Wadi Bani Awf & Snake Canyon

Wadi Bani Awf (وادي بني عوف), also spelled Wadi Bani Awuf, is a large wadi in wilayat Al Rustaq in the South Batinah Governorate of Oman. The wadi covers a large area with several villages and lots of cool attractions worth visiting, including the well-known Snake Canyon! Wadi Bani Awf offers some of the best off-road driving you experience in Oman – with beautiful scenery and stunning cliffs and canyons throughout. The route connects several villages, including the scenic Balad Sayat village, and extends across the Hajar Mountains portion separating Al Batinah from Al Dakhiliyah region.

You can’t refer to Wadi Bani Awf as a single attraction due to the large area it encompasses and the many attractions to visit. In this post I will highlight the mountain crossing route, which connects Al Batinah to Al Dakhiliyah. Wadi Bani Awf is most famous for being home to the popular Snake Canyon – you can refer to my other post for more information about it – but here I will briefly talk about another small canyon known as the Little Snake Canyon.

We referred  to the Oman Off-road Guide during our visit to Wadi Bani Awf – which is a great book by the way and one that I recommend for anyone wanting to explore Oman with their 4WD car.

Wadi Bani Awf and the Mountain Crossing to Dakhiliyah

You enter Wadi Bani Awf by turning on the signpost off pointing to it from the Nakhal–Al Rustaq road, after Al Awabi (العوابي). The road is paved until the village of Al Tikhah (الطيخة) after which it becomes graded as your drive deeper into the wadi but still at level ground and normal elevation .

There are spots you can stop and see but the first place we stopped was a few kilometers after the village of Al Tikhah where the track opens up to an expanse of wadi rocks. On your right you will notice a small canyon opening through the rocks to a small route. Here is a good spot for anyone wanting to camp as there are a few trees offering good shade, but obviously you need to be aware of the risk of flash floods. We explored the route hoping to find some water, but it was completely dry although the rocks we found there were just amazing. We wish we had a geologist with us to tell us how they form, but these rocks were like wood panels, and made some really stunning formations. Do check out MJ McMahon’s website for geological explanation of some of these formations, some great information there!

Further the graded road you will come across an intersection with signboards pointing to various villages, you will need to take the left turn pointing towards Balad Sayt and Al Hamra. The right turn takes you eventually to Wadi Al Sahtan (وادي السحتن) (also takes you to the stunning village of Wajmah (وجمه), which I need to write about in a different post!). From here it is a ~3 km until you see the entrance to the Little Snake Canyon (on your right) and another ~5km until you reach the village of Al Zamah (الزامة)– you will get to see quite a bit of palms and farms along the way.

From Al Zamah village onwards, the proper mountain path starts which is the toughest portion of the drive and extends all the way to an area refereed to as the Eastern Mountain (الجبل الشرقي) by the locals or Sharaf Al Alamein (شرف العلمين) area in Al Dakhiliyah passing through several other villages. This path is quite steep with really tight bends on tough terrain – so not only is a 4WD a must, but you should also be confident driver, and able to use your car’s 4WD capability functionality to ensure your safety and the safety of others along the path – especially keeping an eye out on incoming traffic. The elevation change from start to end is something like 600m to 2,000m towards the end at Sharaf Al Alamein.

I advise against attempting this portion if you have not driven on mountain paths before or you are not confident on your ability to do so (I do offer Wadi Bani Awf Crossing as one of my tours if you like to have a guide take you there :))

Having said that, once you have the driving sorted out and while the driver is concentrating on the road – you will be get to see some of the most stunning scenery in Oman along the drive. This includes the narrow gorge of the Snake Canyon, with its ‘Left‘ and ‘Right‘ forks clearly visible from the road, as well as the location where they converge. After that, you will see the turn-off to Balad Sayt village as the road continues to climb up before encountering one of the most scenic football fields in Oman – the ‘Audi Balad Sayt Football Field’ referred to as such because Audi had placed the artificial turf on the football field used by the village (they did that for a commercial which you can check out on YouTube here).

