I am the author of the book Wilderness Trekking Oman that will be printed next March, and the author of the web page https://www.hajarhiking.com/ that has been live since last August.
This is a detailed guide to the first long-distance walk on the Arabian Peninsula, 200km in sixteen days. The last seven days are very remote, and have probably never been walked by anyone other than myself except the local semi-nomadic pastoralists known as shawawiya. I lived and worked in the Sultanate of Oman for sixteen years, spending half of my winter weekends exploring the Western and Eastern Hajar mountains. The last two years have been dedicated to surveying these tracks, taking pictures, researching background information, writing the book, and creating the detailed 1:50,000 maps with the help of a professional cartographer. These maps have been thoroughly edited by the Omani Ministry of Defence, who manage the Oman Survey Authority, and are the first contour maps of anywhere in the country licensed for sale and use in Oman.
For an experienced walker confident with self-navigation with GPS, the web page includes everything required to complete this trip. The night time temperatures in January can reach -5 degC at the 2999m summit, so warm clothes and a -20 degC down sleeping bag are essential. Otherwise there is no special equipment. It rarely rains; there is no need to carry a tent.
I am looking for adventurers to complete this walk to provide feedback so I can make final edits to my book. I will not accompany them, as that would defeat the purpose. I am interested in their walking times, that will reflect their self navigation efforts, and opinions of the level of difficulty. There is some climbing, but ropes are not required. The best months for this walk are November to March.
The east-to-west traverse of the Western Hajar is 209km long and it crosses two mountains – Al Jabal Al Akhdar then Jabal Shams. The 188km of mountain tracks are interspersed with graded roads totalling 21km, of which the longest is 6km. The altitude range is from 620m to 2999m. The daily elevation change is typically 1000m with walking times of four to ten hours, which allows for time spent navigating by GPS. There is some climbing but ropes are not required.
The sixteen-day traverse consists of eleven walking sections of one, two and four days long separated by road intersections. During the day or days of each section you will not see roads or civilisation and the only short cuts once you commit to any section are on the last four days. There are two options replacing some sections. Five of the sixteen days have painted trails, otherwise you need GPS navigation or a guide.
Eight of the eleven sections finish with hotels, of which three are restored village houses. There are also camping alternatives for all the hotels. The two two-day walks and one four-day walk require wild camping for five nights.
Please let me know if you are interested in putting a team together and would like some support on how to navigate the route: johnedwards57@gmail.com
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