The Sarfait road, which links Salalah with the Yemeni border via Mughsail, is one of Oman's many impressive engineering projects. Zigzagging nearly 1000m from the Salalah Plain, it reaches the top of the cliff via 14 steep bends. A few kilometres beyond the road's summit there are stunning views back towards Mughsail and inland across some of the wildest wadis in Arabia. Just beyond the turning to Fizayah Beach, there's a police checkpoint preventing tourist access to the Yemeni border.
The vegetation in this area is entirely different from that on the Salalah Plain, with yuccas and succulents clinging to the limestone ledges and frankincense trees in the lower reaches of the wadis.