Coast route from Al Ashkhara to Shannah in Oman

[danhattam]

Hi,

A friend and I are hitting the road to Oman and plan to go to Al Ashkhara for a night and then onto Masirah island via the ferry from Shannah. We are sticking to just roads as we are only going with one vehicle but wondered if anyone has current information on the proposed road from Al Ashkara to Shannah? I haven't found much information out on the web so far and only firmly know that last year it was partially built and that there is a really tough dune section at the southern end.

Any help on this will be fantastic.

Dan

[Jo]

Hi Dan,

I passed this point returning from Salalah last September. Yes, you should be able to travel this road comming from north. The tarmac was ending at Abualkarish.The remaining part to Ras Al Ruways was a driveable gatch-road.

Hope this helps..

Jo

[Sean]

Dan,

If you surf, take a board, there can be some nice (although small) waves on the otherside of the island, its a great place to camp,
watch out for the swarming ghost crabs at night!
Let us know about the coast road as I will likely be there again in Dec...
Have fun..
Sean

[Xof]

Hi Dan, last year in March, we did the trip in the other way: went through the innerland road to Khaluff, spent 2 days on the beach there (only disturbed by one camel and a fox), then came back following the shore up to Al Ruwais, then straight through the Wahibas...

So in March 2009, we saw the site for the sea shore road... the Tarmac progress was around 30km from Shannah... so i believe in one year, it could have been finished!
The track of our trip is here:
http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=584474

And yes the dunes are amazing in the south of the wahibas! Just to make you mouth watering:

[Wasabi]

Nice pictures Xof, lot of memories......
Dan, I do have many gps points arround that area and can give it to you. The rod is nearly finish so problem. Call me so we can meet and prepare you a nice trip!!!!!

[danhattam]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I'm afraid it was very last minute that we went and as such I didn't get to read the replies before hand. We headed out to Al Ashkara (body boards and power kite packed but lacking waves enough for surfing). Then after a few days there and not armed with the advice from your good selves we decided that if there wasn't a road or a track that with just one car it was too dangerous to attempt a direct drive. Additionally, other time constraints meant that we skipped out Masirah island this time and save it for another trip. We headed up to Muscat stopping off in various places before then driving back to Al Ain.

The views were awesome and the people very friendly. If ever there was an off road trip planned I'd love to get in on it. The more verdant terrain was beautiful. Keeping Masirah island in the bag for the future.

Again thanks for the advice on the new road