Baobabs in Dhofar

One of my favourite places in Dhofar to retreat to is Wadi Hinna. Half way up the mountainside you come to a spring – Ain Hashair.   The waters of this spring – and the annual khareef – have kept a stand of 30 or 40 baobab trees (Adansonia digitata) alive for perhaps 1000 years. This particular species of tree originates in Africa, but it is found in Dhofar in only two particular locations – here in Wadi Hinna (40 km east of Salalah) and near Dhalkut (150 km west of Salalah) not far from the Yemen border.

© Ross Hayden. Huge baobab tree during khareef

Among the scattered stand of baobab trees in this valley there is one specimen that is particularly memorable. It is possibly the largest baobab in the region with a girth of 20 metres! I love to sit at its feet, or carefully clamber up its slippery armour-clad trunk to perch in a fork of its gigantic branches.

© Ross Hayden. Camel standing beneath huge baobab tree.

I found it difficult to take a photograph which shows its massive size, until one day an obliging camel posed under its spreading limbs.

Pillar of Rock (Dhofar, Oman)

© Ross Hayden. Rock Pillar, Hayur

In days gone by, young Dhofari men used to show their physical prowess by clambering up to the top of this pillar of rock (6 or 8 metres high).

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© Ross Hayden. Pillar of Rock 2

Port Salalah from Donkey’s Head (Dhofar, Oman)

© Ross Hayden. Port Salalah from Donkeys Head

Travelling west from Port Salalah along the cliff top you come to this amazing vantage point – about 500 metres short of Donkey’s Head. Here you can look back towards Port Salalah – about 6 km in a direct line – but in the foreground you can see a sheer cliff where I parked my Jeep Cherokee. I guess it’s at least 100 metres down to the surface of the Arabian Sea. Down in the bay is a small open fishing boat.

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Kaffirs Rock (Ras Nus)

© Ross Hayden. Kaffirs Rock, Hadbeen, Dhofar, Oman

Local Dhofaris tell the story of shipwrecked European sailors who, many years ago, took refuge atop this large rock shaped like a stack of pancakes. Because their clothes were in tatters after their swim ashore, a local man thought from their white appearance that they were jinn and ran away! Even today it is a very well-known traveller’s landmark. [Note: kaffir = unbeliever = European; jinn = spirits]

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