Jebal Akhdar - "lost villages Hike"

Today we hiked the "lost villages" hike, 600 meters down into an incredible gorge along steep slopes with incredible views. Along the way, tiny villages glued to the slopes in the most impossible locations. As Oman developed, these villages were abandoned for the comfort of brick homes. What has not been abandoned are the date palm groves on tiny terraces with the falaj irrigation system. In several discussions with Omanis, we have understood that they view this as part of their culture. Usually some family members will join together and finance a labourer from Bangladesh or the likes to keep things going while the family uses the location for family meetings.
This was the case in the tiny palm grove we crossed on this hike, where we met "sultan" and "Hamid" and shared a snack together in this beautiful oasis of palms, bananas and Papayas.Read more