We drove to the upper plateau of Jebel Samhan to stay overnight. It suddenly ends in a vertiginous drop of more than 1000 meters to the coastal plain below. Barely a ledge interrupts the vertical cliff, and it seems impossible that there should be any route down from here that didn’t involve a rope and crampons. But that is not the case: locals, armed with nothing more than a snake stick and a kettle, have been climbing from plain to jebel for centuries along their own hidden paths.
However, that was not for us, and we just parked here and watched the birds (mainly crows and some large birds of prey) as they tumbled over the rim or rode the thermals from plain to cliff top in search of food.
Parking location: 17.105038N 54.699530E