Our journey to the Moqal cave through the canyon (wadi in Arabic) began like what felt like we were in an epic start of a low-budget film. The climax of the wadi visit turned out to be discovered as a complete surprise which made it even more of an exciting afternoon hike.
Our informative tour guide and laid-back Zanzibar-an Omani driver, Yassar, a man of two legal wives--(another story in itself), drove us in his white Nissan truck down beneath a bridge to a small lagoon entrance. Old blue and white row boats awaited us. Old men dressed in white clothe greeted us in their boats. They rocked back and forth as we loaded up into them and tried to even out our weight gently to avoid flipping over into the mucky but clear water.
We were not told there was a well known and famous speciological location deeper in the wadi freshwater pools we were told we had an hour to enjoy ourselves in. A dutch kid came up to us to talk about the cool cave located up the wadi just a little ways. He led us through a few pools and we slipped on the slimy rock beds. We swam through the schools of tiny fish who enjoyed sucking just slightly on your legs and feet. One could hear people making a lot of noise from a distance as we got closer and closer to the entrance to the cave. The pools got noticeably deeper and we could no longer touch the bottom. All we could see was a luminating blue and blurry silloettes of rocks in the the water below. As i grabbed onto both sides of the rocks in the extremely narrow entrance to pull myself through to the large single chamber of the cave, I felt consumed by the rocks.
As we reached the surprisingly large open chamber, I immediately felt like I was in a real-life version of a Disneyland amusement park water ride. I felt like I was in a better version of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. There were places to jump off rocks everywhere you looked. People were waiting in line to jump off one particularly popular rock where the majority of people seemed to focus their attention on the jumpers.
The many years of water flow has created beautiful patterns and shapes in the rocks. A guide was climbing all around the cave and jumping from creative locations within the chamber. He looked brave as I was sketched out climbing up the slippery rocks to get to the main jumping location in the cave. The more I neared the edge of the cliff to get ready to jump, the more I felt I might slip by accident before I could jump away from the rock to avoid a head injury on the way down. I was pressured to jump already after spending a few minutes trying to convince my friend Kate, who was ahead of me in line to jump off the cliff into the clear blue water. By the time I looked down to what I had been trying to convince her to jump into, I began to feel nervous. Did I really want to try and jump off of here? What if I slip and hit my head before I can push hard enough against the rock to jump properly? What if I slip now? What if? We began being pressured to jump because were were running out of time to get back down the wadi for lunch and then driving the rest of the way back home. So...I tried to convince my friend again before finally just doing it! I jumped and it was great. I landed in the water and wanted to climb up and do it again. The first jump is always the scariest. Then, after jumping, you gain your confidence and are ready to do it again and again and explore other places to climb and jump off of. I wanted to stay in that cave for the rest of the day. It was such a cool place. Truly one of nature’s playgrounds. I hope to go back there again before I leave Oman or at least go to another hiking place or cave similar to this to explore.
Oman is famous in the Speleological world. There are many caves to study and explore here. There is even one of the world’s largest underground caves that has been covered by National Geographic. It is called the Majlis Al Jinn Cave also known as the Salma Plateau. From the photographs, it looks pretty magnificent. It is almost 60,000 square meters underground with a 4 million cubic meter capacity. In order to enter the cave, one must trapeze down with a free hanging rope through the large dome shaped entrance. It’s about 120 meters to get down through this ceiling opening to the cave and is very difficult to get out of if you are not in good physically shape because one must pull oneself back up through the ceiling opening when finished exploring. This adventure is for an experienced caver.
The history of how it was discovered is kind of cool. It was by chance that while scientists were looking for carbonate rocks trying to find underground water reserves, the cave was spotted. Don Davidson in 1983 was the first person to repel down inside of the cave. There are three openings. The shortest entrance is a 120 meter drop and the deepest entrance is almost 160 meters long. It’s a 1,300 meter mountain journey to the cave entrance that is believed to be an impressive 50 million years old.
There are plans within the Ministry of Tourism in Oman to create a way for tourists to visit the cave chamber to appreciate the natural geological wonder and wildlife that lives there. Hopefully this will be available to experience in the near future. I have a feeling Oman will become less and less of a secret vacation spot in the years to come.
Another reason it is an exciting time to be in Oman.
Another reason it is an exciting time to be in Oman.
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