Greggers
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Friday
The day started with me wanting to get at least one photo of a spectacular sunrise, so I was out of bed early and sitting outside in the cold, camera in hand. I got to thinking that we were approaching the end of the tour and ended up wondering where the time had disappeared.
Without realising it we had put ourselves at the optimum starting position for our last proper riding day. By riding on to the guest house rather than stopping at Nizwa we had more or less made up the time we’d previously lost and were just about back on schedule. Today we had two objectives; the canyons of the Jebel Shams and the Wadi Bani Auf. On the map these two areas are relatively close, but we were expecting some fairly challenging terrain so we’d allowed ourselves a whole day in the region.
The Guesthouse was midway between the two points so as we loaded the bikes we were grinning at the prospect of descending the previous night’s ascent. Breakfasted on omelettes and toast we were ready to go. As we’d expected, the descent was spectacular, the road surfaces were immaculate and the turns all had positive camber. We had to stop for pictures of the views – breathtaking vistas on all sides, simply magnificent.
At the bottom we turned towards Al Hamra and were directed along a ridiculously circuitous route through the town to get to the Jebel. We bumped into a group of three local lads on MX bikes who had just come down from the Jebel, one of the bikes had fouled a plug and they were struggling to get it fixed.
A few minutes later they were on their way. A little further the asphalt stopped and the graded surface began. At first it was well prepared, but once we were through the control gates things got a little livelier with unpredictable changes in surface and terrain. Once at the top though we were rewarded with more fantastic views and an unmissable opportunity for more pictures.
As we retraced our steps, Rob stopped to buy his holiday carpet from a roadside seller – one more for the collection! We carried on through Al Hamra heading for Wadi Bani Auf and found ourselves back at the start of the mountain road up to the Guesthouse, the day was getting better by the minute! We had just as much fun going back over the mountain in daylight, this time we could see where we were going which was a huge bonus.
As we passed the guesthouse the staff the guys we’d met the night before were standing on the wall waving excitedly as we passed, they must have been able to hear us for some time as the 450’s competition exhaust was very loud indeed. Just a few hundred metres past the Guesthouse the tarmac came to an end and the road to the Wadi began in earnest.
There was no easing into this track, it was straight into very technical terrain and surface made more challenging by the steep descent into the valley. This was truly spectacular, jagged cliffs with near vertical faces climbing hundreds of feet into the air. The track we were on was cratered and potholed with debris from frequent cliff face falls scattered everywhere. There was also the small matter of an equally precipitous fall to the valley floor several hundred feet below.
There was no margin for error at all, one slip and it would have been game over, Needless to say we took great care and managed to make the descent without any drama although Rob had been confronted with some very difficult sections to deal with as the surface in some places had been polished smooth and the 990 was a heavy lump to muscle round some of the tighter turns, but he dug deep and got the job done. I was glad to be on board the 450, trust me!
After around 30km of this track we popped out into a lush green oasis with lots of greenery and palms. The biggest surprise was a football pitch right in the middle of this, full sized and perfectly flat and with two full teams of eleven playing a match! We hadn’t passed more than four or five houses all morning and yet there were all these guys in full kit playing footie – impressive!
We carried on along the valley and followed the little tributary as it passed a few more settlements and finally joined a wider section of the Wadi. Time had got the better of us again – we were losing light and we had at least another 40km to reach our destination. We thought about setting up camp in the wadi, but as we had some big miles to do the next day we decided to press on. Riding through the wadi in twilight was nothing short of eerie, the bike’s powerful lights casting shadows on the valley sides and the dust was like driving in thick fog, interestingly this particular wadi must be a principal route through the area as the track was cut and prepared in such a way to allow two opposing flows of traffic – in parts it was constructed with a central barrier creating a ‘dual carriageway’ . A little further along we started seeing signs of construction in the roadway and all of a sudden we were rolling on fresh smooth black asphalt. This was a truly bittersweet moment, we were relieved to be out of the uncertainty of the wadi, but the road improvement plan we’d become a part of signalled the end of our off road riding in Oman- there was nothing but tar ahead of us from now until Dubai. We carried on through the roadworks, dodging oil drum barriers and ignoring ‘Road Closed’ signs until we quite literally popped out from this side road onto the main road just a few hundred metres from our last Omani destination of Rustaq.
We took the first opportunity to refuel and grab a bite to eat before hunting down a bed for the night. A guy at the coffee shop directed us to a hotel close by and after the exertions of the day we weren’t in the mood to be fussy so we rolled in and unloaded without inspection. This place was a dump, without question the least appealing billet we’d had. The place was grubby and quite scruffy with dodgy electrics. The bedding looked clean but wasn’t entirely confident that I’d be the bed’s sole occupant so I broke out the bag liner for the first time of the trip. The bathroom was a revelation; the shower had lost its head and was thus just a pipe hanging from the wall, the Turkish toilet also served as the shower tray, doubtless the shower also doubled up as the toilet’s flush. There was a bird nest wedged into the window which also harboured what appeared to be half of Oman’s mosquito population. +1 for the bag liner!
We’d decided against eating in so strolled over to the supermarket across the road to get some food and a bag of frozen peas for Rob’s ankle. We sat under the hotel’s canopy and enjoyed an impromptu meal of crisps, coke and Bombay mix. Classy!
