Oman: W8a: Bald Sayt village to Haat village.
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 2.29 mi
- Elevation gain
- 919 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Moderate
- Elevation loss
- 384 ft
- Max elevation
- 3,989 ft
- TrailRank
-
67
5
- Min elevation
- 3,130 ft
- Trail type
- One Way
- Moving time
- one hour 25 minutes
- Time
- 2 hours one minute
- Coordinates
- 662
- Uploaded
- April 1, 2023
- Recorded
- March 2023
near Balad Sayt, Ad Dakhiliyah (Sultanate of Oman)
Viewed 240 times, downloaded 8 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
Balad Sayt is a mountain village tucked between the Western Hajar mountains bordering the Dakhiliyah and Batinah regions of Oman, and is part of wilayat Al Rustaq in the South Batinah Governorate.
Balad Sayt is located almost half-way through the mountain path connecting Al Hamra to Nakhal/Al Rustaq through Wadi Bani Awf, and is adjacent to “Snake Canyon”.
Balad Sayat is a stunning village in picturesque surroundings that should be part of anyone’s check-list of places to visit when coming to Oman. The village is sometimes mistakenly referred to as Bilad Sayt which is a different village under wilayat Bahla in the Dakhiliyah Governorate, about 50 kilometers away.
Bilad Sayt can be reached through Wadi Al Sahtan and Wadi Bani Awf from NE or via Al Hamra from the SW and is only accessible by 4-wheel-drive vehicles.
You can reach it either from Al Hamra by following the signs to Balad Sayt or by taking the Wadi Bani Awf turn off the Nakhal–Al Rustaq road. In both cases, the road is initially paved but becomes harsher and steeper as you go in, and Balad Sayt village is about 15 kms through after the asphalt road ends from Shorfat al Alamayn (from Al Hamra) or Al Tikhah village (from Batinah side). You will definitely need a 4WD to get to Balad Sayt, and also need to be comfortable driving in narrow-mountainous paths.
We hiked the W8a marked trail between Bald Sayt to the upper village of Haat that lies along the offroad connecting to Shorfet alameen plateau.
There are total 4 trails here, well marked.
W8a - Bald Sayt to Haat (3 Kms )
W8b - Haat to Shorfet alameen ( appx 4 kms)
W10h - Shorfet alameen plateau (appx 3 kms )
W8 - Shorfet alameen plateau to Bald Sayt descent (4 Kms)
The W8a trail starts from the village school and well visible with yellow red white flag.
Soon you can see that the route goes via the fields, wadi and cemetery.
Soon you will be out of the village and on the gradual mountain surface on a very visible marked path that takes you to the next village of Haat by 2.5 kms long trail.
Just keep looking for the trail marker flag.
The Haat village is a functional village with evident and hearable activities.
The driving distance between the villages is about 6 kms.
Once at Haat, you can decide to come back by hike or road.
Additionally you can hike upto Shorfet alameen plateau by W8b trail.
Balad Sayt is located almost half-way through the mountain path connecting Al Hamra to Nakhal/Al Rustaq through Wadi Bani Awf, and is adjacent to “Snake Canyon”.
Balad Sayat is a stunning village in picturesque surroundings that should be part of anyone’s check-list of places to visit when coming to Oman. The village is sometimes mistakenly referred to as Bilad Sayt which is a different village under wilayat Bahla in the Dakhiliyah Governorate, about 50 kilometers away.
Bilad Sayt can be reached through Wadi Al Sahtan and Wadi Bani Awf from NE or via Al Hamra from the SW and is only accessible by 4-wheel-drive vehicles.
You can reach it either from Al Hamra by following the signs to Balad Sayt or by taking the Wadi Bani Awf turn off the Nakhal–Al Rustaq road. In both cases, the road is initially paved but becomes harsher and steeper as you go in, and Balad Sayt village is about 15 kms through after the asphalt road ends from Shorfat al Alamayn (from Al Hamra) or Al Tikhah village (from Batinah side). You will definitely need a 4WD to get to Balad Sayt, and also need to be comfortable driving in narrow-mountainous paths.
We hiked the W8a marked trail between Bald Sayt to the upper village of Haat that lies along the offroad connecting to Shorfet alameen plateau.
There are total 4 trails here, well marked.
W8a - Bald Sayt to Haat (3 Kms )
W8b - Haat to Shorfet alameen ( appx 4 kms)
W10h - Shorfet alameen plateau (appx 3 kms )
W8 - Shorfet alameen plateau to Bald Sayt descent (4 Kms)
The W8a trail starts from the village school and well visible with yellow red white flag.
Soon you can see that the route goes via the fields, wadi and cemetery.
Soon you will be out of the village and on the gradual mountain surface on a very visible marked path that takes you to the next village of Haat by 2.5 kms long trail.
Just keep looking for the trail marker flag.
The Haat village is a functional village with evident and hearable activities.
The driving distance between the villages is about 6 kms.
Once at Haat, you can decide to come back by hike or road.
Additionally you can hike upto Shorfet alameen plateau by W8b trail.
Waypoints
Intersection
3,164 ft
Summit
Comments (6)
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Hi Patrick, thank you for sharing this information. I am going to Balad Sayt village and I have a small SUV, Mitsubishi Asx 2wd drive with some option to switch it into L (means some kind of low gear, not sure). Is that ebough to reach Balad Sayt village or road is very bad? I dont mind driving narrow roads, as long as its not something the really need very strong car. I read mixed reciews online, saying small suv can actually get there slowly. Thank you for your response and for the trail:)
Hello Ausra,
Good to know that you are planning to visit this paradise village in the midst of the mountains.
You will enjoy it to the fullest.
Regarding the access road, you will be able to manage to reach the Bald Sayt village with your ASX by driving slow and manouvering over uneven surface.
I have actually seen a Lexus sedan car on the road, but he was struggling due to lower clearance.
While climbing up to the village from Rustaq side, you will be Ok, but on your return way, you may burn your brakes due to steep descents at places, so please try to drive on lower gear with reduced speed and monitoring the RPM, not to overload the engine. In standard 4WD the hill climb / 4LC is helpful in these circumstances
You also have another option of driving 15 Kms offroad out of the village to Jebel Haat ( also known as Shorfet al ameen / Eastern mountain on Maps ) whereby you will get the asphalted road and there you can connect to Hamra village area, base of Shams and further to Bahla and Ibri.
Please do not attempt to drive back down this section back to the village in ASX, as the descent is steep and can definitely affect your brakes.
I have recorded the offroading trail from Rustaq to Birkat al Sharaf on wikiloc, please see it below.
https://www.wikiloc.com/offroading-trails/oman-tika-al-far-balad-sayt-birkat-al-sharaf-offroading-130017345
In case you have some hiking plans, please check my wikiloc and you will find few hikes that I did in the area.
Hope this response is helpful to you in your plan.
Enjoy your trip and please do update later !!
Hi Patrick, thanks so much for replying so quickly and for all these tips, I will share my experience after the trio, I hope it will be a success :)) sounds like a challenge
Hey Patrick, so an update, we went to the village but decided to hire a driver to pick us up from Rustaq. The hotel staff said it’s only 4x4 road and I decided this time to be safe than sorry and to be honest I’m glad I did. There were some sections which I would not be sure if I can make with my small suv, and even if I could, the drive would have been quite stressful and just for peace of mind I think 4x4 is a smarter way to drive this kind of road:)
Hi Ausra,
It's good that you excercised caution.
As mentioned before some sections are challenging.
Enjoy your trip!
I have followed this trail View more
Information
Easy to follow
Scenery
Moderate
One of my most challenging hikes ever, always to be cherished.