Khasab - Mountain Jebel Harim Tour

Question

With interest I was reading already some other threads at this forum on Khasab "dhow cruise and mountain safari" as we are planning to do the same end of November 2013

I have already contacted two tour operators (Khasab and Al Taif Tours) and got their feedback. But most probably we will just book the "Dhow Cruise" on arrival to have some better flexibility on the day or make arrangements only one or two days in advance.

So we will most probably go for the 09am half day Dhow Cruise and in the afternoon we are planning the mountain safari.

I am having having two questions left for the Jebel Harim Mountain Tour

1) Do we need a 4x4 with a driver or could we do the mountain tour on our own? We will have a Jeep Cherokee or something similar. I will not know in advance if the Cherokee is a 4x4 or just 2 wheel. My experiences are with the Sani Pass in Lesotho and several tracks in Chobe & Moremi in Botswana. Usually I prefer privacy without a driver

2) Some articles are saying that there is a military zone starting at 1.600m and private vehicles can't go thru. Are guided tours to have permission to climb up to 2.000m and would it be worthwhile doing the last 400m? Just the difference in case we would go on our own and guided tour woul go up to the top (2.000m)

GertieB09 · Accepted Answer

Yes, there is a military zone at the top of Jebel Harim so no-one can go right to the top, but you get pretty high! The drive through the mountains is beautiful. The road is now paved for the early part of the route - I'm not sure how far they've got with the tarmac now, it's a year or so since I was last there, but after that it is a well-maintained gravel road/track. If you have a 4WD Jeep Cherokee then you'd be fine. If you have 2WD it does depend a bit on how the weather has been - if it's been raining recently parts of the road can be a bit rocky if they haven't had time to fix it - or if you get caught up there in the rain (happened to me once!) then you'd be better off with 4WD because the dry wadis suddenly become rivers - but everyone kind of looks out for each other, so someone would tell you if the road wasn't clear or help you if you were in trouble.

It's not a difficult drive at all, but it's bendy and amazing views. Well worth going.

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Khasab - Mountain Jebel Harim Tour

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