Wadi Naqab is an odd one. There is no reference of it anywhere (apart from the climbing Red Wall). However from google earth it looks pretty inviting, deep and steep sided. You could possibly can walk into Oman if illegal border crossing is your thing or it could be the start of the man’s hike to Jebel Yabir. What is shown on google earth adds up to some excellent potential, oh and there is what looks like a rather pleasant road up the side of the valley...

Actually when driving into the wadi first impressions were that it has not missed it’s fair share of quarrying. Where would the coast line of the UAE be without that? Not so disfigured? Anyway turning right past the sizeable quarry there it was to our right; the start of the track. There was a barrier but it was most of the way up thereby saying go a head!

We went a head. It was a little steeper than we expected but in lower range gears nothing too difficult until... a mini 20m ascent on a bend faced us. The first go was naive. We drove up to it put on the gas a bit too late in the day and were immediately wheel spinning. Brake on. Slowly edge/slide back down; particular attention was given to the large drop behind us in the direction we were sliding. Thankfully the front wheels were effective enough to allow us to turn back round the bend. The second go was doomed to failure from the start by our hearts vigorously instructing our heads not to reverse too far back towards the aforementioned large drop. So for a second time wheels were spinning. At this point we were ready to cry and go home to our mummies however after some rather incoherent low key discussions and further back tracking we decided to go for it. And so the third go; a good run up, foot down, keep the speed round the bend, begin up the slope, and with the under side of the car giving a kiss to the ground we were up!!!

The rest of the drive was spectacular. The road had been gently bulldozed right on top of the ridge and so you had great views left and right. After many more zigs and zags we arrived at the “car park”. Now, we thought that this was going to be a remote location. (I know, I know now thinking about it there is a road up there but anyway that is what we thought at the time.) And we so set off on our remote wildness walk. “Oh there’s a house. Must be a one off, that chap must sure like his own company” we said and carried on. 5 minutes later the path opened out and there were one or two small hamlets and more separate houses. We passed two that were being built! Could it be that because of the credit crunch that more building was happening on this hillside than in the whole of Dubai? Maybe?

We soldiered on following the path. The path ran out at the highest new homestead under construction and then is was just a scramble up to the top. From the top Jebel Yibir (next time maybe), Jebel Qihwi, RAK proper and a few more intriguing mountains were all visible. On the way down there were a few drops of rain and our thoughts immediately focused on the drive down. It is funny, although more care and attention was taken on the drive down, it seemed a lot more tame than the way up. Perhaps once the unexpected is expected something is lost?