ADO2502 Adventure Dubai & Oman
As you can see, we escaped right at the very beginning from the big city of Dubai with its countless skyscrapers into the desert of the Emirate of Sharjah. We better save the city traffic for the end of our tour. First, we want to take it easy in our spacious desert hotel. Not only do the amazing architecture and the desert around us allow us to instantly change into relaxing mode but they also give us the impression of having arrived in the fairy tale of 1001 Nights. However, as soon as we had “loaded up” our motorcycles and fortified ourselves with breakfast, nothing could hold us back – we started the engines and sped off through the desert towards the northeast, past the museum of gigantic desert vehicles and also past the cement works in Ras Al Khaima. We then rode up the highest mountain in the Emirati part of the Hajar mountains – the “Jebel Jais”. What a great motorcycle road! Long, gently curving bends on the best tar allowed us to cruise smoothly over the 30 kilometres to the top, where we were welcomed for lunch at the summit restaurant. In the late afternoon, we arrived at our top-class hotel in Fujairah.
This morning, without exception, everyone arrived at breakfast feeling refreshed and well rested. What a great hotel! Extremely comfortable beds, excellent food, and a beautiful atmosphere! What else could you wish for? Right - for another great riding day 😁 So we started our day with a visit to the oldest (and sure also the smallest) mosque still in use in the United Arab Emirates. It is located in the Emirate of Fujairah and its special feature is that it has only one supporting pillar in the middle, surrounded by four roof vaults. Yesterday, everyone had the opportunity to get familiar with their motorcycles on normal asphalt roads. Today, after our refreshing coffee break in the morning, it was finally time to take the motorcycles onto gravel for the first time on this tour! In the afternoon, we visited the water park in the mountains around the town of Hatta before we crossed the border into Oman. And in the evening then, we all sat together with a big smile on our faces. Apart from that, it also turned out that we had a bunch of Edelweiss veterans on tour with us! Thats absolutely Great!
We leave Sohar, the city where the story of Sinbad and the 40 thieves is said to have taken place, in the early hours of the morning when it is still a “cool” 24 °C. Later, as we ride through the foothills of the Hajar Mountains, the temperatures rise to a pleasant 28-32 °C. But the wind turns our ride through the beautiful mountain scenery into a pure riding pleasure. On the one hand, the brown and rugged mountains, which don’t grow any trees are a rather unusual sight for the European and American eye. On the other hand, they seem to have a calming effect on us, as we, despite some construction traffic, roll the remaining distance to Muscat and to our incredible hotel between the cliffs of the Gulf of Oman completely relaxed. A wonderful evening on the terrace of the hotel restaurant with background music rounds off the day.
And on we travel ... on gravel. This morning we went along a freshly graded dirt road through a stunning landscape. In Oman you absolutely have to go ride on these dirt roads in order to be able to enjoy the beauty of the countryside! Lucky me, got to sweep and see only the other rider's dust ;) But we all had great fun. Becky and David went for a swim at the sinkhole, while everyone else in our group enjoyed their lunch box, which had been prepared by our hotel. Once we had arrived in Sur, we went to visit the last existing Dhow factory. This highlight certainly ranks among the best on this tour! It is highly interesting to see what it takes to build such a Dhow boat. At our hotel some of us rested a bit while others went to explore the area around. All this just to kill the time until we would be allowed to the nearby beach to see the giant green turtle, which comes to the beach to lay her eggs. We also got lucky to see three of the baby turtles.
What a magical experience to watch these amazing giant turtles in their natural habitat. Many people have gathered in the evening to see the creatures laying their eggs on the beach. As hotel guests we enjoy priority to people coming from outside. But even only one turtle showed up on the beach, all visitors got to see her. The next morning, however, we saddle up again to continue our journey. Tonight we will stay overnight in one of the desert camps in the Wahiba Sands desert. Our highlight during the day is a hike and a swim in the water pools of the Wadi Bani Khalid. Wadis are mostly dried out river beds. Wadi Bani Khalid, however, has these wonderful pools, which are a great opportunity to unwind a bit. Even though there is quite some wind along our route to the desert, we still get a clear evening experience on top of one of the sand dunes. In a short but very exciting drive, we are being transported up the dunes to enjoy our sundowner.
