Oman Border Closure

Ancient Mariner · Post by **Ancient Mariner** » Sun Oct 04, 2015 10:58 am

Yesterday (3rd Oct 2015) I tried to cross the Oman border north to south on the Al Madam - Mahdah road (via the Hatta road turn - right at the Shell Petrol Garage under Jebel Rawdah) and was turned round at the Oman checkpoint - closed to Emirates and Omanis only. Guard posted had no English to explain (shame my no Arabic) so thought maybe the old thinking I just wanted to do a visa run issue. Went to the next border crossing on the Hatta to Ray road (via Hatta pools) and got same story except the post guard has a printed sheet in English explaining borders now closed. This was a bit of a shock having used these routes for the past 2.5 years. I have found nothing on the interweb so assume this is general tightening of security in the region. Not sure if this will ever be relaxed again. Grateful if anyone else has any info on this and also warning to those about to trip to be prepared for disappointment and have a "plan B"

Rgds

Martin

Gasface · Post by **Gasface** » Fri Oct 09, 2015 9:27 pm

This is very odd? So did you end up making it into Oman? I've got a Nizwa & Wahabi Dunes trip planned for December so I hope all is resolved by then.

Thanks for sharing.

Ancient Mariner · Post by **Ancient Mariner** » Fri Oct 09, 2015 9:34 pm

NO - we gave up and went up to al Quaid and into the hills there instead. I've spoken to others and no-one else seems to have any further Information at this stage. Need to keep watching!

Martin

Georges · Post by **Georges** » Mon Nov 02, 2015 6:39 pm

Ancient Mariner wrote:NO - we gave up and went up to al Quaid and into the hills there instead. I've spoken to others and no-one else seems to have any further Information at this stage. Need to keep watching!

Martin

Martin,

Before hitting the Shell station you would have past a small border check-point. 50 meters after there is a track on the right which you can use which will take you to the desert Oman side and the Dinosaur rock (at least I call it this way because it looks like a dinosaur).

Kalahari · Post by **Kalahari** » Mon Nov 02, 2015 6:51 pm

Hi all, both borders are still closed and some of the most friendly border guards that I have ever met, explained that these two borders are closed as per the above.
Neither were able to provide a reason for the closure.
We were following the wadi route before this and then turned.
I am not going to try to get through on this road in future, as I would be concerned to be stopped in Oman without having the appropriate stamps and clearance. Quite a pity as there is a magic off-road wadi route through these mountains.

Cheers Andrew

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Ancient Mariner · Post by **Ancient Mariner** » Tue Nov 10, 2015 7:17 pm

Gerge - The track you mentioned had an armoured pick-up monitoring it as well - so no sneaking by either

I also agree they were particularly friendly (but I wasn't trying to sneak by)

Martin

(sorry a bit late picking up on this again)

Georges · Post by **Georges** » Tue Nov 10, 2015 8:52 pm

Ancient Mariner wrote:Gerge - The track you mentioned had an armoured pick-up monitoring it as well - so no sneaking by either

I also agree they were particularly friendly (but I wasn't trying to sneak by)

Martin

(sorry a bit late picking up on this again)

Thanks Martin. I hope they will not put a tank and a couple of F16s to stop us al

futureshock999 · Post by **futureshock999** » Wed Nov 11, 2015 10:09 pm

There is likely a simple one-word explanation: YEMEN.

Our little slice of paradise is finding itself in the middle of a proxy war...