Day 203 – Al Khamil, Oman
The group of Six was formed and Christmas two days ahead the question was where to celebrate. Luis had the plan to be with other travellers in Al Ras Hadd, 200 KM north-east on the edge of Oman where the Persian Golf meets the Indian Ocean, great Idea.
First we had to cycle out of the Wadi Bin Khalid up the climb again to reach the Mainroad towards east. Cycling in a group is usually a compromise when it comes to distance, speed and breaks caused by the different strength of riders. With Marc, Luis and Me we had three strong Cyclists in the group which creates stress for the others riding faster than comfortable and makes it difficult for us to find a rhythm slowing down and waiting often. The solution was to let us three riding in a group as fast we wanted till Al Khamil 60 KM away, where we look out for a nice restaurant and a campspot for the night. Sounds good and off we were.
Till Al Khamil the Road was a plane, flat freeway with the sun at the highpoint and wind straight in our faces. Very boring to cycle but great to have fun, especially with Marc who done his 2nd Ironman this summer and Luis who is racing regularly in a cycling team. So we got straight behind each other, wheel on wheel and each of us pushing hard 2 km turns in the wind before falling back and cruising behind the other guys and doing it all over again for two hours until the 60 km are done, and we are sitting in a Pakistani Restaurant eating like two Families.
An hour later the other arrived and had lunch as well while we finished ours. Everybody satisfied we just rolled out of town and found a nice Rriverbed to camp in. The next day we split again after Dali and I extended our Visas on a Policestation which was randomly builded in the middle of nowhere. Luis, Marc and I took the 100 km to Al Ras Hadd in one day with a lunchbreak in Sur where the other stayed for the night to catch up the following day. It was plain, wheel on wheel cycling but the road often changed from a narrow hard shoulder with lot of dirt on it to no shoulder at all. Cycling wheel on wheel with 30 to 40 Km/h and a lot of traffic made it very demanding and technical to ride. So we were very happy to arrive where the Road disappears into the beach after the Village of Al Ras Hadd on the old, bumpy runway from a removed Military base, where we took a dip in the Persian Golf or Indian ocean, I don’t know maybe both.