Staying in the desert always is a great experience! Even though there are other people around you or various vehicles passing by, it is silent, when you sit in between the sand dunes, watching the sun either set or rise. There was also an opportunity for photo shooting session with the camels. Soon after we jumped in our trucks again and made our way back out of the desert and towards the place where we parked our motorcycles yesterday. A special highlight was our first stop at the Ibra women's market. It used to be a market only for the ladies, who were waiting in front of the hospital for their treatment. Back in the days, (about 55 years ago) the country hadn't been so well developed yet that women had an easy access to healthcare. For them, the market used to be a good way to earn the money for their treatments and also it was a center of communication between the women. Concerning the latter, it is still the same today. Instead of high end products you will find the women selling mostly clothes, cloths and embroidery in a small area. But the chatting and them making connections is still the same today. A very unique atmosphere. Unfortunately, there are no pictures allowed. Men, unlike until recently, are allowed into the market. Previously, they had to wait outside. Our ride along a very nice and windig road took us into 'Birkat al Mouz' an ancient small deserted village. From the café's roof top you get a good impression of it. Our amazing hotel on top of Jebel Akhdar will accommodate us for the following two nights.
Today, everyone unanimously agreed: it is just as important to have time to enjoy our beautiful hotel on Oman's green mountain as it is to ride our motorcycles. Without further ado, we agreed on a half day of riding and the other half day we would rest. Oman has countless, mostly very well-maintained trails that are extremely fun to ride on a motorcycle. Today's trail took us up Jebel Hatt and rewarded us with a magnificent view at the highest point.
At a cool 6°C but in bright sunshine, we rode down the beautiful, winding road from Jebel Akhdar towards Nizwa, where it became nice and warm again. The city of Nizwa used to be the capital of the sultanate until the 12th century. And even today, local people affectionately consider it still to be Oman's secret capital. Although the city has lost some of its original character with modernization, it is still an attractive destination for many visitors because of its fort and the famous goat and animal market. Every Friday at around 7 a.m., a spectacle begins in which the best prices for the animals are haggled over. For us, however, this was a little too early. Even though we didn't get to see the animal market live, we were still able to see everything. With a few “leftover” goats, we were also able to soak up a little of the atmosphere. In Al Hamra, we visited one of the typical Omani adobe brick houses and learned a lot about the original way of life of the people from earlier times. The dirt road ride through the spectacular landscape of Jebel Shams – the Mountain of the Sun – rounded off today's journey perfectly.
Everyone in the group said we should just turn around and just do the same tour again. Unfortunately, we can't make the time stand still and today is the day when we will change the borders back from Oman to the UAE. Our time here in Oman was simply fantastic! We learned a lot about riding on unpaved roads, and we all had a lot of fun! But hey guys, there is still another one of these great dirt roads to ride this morning before we get to our highlight of the day - the beehive tombs. They are said to be over 5000 years old. After the hike to the beehives we took a last typical Omani lunch and then took the highway ride along the edges of the Empty Quarter desert.
Jebel Hafeet had us rolling down it's perfectly laid out curves this morning, and afterwards we followed the main highway through the emirate's desert straight into Dubai. Well, maybe not so straight after all. In between we also stopped by at Dubai's camel racing club. Even though it was too late and already too warm to watch the camels racing, we still saw them doing some kind of training, which, in fact, was very interesting, too. In the morning, Dubai was blessed with some rain. Luckily, we didn't get to ride through any of it. So we could round up our tour through Oman with a visit to the top of one of Dubai's skyscrapers. We were served a delicious lunch. And we also enjoyed a swim in the infinity pool. Time flys when you enjoy what you do. And we sure did during the past two weeks! I am happy for all the great experiences we had together and I am looking forward to explore another part of our beautiful planet with you guys in the future. Thanks a lot for everything! Your tour guide Angela