ADO2601 Adventure Dubai & Oman
From Sharjah, we first head north towards Musandam, the part of Oman that borders the Emirates at the easternmost tip. We actually planned on riding up the winding mountain pass to Jebel Jais, the highest mountain in the Emirates. However, the winter rains have caused some damage to the road, so we are only allowed to ride on a small section of it. After about 10 km, the road ends and we are asked in a friendly but firm manner to turn back around. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful experience. Since we were unable to reach our restaurant at the summit either, we decided to have lunch at an open-air restaurant instead. Very unusual for our understanding, Emiratis and their families rarely ever go to a restaurant to eat out. Instead, food is ordered for everyone, then a car pulls up in front of the restaurant, honks briefly, and a waiter jumps out of the restaurant with a bag full of food and brings it to the driver. The driver then takes off again and everything is same quiet as before. Until us “cowboys and cowgirls” thunder up on our motorcycles. It looks a bit like a scene from a Western movie, doesn't it? Except that there are motorcycles instead of horses sitting in front of the saloon now :) Then, towards the evening, the young Arabs appear on the scene. That's why there are so many sofas around the restaurant. Here, they sit together, eat and drink (no alcohol, of course!) and chat. To our surprise, we discovered that the sofas were quite comfortable :) In the afternoon, we arrived at our luxurious hotel in Al Aqah in the Emirate of Fujairah.
A wonderful good morning to you out there! We are well rested, have slept off some more of the jet lag, slipped back into our motorcycle gear and are now ready to take off into our second riding day. The morning ride took us through the northern part of the Hajar mountains, first on road and later also a bit off the paved road. What an enjoyable ride this was! Lunch in Hatta, the city of water in the Emirate of Dubai, was delicious and gave us the right power to first ride up the Hatta dam and then across the border into Oman.
A wedding car was spotted in front of our hotel this morning. We were sorry, that we couldn't stay to crash the party, but we had to leave ride our motorcycles again :) Here in Oman it is not like in the Alps, where you find a café or a restaurant at any given corner that fits your riding schedule. Instead we take the early opportunity to stop for a fresh and super delicious fruit juice. Mango-Passion, Pommegranate, you name it... Ibrahim organised everyone their juice in advance. We have a long riding day ahead of us, so we don't want to waste time waiting for the 12 drinks that they need to mix. Pretty soon after we leave the plains of Sohar and turn inland to enter the Hajar Mountain Range. The beautifully winding road leads us through the foothills to the city of Al Rustaq, and after lunch for a picture stop into Wadi Bani Awf, before we hit the highway towards Muscat - a riding day right up to our alleyway, this was !!
Aiaiaiai.... this beautiful view out of the room's window, the wonderful sound of the rolling waves almost lets you forget the time! Walking around the premisses of our hotel, Peter found out that an Indian wedding party was about to begin in this hotel. It seems the perfect wedding season in Oman. But we have a different plan on mind for our rest day in Muscat today. So up up and away! Let's tackle the Omani traffic into the north-western part of the city to visit the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. Quite an impressive building. It can hold 20.000 prayers and has a 21 tons one-piece-carpet inside on the ground. The ceiling is decorated by Swarovski chandeliers, one of them weighing 8 tons! The Mutrah Souk in the old part of Muscat still is a very traditional market place where tourists and locals alike find either souvenirs or regular household things to buy. A final sight before we return back to our hotel on the Muscat Bay Beach will be the Al Alam Palace. A relaxed afternoon prepares us for tomorrow's ride further south.
Well rested, we leave our beautiful hotel on the beach in Muscat. It was truly fantastic to be here, but of course there are still a few things to see and experience on our route further south to the giant tortoises. First, we want to explore the great unpaved road through the hinterland that connects right after the hotel. Around noon, we arrive at the Bimma sinkhole. The sea has done a great job here, allowing us to take a dip in its cool water. Passing Wadi Shab, we drive straight on to Sur to visit the dhow boat workshop. A very impressive highlight. In the evening, we are completely fascinated by the rare green giant turtle that is native to this part of the Omani beach.
An exciting day lies ahead of us. The longest stretch of unpaved roads on this tour leads through the mountains, and we are really looking forward to exploring them. An extremely beautiful mountain landscape welcomes us at 2,000 meters above sea level. Since there are no restaurants along the way for our lunch break, we have bought some delicious sandwiches beforehand, which we enjoy undisturbed in the middle of the route. At the end of January, you can sometimes encounter fog and light rain at the top of the mountains, but this is actually not too bad, as it means the ride is not so dusty. Greeted by two very trusting camels, we arrived at our desert camp in the afternoon, feeling very satisfied and full of wonderful experiences.
An exhilarating visit to the women's market in Ibra in the morning was a contrasting experience to our night in the desert. Although the town is quite busy, we managed to find a good parking spot. An Omani women's market is refreshingly different from the markets we know from home. Of course, it's also about selling, but the social aspect plays a big role for Omani women! Some sit on the floor and chat with each other, others meet at a cosmetics stand and stock up on makeup. Some women sell embroidery or colorful, glittery fabrics. Donna and I had ourselves perfumed at the cosmetics stand. This is said to have various effects. In any case, we smelled good afterwards ;) Don't worry, the men don't have to stay outside anymore. Our gentlemen were just quicker to finish looking around ;) On the subsequent ride through the Omani countryside, we see many beautiful villas. Omanis have a talent for skillfully placing these beautiful houses in the landscape. Our lunch then demanded new talents from us – it's been a while since we last ate with our hands, hasn't it? Today's last highlight, before we rode up to our hotel on Jebel Akhdar, was the village of Birkat al Mouz. The small town has an old town center consisting of many dilapidated mud houses. However, these are still so well preserved that they are very easy to visit.
From the big green Mountain, on which our beautiful hotel is located, a perfectly formed paved road winds its way down from an altitude of around 2,000 meters to around 500 meters. Manou put it perfecly right: “Whoever built this road must have been a motorcyclist!” The excited expression in his face showed his delight at the exhilarating ride :) Since we are spending our rest day on Jebel Akhdar, we get to enjoy riding the 30 km long pass road four times! Via an unpaved winding road, we then reached another pass leading to Jebel Al Sherquie. The view from up there each time anew is stunningly beautiful. A sundowner on the hotel terrace followed by dinner rounds off this rest day.
A special experience this morning is the goat market in Nizwa. Even though we are not there during the actual trading hours, there is still some activity to see. And the square itself is just as interesting to look at. The building next door is the trading place for halwa, a typical Omani sweet. Afterwards, we are given an extremely interesting guided tour of one of the original mud houses and enjoy our lunch in one of the oldest and best-preserved villages in Oman. The ride up to Jebel Shams reveals a spectacular view of the largest rock gorge in the Middle East.
Today, we will return from Oman to the Emirates in the late afternoon. But first, we will enjoy one last ride on an unpaved road through the mountains of Oman. We will also pass by a place that has one of the oldest series of beehive tombs. It's hard to believe, but these very well-preserved structures are actually 5,000 years old. We end this day's ride with a view of the city of Al Ain (UAE).
We have a last riding day left on our motorcycle tour through Oman. In the morning, we ride down the 60 curves of Mount Hafeet Road. And once we have passed through the city of Al Ain, we take the highway directly to Dubai as the UAE desert does not offer much choice in terms of winding asphalt roads. But we make a stop at Dubai's camel race track on the way. Our final treat is lunch and a swim in the infinity pool with a view.