Some misc pics....
The day started with me wanting to get at least one photo of a spectacular sunrise, so I was out of bed early and sitting outside in the cold, camera in hand. I got to thinking that we were approaching the end of the tour and ended up wondering where the time had disappeared.
Without realising it we had put ourselves at the optimum starting position for our last proper riding day. By riding on to the guest house rather than stopping at Nizwa we had more or less made up the time we’d previously lost and were just about back on schedule. Today we had two objectives; the canyons of the Jebel Shams and the Wadi Bani Auf. On the map these two areas are relatively close, but we were expecting some fairly challenging terrain so we’d allowed ourselves a whole day in the region.
The Guesthouse was midway between the two points so as we loaded the bikes we were grinning at the prospect of descending the previous night’s ascent. Breakfasted on omelettes and toast we were ready to go. As we’d expected, the descent was spectacular, the road surfaces were immaculate and the turns all had positive camber. We had to stop for pictures of the views – breathtaking vistas on all sides, simply magnificent.
At the bottom we turned towards Al Hamra and were directed along a ridiculously circuitous route through the town to get to the Jebel. We bumped into a group of three local lads on MX bikes who had just come down from the Jebel, one of the bikes had fouled a plug and they were struggling to get it fixed.
A few minutes later they were on their way. A little further the asphalt stopped and the graded surface began. At first it was well prepared, but once we were through the control gates things got a little livelier with unpredictable changes in surface and terrain. Once at the top though we were rewarded with more fantastic views and an unmissable opportunity for more pictures.
As we retraced our steps, Rob stopped to buy his holiday carpet from a roadside seller – one more for the collection! We carried on through Al Hamra heading for Wadi Bani Auf and found ourselves back at the start of the mountain road up to the Guesthouse, the day was getting better by the minute! We had just as much fun going back over the mountain in daylight, this time we could see where we were going which was a huge bonus.
As we passed the guesthouse the staff the guys we’d met the night before were standing on the wall waving excitedly as we passed, they must have been able to hear us for some time as the 450’s competition exhaust was very loud indeed. Just a few hundred metres past the Guesthouse the tarmac came to an end and the road to the Wadi began in earnest.
There was no easing into this track, it was straight into very technical terrain and surface made more challenging by the steep descent into the valley. This was truly spectacular, jagged cliffs with near vertical faces climbing hundreds of feet into the air. The track we were on was cratered and potholed with debris from frequent cliff face falls scattered everywhere. There was also the small matter of an equally precipitous fall to the valley floor several hundred feet below.
There was no margin for error at all, one slip and it would have been game over, Needless to say we took great care and managed to make the descent without any drama although Rob had been confronted with some very difficult sections to deal with as the surface in some places had been polished smooth and the 990 was a heavy lump to muscle round some of the tighter turns, but he dug deep and got the job done. I was glad to be on board the 450, trust me!
After around 30km of this track we popped out into a lush green oasis with lots of greenery and palms. The biggest surprise was a football pitch right in the middle of this, full sized and perfectly flat and with two full teams of eleven playing a match! We hadn’t passed more than four or five houses all morning and yet there were all these guys in full kit playing footie – impressive!
We carried on along the valley and followed the little tributary as it passed a few more settlements and finally joined a wider section of the Wadi. Time had got the better of us again – we were losing light and we had at least another 40km to reach our destination. We thought about setting up camp in the wadi, but as we had some big miles to do the next day we decided to press on. Riding through the wadi in twilight was nothing short of eerie, the bike’s powerful lights casting shadows on the valley sides and the dust was like driving in thick fog, interestingly this particular wadi must be a principal route through the area as the track was cut and prepared in such a way to allow two opposing flows of traffic – in parts it was constructed with a central barrier creating a ‘dual carriageway’ . A little further along we started seeing signs of construction in the roadway and all of a sudden we were rolling on fresh smooth black asphalt. This was a truly bittersweet moment, we were relieved to be out of the uncertainty of the wadi, but the road improvement plan we’d become a part of signalled the end of our off road riding in Oman- there was nothing but tar ahead of us from now until Dubai. We carried on through the roadworks, dodging oil drum barriers and ignoring ‘Road Closed’ signs until we quite literally popped out from this side road onto the main road just a few hundred metres from our last Omani destination of Rustaq.
We took the first opportunity to refuel and grab a bite to eat before hunting down a bed for the night. A guy at the coffee shop directed us to a hotel close by and after the exertions of the day we weren’t in the mood to be fussy so we rolled in and unloaded without inspection. This place was a dump, without question the least appealing billet we’d had. The place was grubby and quite scruffy with dodgy electrics. The bedding looked clean but wasn’t entirely confident that I’d be the bed’s sole occupant so I broke out the bag liner for the first time of the trip. The bathroom was a revelation; the shower had lost its head and was thus just a pipe hanging from the wall, the Turkish toilet also served as the shower tray, doubtless the shower also doubled up as the toilet’s flush. There was a bird nest wedged into the window which also harboured what appeared to be half of Oman’s mosquito population. +1 for the bag liner!
We’d decided against eating in so strolled over to the supermarket across the road to get some food and a bag of frozen peas for Rob’s ankle. We sat under the hotel’s canopy and enjoyed an impromptu meal of crisps, coke and Bombay mix. Classy!
Some misc pics....
