Ghaba to Al Joba - 2 days trip through Oil trails of Oman
From Muscat drive towards Nizwa (Fanja, Bidbid, Samail road #15) and at Firq roundabout and turn left taking the Salalah road via Adam. Refill supplies like ice for cool boxes and fill gas at Shell in Adam.
QARAT AL MILH
Drive further on road #31 towards Haima and take the off-road turn at (21°45'21.8"N 57°19'57.7"E) to view Qarat Al Milh - a smaller Salt Mountain (21°45'50.5"N 57°17'30.1"E) for a photo-stop.
Now
join road#29 through off-road laid along at (21°45'56.7"N
57°17'15.1"E) and join the road #31 again towards Ghaba. At (21°27'01.2"N 57°16'43.9"E) on road#31 turn right and join the connecting off-road by turning right again at (21°24'39.2"N 57°07'07.0"E) and take the right branch off-road at (21°28'19.8"N 57°07'34.2"E) to reach Qarat Al Kibrit (21°30'35.0"N 57°08'57.2"E). Geologically speaking, this is a massive of Pre-cambrain Halite.
QARAT AL KIBRIT
For
several 1000s of years salt has been mined in this huge cave. Contain one entry
passage, a central chamber, 2 inner chamber and another exit passage at the far
end.
It is visible as a small
hill west of road#31 some 15 km before Ghaba. The salt dome can be easily
reached by graded road, turning west at (N21 27 01.8 E57 16 40.4) 8.7 km before
Ghaba following this track, turning north at 17.1 km, driving north-northeast
for a further 11.5 km @ N21 30 32.5
E57 08 56.9).
Retrace your route to
join tarmac road from Qarn Al Alam (there is
also a motel here) at (21°19'31.3"N 57°06'29.8"E) Turn left and drive to join road #31.
OR
Join the
off-road at (21°23'39.2"N 57°07'01.1"E) and take the left turn at
reach Al Ghaba North -
the last fuel station @ (21°22'44.3"N
57°15'13.6"E)
before
Haima on road #31.
You can chose to stay
at the Ghaba Rest House. Or you can camp beside escarpment by taking the road
beside and driving 1Km inside towards west to foothills @ (21°22'41.8"N
57°14'37.7"E). Rest house at Ghaba serves pretty decent food and you can
replenish food / water stock and fill-up petrol too.
GHABA-1
WELL 
The
Fahud field, located in North Oman, was discovered in 1964 and is roughly 17 km
long by 2.5 km wide, with an estimated STOIIP of more than 6 billion barrels of
oil, making it the largest field in Oman, STOIIP wise. To date, more than 390
wells have been drilled in the Fahud field.
You
can return to AL Ghaba and rest for the night. Start early next morning towards
Rudist or to Haima to see the Oryx sanctuary.
GYPSUM QUARRY @ (N21 15 05.5 E57 25 46.0) and FLINT-STONE
QUARRY and factory @ (N21 10 51.0 E57 37 28.1)
BARITES (BACO3 -
HEAVYSPAR) QUARRY @ (N21 01 58.9 E57 42
08.4)
In off-road track, drive
southwest to the "Pinnacle" (N21 00 36.0 E57 41 01.1) OR DUCK
MOUNTAINS.
Turn
from road #31 @ (20°58'18.3"N 57°10'55.7"E)
to take the cross-road to coastal road #32 and meet @ (20°52'44.9"N
58°11'35.8"E) If you need bank, Shell petrol station or tyre shops drive straight eastward to MAHUT @ (20°45'44.8"N
58°17'27.4"E). If you
want to see salt production from salt plateaus, driver further eastward and
turn right @ (20°46'43.4"N 58°37'52.2"E). This is also the
Shannah-Masirah ferry terminal at Ras Al
to travel to Masirah Islands.
RUDISTS
REEF location @ (20°43'57.3"N
57°26'51.6"E) take the Southward turn @ (N20 51 38.6 E57 35 41.7) turn south again, winding southwards
for 23 km to an escarpment known as "Rudist Reef". Rudists are
moluscs (class bivalves) and not solitary corals as some may believe; they are
about 100 million year old. The layers exposed in the scarp show colonies of
rudist of up to 5 metres thickness -almost reefs- closely packed and many still
in an upright position as they would have when alive. One can distinguish three
different kinds based on their shape. Many have lost their upper lid (cap).
Broken pieces reveal brilliant linings with calcite crystals.
Follow
the scarp in eastern direction, keeping a safe distance away from the vast
sabkha directly to the south of the scarp, winding along for some 7km before
camp @ (N20 39 29.2 E57 34 45.2) in a kind of embayment at the foot of the
scarp. Even here the foot of the scarp was still littered with rudists and we
found another reef-size colony easy accessible by a probably ancient man-made
path.
From
Al Khaluf drive towards Sinaw, with a stop-over at AL JOBA to see the
Granodiorites @ () and take a short break at Barzaman to see the
barzamanite quarry @ () and here you can again refill petrol.
From Sinaw, drive
towards Muscat via Al Wafi and Al Khadra to Izki, Imti and Samail.
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