Joe90
Member
Hi,
Okay so I know its not really caving however I have always seen a lot of similarities between caving and canyoning. So here is what I did yesterday for those of you who are interested.......
Leaving Muscat at about 0830 we headed out for Wadi Ta'ab. Its about an hour and a half on the black top with the new road that literally cuts white mountain in half, then the new road towards Sur. Once you leave the black top its only half an hour or so until its time to leave the car.
So we kitted up taking the bare minimum of kit, and started the walk down and up and back down and around and down more for about an hour in the hot sun. Finally reaching the start of our trip down.
We had had a look at google earth and spoken to a mad dentist who has been through a few times who told us what to expect. So we knew what we were going into, sort off.
The water was lovely and cool, which was nice. after the first few pools we came to the first abseil of about 50m, from this according to Khalid you land in a cauldron with an easy climb out the other side. However it wasn't currently a cauldron as the water was up to the top making a nice deep pool. So pulled the ropes through and swam to the lip of his easy climb. Around the corner to Abseil two, Khalid says a 35m pitch landing on a nice ledge then another 15m pitch landing in a pool. Justin went first, called up so I followed and when I landed wondered where the rebelay we had passed was. We were at it, only the water wasn't 15m below it was about 3! We really had got some great water levels. Pulled ropes through again, and carried on past multiple smaller abseils and easy down climbable waterfalls and jumps.
We found that because the water was much higher, some of the bits he said were abseils were no longer there, and some parts he said were easy down climbs had huge torrents of water blasting down them.
It was all going great. It really is a great canyon. Well it went great till we had to climb out back up a smaller inlet which comes down steeply from the left after a fork in the canyon. Now Khalid said its an easy but a little bit exposed climb, I'm sorry but it was not just a little exposed. It was steep as, polished as a marble kitchen surface and loose as hell. But after trying many different routes thinking me must be in the wrong place we finally came to the top of the steep part. From here it was a long walk up over false summits to the village and track that leads the the Selma Plato which holds some huge caves. We followed the track back along towards the car, and after a kilometre or so came round a corner hot and getting bored of the sun's presence to find our pick up waiting. It was like an oven inside but it also had a coolbox, with cold water and lunch. Perfect! All in all from leaving the car to getting back to it took about five hours.
Really a great Canyon!
Here are some pic's, Hope you enjoy them
https://picasaweb.google.com/102334548197663058127/WadiTaAb?authkey=Gv1sRgCIbM1cf6oZ7f3AE
Okay so I know its not really caving however I have always seen a lot of similarities between caving and canyoning. So here is what I did yesterday for those of you who are interested.......
Leaving Muscat at about 0830 we headed out for Wadi Ta'ab. Its about an hour and a half on the black top with the new road that literally cuts white mountain in half, then the new road towards Sur. Once you leave the black top its only half an hour or so until its time to leave the car.
So we kitted up taking the bare minimum of kit, and started the walk down and up and back down and around and down more for about an hour in the hot sun. Finally reaching the start of our trip down.
We had had a look at google earth and spoken to a mad dentist who has been through a few times who told us what to expect. So we knew what we were going into, sort off.
The water was lovely and cool, which was nice. after the first few pools we came to the first abseil of about 50m, from this according to Khalid you land in a cauldron with an easy climb out the other side. However it wasn't currently a cauldron as the water was up to the top making a nice deep pool. So pulled the ropes through and swam to the lip of his easy climb. Around the corner to Abseil two, Khalid says a 35m pitch landing on a nice ledge then another 15m pitch landing in a pool. Justin went first, called up so I followed and when I landed wondered where the rebelay we had passed was. We were at it, only the water wasn't 15m below it was about 3! We really had got some great water levels. Pulled ropes through again, and carried on past multiple smaller abseils and easy down climbable waterfalls and jumps.
We found that because the water was much higher, some of the bits he said were abseils were no longer there, and some parts he said were easy down climbs had huge torrents of water blasting down them.
It was all going great. It really is a great canyon. Well it went great till we had to climb out back up a smaller inlet which comes down steeply from the left after a fork in the canyon. Now Khalid said its an easy but a little bit exposed climb, I'm sorry but it was not just a little exposed. It was steep as, polished as a marble kitchen surface and loose as hell. But after trying many different routes thinking me must be in the wrong place we finally came to the top of the steep part. From here it was a long walk up over false summits to the village and track that leads the the Selma Plato which holds some huge caves. We followed the track back along towards the car, and after a kilometre or so came round a corner hot and getting bored of the sun's presence to find our pick up waiting. It was like an oven inside but it also had a coolbox, with cold water and lunch. Perfect! All in all from leaving the car to getting back to it took about five hours.
Really a great Canyon!
Here are some pic's, Hope you enjoy them
https://picasaweb.google.com/102334548197663058127/WadiTaAb?authkey=Gv1sRgCIbM1cf6oZ7f3AE
