Last October I went on a fantastic weeks bike tour around the Oman. People may not think of the Oman as a biking destination but I can tell you that it was absolutely fantastic. There are hundreds of miles of great riding roads both on and off road. Mountain passes, dried out river beds called "wadis" and everything in between. Another pleasant surprise (unlike Dubai) was that the locals are by far the most friendly bunch of people I have ever met. Virtually every single car that you passed would honk and wave at you, if you were stopped at the side of the road people would always stop and ask about your trip and if you needed help with anything. A complete contrast to the UAE!
We started out in Dubai and made our way to the Oman border at Kalba which is a 200km ride mainly on multi lane highways, although there is one great mountain pass just before the border checkpoint.
Bikes at the border
We carried on another 60km to the beach town of Sohar where we planned to stay the night at the only beach hotel in town. Unfortunately there was some kind of conference on and the hotel was full. Plan B, we decided to push on along the next days route and camp somewhere up in the mountains. We rode off up into the mountains to find that the previous week there had been a ton of rain storms and when it rains there the roads turn to rivers! There was river debris ALL over the road for maybe 75km. Eventually we got up out of the valley and found somewhere to camp on the mountain top.
Washed out roads
Up into the mountains and camping
On day two the plan was to ride to the top of the middle east's tallest mountain "Jebal Shams", which is around 3000m high. This means the temperature can reach 0c in the winter and around 20c in summer, which is a huge difference compared to the 40c heat down on the plains. There is a resort on a plateau about 500m below the peak where you can rent a room for the night. The route there involved around 80km of wadis and mountain passes, however when we got to the start of the off road we discovered that the storms had made it impassable.
On the way to the wadi
Start of the wadi
Which soon became impassable (note overturned bus from the floods)
We had to back track and take another route which still involved about 40km of gravel tracks but wouldnt nearly be as much fun. Unfortunately the V-Strom decided it would break down in the middle of the off road section. The battery had gone dead....Bump starting a 1000cc V-twin on gravel in 40c sun is no easy task, let me tell you.....We had to abandon the plan to ride to the top of the mountain for that day and instead retreat to the nearest town 60km away
Broken down, Jebal Shams in the background
Hotel room for 2nd night, about 3000THB
More to come....
We started out in Dubai and made our way to the Oman border at Kalba which is a 200km ride mainly on multi lane highways, although there is one great mountain pass just before the border checkpoint.
Bikes at the border
We carried on another 60km to the beach town of Sohar where we planned to stay the night at the only beach hotel in town. Unfortunately there was some kind of conference on and the hotel was full. Plan B, we decided to push on along the next days route and camp somewhere up in the mountains. We rode off up into the mountains to find that the previous week there had been a ton of rain storms and when it rains there the roads turn to rivers! There was river debris ALL over the road for maybe 75km. Eventually we got up out of the valley and found somewhere to camp on the mountain top.
Washed out roads
Up into the mountains and camping
On day two the plan was to ride to the top of the middle east's tallest mountain "Jebal Shams", which is around 3000m high. This means the temperature can reach 0c in the winter and around 20c in summer, which is a huge difference compared to the 40c heat down on the plains. There is a resort on a plateau about 500m below the peak where you can rent a room for the night. The route there involved around 80km of wadis and mountain passes, however when we got to the start of the off road we discovered that the storms had made it impassable.
On the way to the wadi
Start of the wadi
Which soon became impassable (note overturned bus from the floods)
We had to back track and take another route which still involved about 40km of gravel tracks but wouldnt nearly be as much fun. Unfortunately the V-Strom decided it would break down in the middle of the off road section. The battery had gone dead....Bump starting a 1000cc V-twin on gravel in 40c sun is no easy task, let me tell you.....We had to abandon the plan to ride to the top of the mountain for that day and instead retreat to the nearest town 60km away
Broken down, Jebal Shams in the background
Hotel room for 2nd night, about 3000THB
More to come....
