Rakhyut

The road runs out at the edge of Dhofar. Below the cliffs, fishing boats are beached on sand. The mountains behind are green — the monsoon has been here — and the sea ahead is the deep blue of the Arabian Sea. There is nothing further west until Yemen. This is where Oman ends.

Rakhyut is a small fishing village on Dhofar's remotest stretch of coast, close to the Yemeni border. The village was effectively cut off from the rest of Oman until a road was built in the 1980s, and this isolation has preserved a way of life centred on fishing and seasonal monsoon agriculture. During the khareef, the cliffs behind the village turn vivid green and watercourses fill, creating a dramatic contrast with the arid coast for the rest of the year. The village's economy revolves around its fishing boats, which are beached on the sand each morning and launched at dawn. Eco-lodges and basic beach camps have appeared in recent years, offering stays where the primary sound is the sea. The drive to Rakhyut from Salalah follows the coast through increasingly dramatic scenery, and the sense of arriving at the end of a country — the edge of Oman, with Yemen's mountains visible in the distance — gives the destination a geographic finality that few places can match.