#  >  > Non Asia Travel Forums >  >  > Travel the World Travellers Tales Forum >  >  A Week in The Oman on Motorcycles

## madjbs

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_

On day three the V-Strom seemed to have repaired itself, so it was back to plan A with the ride up Jebal Shams. Along the way we took a few off road route options although it is actually paved till about 5km before the resort where we would stay the night. 


_Another mountain opposite Jebal Shams with a 2000m rock face, the face has been climbed in 8 hours by western climbing teams_


_ancient bee hive tombs on the hill top on the route up to Jebal Shams_








_off road side route_

The road up Jebal Shams itself was fantastic with great scenery and dozens of great switchbacks, i was having so much fun I forget to take any photos! At the end of the paved section we stopped and checked out the views.






_Overlooking the Jebal Shams plateau_

Another 5-10km further on and we had made it to or destination for the 3rd night. Jebal Shams Resort.






_Nice rooms with sunset mountain views_


_fantastic local food at the resort, perfect after a days riding (no alcohol at this resort)_


_goats hungry_

About 500m over from the resort you can walk to the edge of the Middle East's Grand Canyon or "Wadi Ghul". Its an amazing 2000m almost shear drop to the bottom. The road actually traverses along its edge at a couple of points.







Day 4 would be a long easy 400+km road ride to Ibra on the edge of the Wahiba Sands, which is a large area of desert sand dunes stretching hundreds of KMs over into the empty quarter of Saudi Arabia. Along the way we stopped off and had a quick look at the Nizwa fort, which is a popular tourist destination in the Oman. Nizwa looked like a nice place to stay, much nicer than Ibra where we were heading to.









After the stop at the fort we carried on to Ibra where we stayed at the only hotel. There are desert camps where you can stay in traditional arabic tents but we didn't fancy taking the bikes through the sand. The hotel itself was very strange, it was built around a central coutyard with pool and was very 70s in style and feel. The staff told us they had a bar, which we were very pleased about! The bar was the weirdest bar I have ever been in.



Everything furry red velvet, neon lights and packed full of hammered Arabs in their dish dashes from about 10pm onwards. Whoever said Muslims didn't drink!

Day 5 we were going to drive up to the capital of the Oman, Muscat. The original plan had been to go over a 80km mountain pass to the coast and up the coast road. However, once we got to the start of the mountain pass we decided that the storm the previous night may have made it impassable. Instead I thought we could link up with a nearby road which looked fantastic for riding on the map. The road linking us to that road appeared on my map but not on the GPS, we thought we would give it a try anyhow. It turned out that the map was wrong, the road had been planned but not yet built, so we ended up driving around 80km off road through a fantastic wadi and about 10 different river crossings. This unplanned section of off road turned out to be the best section on the entire trip! We eventually linked up with the road and had another 100km of fantastic road riding to Muscat where we checked into a properly decent hotel with a proper bar (also full of Arabs drinking!).








_My bike goes down for the second time in the trip (first time was in impassible wadi)_









_Fantastic river crossings and scenery_

Day 6 we drove all the way back to Dubai from Muscat via Kalba again. Nothing to report there, just a long 450km road ride.

Hope you enjoyed the report!

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## Chairman Mao

Well if it ain't Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman.  :Smile: 

Great stuff mate, cheers.

Brings back lots of memories of the region from 10 years ago.

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## madjbs

If only we had the support crew!

The Oman is really a fantastic place to visit. Highly recommended!

Another nice point for people living here is that Thais don't need a visa to visit, so it's easy to take girlfriends/family there.

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## Marmite the Dog

Excellent stuff.

you forgot rule #1. Never ride a Suzuki...

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## madjbs

That's why I was on a BMW!  :Very Happy: 

Jokes aside, the V-Strom is a fantastic bike. The break down was due to a faulty regulator/rectifier, which had actually been recalled, although we hadn't seen.

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## DJ Pat

Looks like a lot of fun

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## bsnub

Wow! Great pics!

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## Cujo

Awesome, thanks for sharing, looks great.
Isn't it hot in the leathers though?

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## Khun Custard

Top thread madjbs - enjoyed it
A shaft drive is the only way in all the dust and rubble!
Any issues of personal safety or security on the journey - well, apart from the red bar??

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## bushwacker

Enjoyed looking at your pics.  Looks like you had a great trip.

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## Rigger

Great pictures and thread.
Oman is a good place to ride once your out from muscat have toured oman on Harlys and sports bikes. 
Friends where tring to set up a motorcycle tour here in Oman but there is some kind of insurance problem that is stopping them.
I think it was unable to insure a bike for a person on a tourist visa or something like that.

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## madjbs

> Any issues of personal safety or security on the journey - well, apart from the red bar??


Nope, not at all. The Oman is very safe and the people are very friendly. 




> I think it was unable to insure a bike for a person on a tourist visa or something like that.


There are a few bike tours already I think. There are some weird rules about insurance but our Dubai bikes were covered for the Oman already. I am not sure if I was technically allowed to ride it or not as I don't have a residents visa etc.. They don't care at the border anyhow.

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## madjbs

> Isn't it hot in the leathers though?


My gear is half leather half mesh. Still very hot when you are going walking speed but once you get a bit of airflow it's ok. A vital piece of equipment was the "camelback" full of cold water so you can keep hydrated as you ride.

