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Riding through cracks in the landscape
Bikepacking in Oman |
One idle Wednesday a message popped into my inbox: “dude
wanna come biking in Oman?”
It was December in Scotland and I was cold... Oman, however, probably
not cold. A quick glance at the route
was all I needed to say ‘Lets do it’! I mean adventures with Rik have always ended
with good stories.
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| The route: Nizwa to Muscat through the Jebal Shams mountains (with many options and side missions) |
Naturally some wandering off happened. In fact before we even left Muscat airport while I was guarding the stuff, I got this message:
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| ...somethings never change. |
Once I'd tracked down Rik, we got a bus out to Nizwa, which turned out to be much easier than expected. In Niswa we were unceremoniously dropped on in a back alley
in town and a good 5km from our hotel. This seemed as good a time as any to
construct the bikes.
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Assembly time
The back alley where we put the bikes back together |
Happily after a few stressful moments all the pieces fitted together and we set off to find our hotel for the night.
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| All the pieces went back together Phew! |
In the evening we explored the historic centre of Nizwa. As
with most of the rest of the trip the absence of crowds of tourists was
notable. We saw a handful of tourists and made our way on to a coffee house for
dinner
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| Nizwa souq - I really want one of those giant pots! |
We set off early the next morning intending to cover some
miles before it got really hot, however after a very short ride we made an
early juice stop – We were on holiday after all!
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| Riding through Nizwa Fort |
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How soon is too soon before we can stop for juice?
(3km in to the ride-totally appropriate) |
The major roads in Oman are nice smooth tarmac, and with
some chunky mountain passes, it’s not surprising the Haute Route goes through
this region. And on day 1 we crossed into their route. Attempts to drop the
roadies were discussed but never initiated – probably wise.
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Ok, these signs weren’t actually put out for us. Still...
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Often the road had a perfectly serviceable gravel road
alongside it. I enjoyed being on a terrain more suited to my bike, which also
turned out some ace photo opportunities.
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Rik on Road by Rach on Gravel
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We probably looked a little bit strange together. Rik on a folding bike with full touring gear and me on a plus wheels with a bikepacking set up. Surprisingly, most of the time we actually made a similar pace.
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Cycle touring or Bikepacking ?
Two hilariously mismatched bikes |
Pretty soon we reached a turn off for Wadi Tanuf, our 'side mission' for day 1, the tarmac turned to gravel and then river bed. I felt like I was finally riding the right bike for the terrain.
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| Wadi Tanuf - maximum gravel. |
Rik showed off his skillz on 20" wheel in the gravel. I genuinely spent most of the trip amazed at what Rik can ride on tiny tiny wheels. (I'll keep my plus wheel thanks ;-)
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| Wadi Tanuf, Near the top of the 'road' |
Then we rode back out the way we came and towards Al Hamra to camp for the night via a short detour to a government compound/tourist hotspot, where we got on a train (a train!) into massive cave complex. (No photos because the government people really didn't allow it). Quite the bizarre experience.
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| Sunset over Al Hamra - leaving Al Hoota |
We found a campsite in the dark, pitched the free standing tent ate and went to bed. in the night the wind picked up. First a bit and then a lot. In the end we had to move camp and re pitch attaching guy ropes to building blocks and a fence to prevent tents blowing away.
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| Tent tied to a fence and some breeze blocks! |
The next day we began our 'big climb' up to 2000m, but not before stopping in to a village store for coffee and dates with the shopkeeper. Lovely. From our study of the map we weren't sure if there was any civilization on the mountain pass, so we carried 6kg of water each. It was heavy, and ultimately unnecessary. Still running out would have been worse.
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| Fully laden with 6kg of water. |
Climbing up the pass was hot work, we intermittently cycle and pushed the bikes ever upwards. The road was very exposed and almost no cover for shade barring the occasional scrub tree.
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Lunch at 1300m, (the height of Ben Nevis)
Nowhere close to the top. |
Somewhere around 1600m up we found a mosque. We sheltered on the shady wall for some respite. Before long we were invited in to the small house next door for coffee dates and fruit. yum.
