first hint that after some time in the rocky mountains we were indeed heading into ‘proper desert’. As it turned out, there would be plenty more camels in our future.

Some parts of Oman seem to be awash with Wadis, but the term ‘Wadi’ covers a wide range of features, from a little dried up stream to approaching river-scale water courses. Wadi Bani Khalid is well known with a good reputation for two reasons important for us: a) as a good swimming destination, and b) there being very little walking distance between where one parks and the swimming action – good for the kids given the heat of the day.

The detour to Nizwa combined with a pretty substantial brunch meant we arrived at the Wadi mid-afternoon. A great time for a refreshing dip in the freshwaters of the Wadi. There were remarkably few people around but we heard that it gets a lot busier at weekends and in the main tourist season.

As it flows down the canyon the Wadi has created a series of pools. The first pool we came across was somewhat unpromising for swimming – not stagnant, but not moving a great deal with some weed growing at the edges. Pushing on up the valley to the subsequent pools and the full magnificence was revealed. Crystal clear pools with small fishes that nibbled at the feet if you stayed still for long enough, fed by some small waterfalls further up.

We all got in and explored, with Rafe in particular loving jumping and diving off a couple of the rocks. At one point Rafe disappeared climbing up the rocks at the back of one of the pools, only to reappear sliding down a small waterfall into the pool below, as he happily told us ‘on my butt’!

We had a great time at Wadi Bani Khalid. Swimming in the freshwater, filtered through the surrounding limestone hills, provided the perfect contrast to the warm camping experience of previous days. Amazingly it is also free to enter, though we did pay a friendly and unofficial guide a few rials for leading the way. We felt this was good value as there is a good chance we wouldn’t have explored up to the much better pools and the best rock jumping spots if he hadn’t shown us there. That said, it is eminently doable on your own once you know there is more to the wadi further up.