Wadi Al Abyad

Wadi Al Abyad (وادي الأبيض) is a wadi located in Nakhal, in the South Al Batinah region of Oman. The name of the wadi is in reference to the white color of its water pools, which is likely due to carbonate rocks in the region (although to our own eyes, they just looked like normal colored pools but hey that is the justification for the name).Wadi Al Abyad is an easily accessible wadi that can be reached from Muscat in under an hour (depending where you start). The wadi offers its visitors a nice trekking path, some fresh water pools and many plants and palms on both sides of the wadi, making it a nice place for an easy hike or for families to picnic on a nice day.

Trekking through Wadi Al Abyad is quite pleasant as it is mostly gravel and some rocks here and there until you reach the water pools, you can actually drive quite a distance through the travel road, so don’t just park your car as soon as the paved road ends. The highlight of the wadi is obviously the water pools, we especially appreciated them because we visited the wadi on a hot sunny day and the walk along the wadi was quite tiring under the hot sun, so a refreshing dip in these clean, fresh pools was fantastic. Wadi Al Abyad has many ophiolite rocks which could be very interesting for you if you are a geologist or someone who loves rocks, you can read more about that here. Besides the pools and ophiolite rocks, Wadi Al Abyad features numerous plants and shrubs that can be found along the wadi.

How to Get There:

Take the Batinah highway and head to Nakhal. While on the Nakhal-Rustaq road, by-pass Nakhal as if you are heading to Rustaq and the turn to Wadi Al Abyad is off that loop on your right after Wadi Mistal. If you see a signpost to Al Awabi that means you have missed the turn. The route is mostly graded road and as you go in you will notice the shape of the wadi with relatively low hills on both sides, continue driving on a gravel road and stop and continue on foot when you can’t go any further.

View Wadi Al Abyad – OmanTripper in a larger map

Bottom Line:

On its own, we didn’t really find Wadi Al Abyad to be spectacular and what it offers pales in comparison to say Wadi Shab or Wadi Al Arbaeen, but the wadi s still worth a visit if you want to do something close to Muscat. And if you really want to make it as a fully day trip, you can do as we did and visit Nakhal Fort after the wadi then check out Ain Al Thawarah as well. In addition, parts of the wadi can get very dirty with visitors throwing rubbish, and this could really put a dampener on the experience of anyone visiting the wadi, so keep that in mind as well!