(previously published 4/3/2023 on vickystravelinthemiddleeastandbeyond.wordpress.com)

The centre of Masirah island is dominated by a spine of small mountains, only accessed by tracks through the wadis.

The highest point of the hilly backbone is Jebel Humr at a height of 274metres, a table-topped small mountain, part of the Mesozoic ophiolite sequence of Masirah.

I have always wanted to reach the top of Jebel Humr and during past visits we have circled the Jebel by car, using little off-road tracks, but it always looked impossible as there is an upper cliff below the top, with overhang.

During the pandemic I made an online friend , a younger woman who lives on Masirah and who had joined our facebook group about shells relating to Eastern Arabia. On our first trip to Masirah post-pandemic, we met several times , it was refreshing to meet a young woman from the island , we forged a lovely friendship and I knew that we would meet up again. She told me she had been to the top of Jebel Humr and would organize the walk/climb on our next visit.

In the meantime , last May, I had my second hip replacement…Climbing up to the top of mountains seemed unattainable and on our visit to Masirah in October 2022, my friend was not on the island so the climbing plan was moved on to our next visit, probably it was best, I’m not sure I would have made it back in October 2022, looking back on it now…

So, here we were, at the bottom of the track leading part way up the mountain, it was 6.00am, pre-sunrise and a good time to go. Amal had brought Abdul along to show us the route, as climbing to the top of this lonely place was something he did fairly often.

However, recent rains had washed the tracks away that he normally, tumbled boulders and scree down the slopes.

Abdul was like a mountain goat, finding the best route through, so the haul up to the scree below the top was done on the fly, but with help from the OH and Abdul, I managed to make my way up.

The top didn’t seem to far away, but it looked unachievable , scree and loose rocks and an overhang and a bit of a long drop to my right.

I will say at this point, I’m not good with heights, I lost my balance after the second hip op and became quite shaky when confronted with a downwards climb without any rocks to cling on to to support me. I do use a stick in rough areas for stability.

Abdul advised that this was the difficult part and pointed across the scree and upwards showing the route. I had a momentary panic as I glanced down at the drop but actually then thought, right this is now a personal challenge, two replacement hips, I am doing this! Otherwise all of us would have to retreat back to the cars and I would have failed… no way, this was something I had wanted to do for years, and I was doing it, albeit very carefully…

With lots of encouragement and help from the OH and Abdul we made it to the top, my thoughts of “How on earth am I going to get down this “were firmly buried so as not to ruin the “being on the top of Masirah “experience and we edged out of a rock channel onto the summit.

The sheer exhilaration of being on the top and having got myself up just made the whole experience so enjoyable. The top of Jebel Humr that is visible from the roads around the island looks like a flat tabletop mountain, which it is, but sneakily, to the East the mountain has another peak…well, should we push on up? Hmm… I made a quick decision that it would be pushing my luck to get up and down that one , so decision made , we wandered around the top of our level..and didn’t push it to the very top…not sure I would have survived that actually! At the level we arrived on , there is a helicopter landing area and a very rusty anemometer, apparently the top is used for helicopter training, there is a Royal Oman airbase on the island, so it sounds likely but possibly not recently, given the state of the equipment.

We descended to a lower plateau of the summit and discovered fossilized bivalves and a coral reef , this area is ophiolite, which was once an ancient seabed. The views of the West coast are magnificent and the bonus was 8 to 10 Egyptian vultures using the air currents to soar and glide above our heads….one even let me get close for photos, the climb was worth every moment on the top…

Now we had to get back down, I know the OH and my friends were slightly nervous on my behalf but lots of positive encouragement was forthcoming and I did think it was something I had to do, I couldn’t just ring for a helicopter! 

I went down much of the scree slope on my backside, the angle was so steep that standing upright made me feel that I was going to plummet face forward down the drop so, when in doubt sit down! Abdul took great care with me and helped through some awkward spots and finally we were back at the cars….it was an awesome morning and having achieved the top I was very proud of myself, with help from some very dear friends…