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| Rik makes friends with the locals |
Up and up we went. This was the only day I turned the garmin on, just to check our elevation to see if we were anywhere near the magic 2000m that would signal the top of the pass. Eventually after an almighty push we found ourselves riding on the plateau. Yes! We'd reached the top. Suddenly, by the side of the road - a guest house. Happy days. a shower was definitely called for. Camping plans were quickly abandoned as we hustled in for showers and beds.
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| Topping out at 2000m |
After an extended breakfast in the guest house we rode on to find the bit I'd been waiting for... The end of the tarmac and miles upon miles of endless gravelly descent.
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| And now the fun begins, the end of the tarmac. |
This day was almost entirely down hill, and crazy steep. We passed a few 4WD vehicles taking tourists to the top. I honestly don't know how they made it.
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| Let the downhill begin. |
The scenery was mindblowing- sheer cliffs to the right and a very sharp drop to the left. This is not a place to come off the trail!
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| Riding on the edge of the plateau |
Over the whole day we covered less than 20km. Partly because of the leisurely start but also because of the many stops for photos and letting the brakes cool off!
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| Tiny wheels on gravel |
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| Dooooooown |
After a couple of false starts we eventually found a camp spot for the night. One of the best wild camps ever - in a dry river bed surrounded by mountains on all sides. Going for a midnight wee, I was transfixed by the bowl of stars overhead. Magical.
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Tents mountains and bikes
Days like these :-) |
Of course it also happened to be Pancake Day. We weren't going to let being away from civilization stop us....
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| All the necessary ingredients |
The next morning we went for a further explore in the canyon....
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Exploring Snake Canyon -
It went on like this for several kms |
And then paid the price for our awesome camp spot with a long push out.
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Pushing out of the canyon,
sweaty but worth it |
The rest of the day was more descending out of the mountains, less steep but still stunning, with epic side canyons to explore.
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| Onwards to Petra? |
The track we're following (Wadi Bani Awf) cuts through the mountains, and every time corner we went round it looked there would be no way out except over the top. Then further on we'd find a tiny cut through between the peaks (no up and over -phew!)
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| Cut through mountains |
At lunch time we found our first road sign in days, we were on our way out of this gravel section.
After the gravel ended we still had miles of canyon to ride through before getting to Rustaq.
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Off the gravel and back into a canyon,
it went on like this for about 10 miles! |
We stayed the night in the only hotel in Rustaq. looking at the route options for getting back to Muscat. We decided on the interesting route. Moar Gravel! This meant following the edge of the mountain range all the way. basically so long as the mountains were on our right we would end up in Muscat.
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| Keeping the mountains on the right |
Again the kindness of Omanis was hugely appreciated, searching out a rest stop a car pulled over and stopped. An Omani jumped out and rummaged in the back of the car and handed us a bag of fruit and delicious sweet goo (found out later this is called Halwa).
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Fruit and Goo,
The kindness of strangers |
On some sections the gravel was bit thick for Rik's bike, so I got ahead. Which meant I could have a cheeky nap waiting for him to catch up (and Rik can take photos of me snoring)
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| Nap time! |
Our final camp spot was another dry river bed, not quite as stunning as in the mountains, but still a great final night on the traverse.
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| Final camp- still using rocks to hold the tents down. |
The final day we rode into Muscat, mostly on Tarmac. My knobbly tyres sounding like a small moped on the polished road. It was also a good day for photos with Camels!
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| Camel time! |
As we got closer to Muscat, the roads got bigger and busier until we were basically riding on motorway.oops! Finally after getting a bit lost in the back roads of Muscat and navigating past the airport, we located our hotel and set about getting showers.
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| Anticlimactical finish photo |
Our time in Oman had come to an end, what a great trip. I can highly recommend Oman as a holiday destination, the people are friendly, the weather is good and the mountains are stunning. I'm pretty sure there is a lot more to explore in those mountains. I'd definitely go back.
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Oman: Sunshine, mountains and bikes-
whats not to like! |