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## natalie8

I absolutely love Oman! I was last there in November with a friend. Some day I'll start a thread on it. I don't have time to go through your thread now, but I will later on.

Friends of mine in Dubai are doing a Harley tour of Oman in a couple of weeks adn I'm so jealous.

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## kiwinev

Great pics, really good to look thru them. Looks like you had a great time.
I first went to Oman in 1980 and the roads were not that good back then.

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## Happy Dave

Interesting pics, but not my idea of a beautiful country, and was that goat the local "girlie bar"

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## Bangyai

Thanks for taking the time to post. Very interesting thread and great pictures. Learnt more about Oman than I ever knew before , which was very little.

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## Carrabow

Green delivered.

I will put this down on my wish list of things to do!

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## daveboy

Great pics love to do some thing like that one day.

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## natalie8

> 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!


Yes, it is a nice contrast to the UAE. The people in Oman are amazing!

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## dcpublius

So you rented in Dubai?  How much do they charge?  Do they have cheaper bikes available for rent?

Is it possible - and prudent - to ride down to Yemen and then back to Dubai?

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## kingwilly

> Interesting pics, but not my idea of a beautiful country,


are you joking ? Those pictures are absolutely sensational! 

Great thread !

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## madjbs

> So you rented in Dubai?  How much do they charge?  Do they have cheaper bikes available for rent?
> 
> Is it possible - and prudent - to ride down to Yemen and then back to Dubai?


No they are our own bikes. You can ride into Yemen and it is meant to be fantastic, but it is a little bit dangerous at the moment.

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## sabot

I saw this over at ADV this morning and thought how excellent the riding looked. Good report. The V-strom has the same plant as the SV 1000 right? Does it also share the same "Green connector problem"? I know you said it was a bad R/R already but if it has the green connector problem as well your bud could be in for more problems down the road. An easy fix. Again, nice photos/report.

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## madjbs

> Does it also share the same "Green connector problem"?


No, not that I know of. The R/R is a common fault though on the DL 1000. It was recalled but the dealer in Dubai hadn't informed us.

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## madjbs

> Interesting pics, but not my idea of a beautiful country, and was that goat the local "girlie bar"


I don't think women would have been made to feel very welcome in there. There wasn't even a women's toilet!

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## Neep

Cracking pictures, and looks like you had a great time. I am envious of the riding and the scenery. Glad you weren't too badly troubled by technical problems.

Thanks for posting.

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## Bettyboo

I am very handsome.

Many of the TD posters that I've met, although nice folks, are nowhere near as handsome as I am.

Edit to add: did I click on the wrong thread???

Very nice pics though...  :Smile:

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## Ratchaburi

> I am very handsome.
> 
> Many of the TD posters that I've met, although nice folks, are nowhere near as handsome as I am.
> 
> Edit to add: did I click on the wrong thread???
> 
> Very nice pics though...


 
You have been drinking again Bettyboo :smiley laughing:

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## Ratchaburi

by the way good thread I love to be able to have the time to do the same.
Thanks

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## Tubber

Is that TCX Infinity boots you have on? Were they any good?

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## madjbs

No, they are Sidi Adventures. I looked at the TCX Infinity but the Sidis were much better in terms of quality and protection. they performed very well on the ride.

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## natalie8

mad, can you post more pics? They're bringing me back to when I was there.  :bananaman:

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## terry57

Great pics and very nice report. lots of work with this one.  Thanks

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## Tubber

> No, they are Sidi Adventures. I looked at the TCX Infinity but the Sidis were much better in terms of quality and protection. they performed very well on the ride.


   Thanks madjbs, been looking at TCX infinity and Alpinestar Scout, hadn't thought about the Sidi Adventures.

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## madjbs

Both of those are good boots but the Sidi Adventures offer way more protection than both and are higher quality, also more expensive though.

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## madjbs

> mad, can you post more pics? They're bringing me back to when I was there.


As Requested!

_The ride on the way to Jebal Shams, the Middle East's tallest mountain._








_Views from the top of the mountain_














_And a couple more of Nizwa_

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## Cujo

Nizwa looks like a movie set.
Beautiful.
Thanks again, great thred.

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## natalie8

Thanks so much!!!!! Koojo, what's amazing in Oman is how quickly the landscape and scenery change. The weather too, as you can see from mad's shots.

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## Carrabow

Are those rock formations or terraces with vegetation on them?

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## madjbs

> Are those rock formations or terraces with vegetation on them?


What do you mean? They are both really, natural rock formations forming terraces in the hillside with trees and shrubs growing on them. All natural.

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## sabang

Now thats travelling! Nice Trip Report.  :Smile:

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## Rigger

I am having a week in Muscat at the moment but after 16 years working here l dont really find it to amazing but for arabs they are the probably the most friendly. Oman can be expensive in the food and drink and hotels if you stay in Muscat. 
Was out till early hours this morning, alot of expats around and many new flash clubs but at around 1000 baht  a round for just two of us drinking double JWB its a rip off.
Breakfast just turned up and is great getting good food which is impossible even in a 5 star hotel in thailand but again l could have 10 big breakfast at my local for the same money

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## Carrabow

> Originally Posted by Carrabow
> 
> Are those rock formations or terraces with vegetation on them?
> 
> 
> What do you mean? They are both really, natural rock formations forming terraces in the hillside with trees and shrubs growing on them. All natural.


It almost looks man made, interesting...

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