From Balad Sayt it is a couple more kilometers until you pass Hatt village (قرية هاط), which has a small pool and canyon view (I am unsure if it is possible to access Snake Canyon from here though!) and a few more to Al Hajir village (قرية الحاجر) after which the road starts to get much steeper as the elevation continues to go up until you reach Sharaf Al Alamein at about 2,000m, and the graded road ends. On the way to and at Sharaf Al Alamein you will get to have some stunning views of the road you just took, the villages – and if you really squint you can even see the Audi Balad Sayt Football Field! You can also barely make-up the satellites stations at the peak of Jabal Shams.

Sharaf Al Alamein is a popular area for people to camp (the locals call the area Eastern Mountain) and there are some suitable flat areas for camping, the temperature is more pleasant at higher elevation (it hits low-to-mid 20°C in summer when it is +40°C at Al Hamra), and the amazing cliff-side views of the Wadi Bani Awf. After Sharaf Al Alamein it is approximately 30km drive to Al Hamra, with a steep mountain descent portion (but at least this is on paved road).

Obviously, the Wadi Bani Awf mountain crossing can also be done in the reverse of how I described it – starting from Al Hamra and ending at Al Batinah side. I really love this mountain crossing – despite the toll it takes on my car -and it is one I definitely recommend for you to try if you want to get a feel of the mountains and canyons in Oman, and love the thrill of driving on mountain paths!

The Little Snake Canyon

The Little Snake Canyon (location on Google Maps link below) is covered on both sides with very high cliffs giving you a perspective of the vastness of this place. There are some huge boulder stones and small waterfalls that you need to scramble through as you trek but the coolest place is the long water pool approximately 45 min to 1 hour from the start of your trek. This ‘zig-zag’ pool is almost 50m long and is probably the narrowest point of the Little Snake Canyon, it was really fun swimming there but also really cold (in December during my first visit) because the place gets little sunshine due to the narrow cliffs covering it! Unfortunately, the water level is extremely dependent on rainfall, and it can be dry for extended periods of time – in my subsequent visits since my first there was so little water that this pool was almost completely dry!

The Little Snake Canyon may not have amazing waterfalls or places to jump in the pools (unlike Wadi Shab or the proper Snake Canyon) but it is a fun place to visit, and because of the relatively short trek – it is a good spot to stop and explore during your crossing of Wadi Bani Awf. Please keep in mind that many of the boulder stones here are super smooth and can be very slippery, so do have proper footwear and be prepared just like a trip to any other wadi in Oman.

Al Zamah Village and the Snake Canyon (Wadi Bimah)

Wadi Bimah (aka the Snake Canyon) is a proper canyoning adventure that you should probably attempt only with a guide if it is your first time. It involves jumping into several water pools that you are unable to climb back from, and you will be exiting the canyon at another end from where you being with (near Al Zamah village) – I have written about it in detail in my other post here.

How To Get To Wadi Bani Awf

Wadi Bani Awf can be reached either from Al Batinah side or Al Dakhiliyah side as is a tough and steep road where a 4WD car is a must. Even with a 4WD, if you are not confident driving on steep mountain paths then please ensure you go with an experienced driver.

If you’re coming from Muscat, drive towards Nakhal towards Al Rustaq and turn into Wadi Bani Awf after Al Awabi village. From Al Dakhiliyah side, you will need to drive to Al Hamra and take the turn to the right just at the roundabout right before the village (the one after the roundabout where Shell Petrol Station is) – from there follow the signposts towards Balad Sayt as you drive between the houses and village farms.

The Little Snake Canyon is ~20 kms from the turn into Wadi Bani Awf from Al Batinah side, and you can find it by going forward past the signpost pointing to Balad Sayat at the intersection, you won’t miss a large canyon on the rocks to your right ~3kms after the signpost.

All the locations are highlighted in Google Maps below:

View Wadi Bani Awf | OmanTripper in a larger map