Wadi Dhum

Wadi Dhum (وادي ضم) also spelled Wadi Damm or Wadi Dham, is a wadi located in Al Dhahirah region of Oman. We heard the wadi is a nice one to visit so we decided to pay it a visit during our trip to Ibri where we also visited Ibri Castle and Bat Necropolis.

Wadi Dhum can be reached either from Ibri or Bahhal/Nizwa, depends where you are driving from. Its about an hour drive from Ibri taking the Ibri-Nizwa road and taking a turn once you reach Kubarah, there will be a sign but worry not we will provide the google maps coordinates for Wadi Dhum, but you have to read on.

By the way, on your drive between Kubarah to Dhum village, you will notice some beehive tombs that resemble the ones at Bat Necropolis, they are probably part of Al Ayn necropolis. Unfortunately, we did not have the time to check them out but its worth knowing that so you can combine your visit to Wadi Dhum with a stop there!

Before you go:

The standard things you need for a wadi:

• Four Wheel Drive car is a must, you have to go off-road to get here
• Sun-screen
• Food and snacks
• Plenty of drinking water
• The wadi was quite dry when we visited and had very little water, but its still worth taking your swimming gear with you if you decided to take a dip.
• Slippers or sturdy water-proof footwear, you’ll have to walk over very smooth rocks that are very slippery (I slipped twice!)
• Water proof bag for your camera and gadgets (or leave them in the car)

How to Get There:

View Wadi Dhum – OmanTripper in a larger map
You will need to drive a bit off-road to get there, and you will know you reached the place once you see a few cars parked at the entrance, then its just a few minutes walk until you reach the dam. On your drive from

In Wadi Dhum:
The wadi starts pretty much after the dam, and it starts off with lots of big smooth rocks that you have to walk over. The walk is not tough but you have to be careful as the rocks can be quite slippery if they are wet. After about 5-10 minutes walk (depending on your pace) you will reach a place where you have to pull yourself through the rocks using a provided rope. It is not very hard but its worth noting as not everyone is comfortable doing that, we lost one of our trip companions at this “obstacle” and he couldn’t continue unfortunately.

Wadi Dhum itself is very interesting, we found it to be very unique as the rock formations are huge and super smooth. There are also very interesting holes in the rocks as well as some white lines which makes you wonder how that all happened, probably an ideal place to visit if you’re showing a group of geologist friends around!

The walk is nice and easy but if you choose to swim it can get a bit tricky as there are no clear paths to the wadi. We walked in from the rocks above until we reached the effective “end” of the wadi, where it takes a turn and the wadi is completely dry. The area there is worth a stop as there is lots of plan life and even a nice water pool you can swim in with grass growing in it as well. Once we were there we decided to go back through the center of the wadi and so swam in that pool back. This was was a bit more tricky than the walk in and requires you to swim and get through quite a bit of rocks, so I suggest if you want an easy walk to just walk on the sides on top of the big rocks.

We really enjoyed the time in Wadi Dhum and found it beautiful; however, I was personally a bit disappointed with the lack of water. I would still highly recommend visiting it if you’re already planning to visit Ibri, Bahla or even Nizwa and would like to do some “Wadi-ing”; but if  you are in Muscat and would like to visit a wadi, go to the ones in Al Sharqiyah.