Day 227 – Shelim, Oman.
This region has their own character to cycling through and let you know how dependent you are on the surrounding environment. Sometimes I cycled 90 Minutes to find the first piece of shadow which was just big enough to cover my head and shoulders. Even Road signs showing no sign of shade during the high standing sun. The stretches between towns getting longer just gas station every 80 to 100 km sitting there like oasis made out of metal, concrete and the smell of evaporating gas.
Sometimes its very peaceful to cycle hours and seeing only empty mosques with old couches in front. Sometimes it’s a challenge with the strong wind even the one from the side can slow you down to 15 km/h and me working like mad on the pedals and counting to keep this up 5 hours to the next gas station. A look on the map showed me the road will continue this direction for another 200 km. Usually the wind disappeared like magic after sunset, that’s the moment when I feel the Nature tries to F*** me up.
For camp, I tried to hide behind some rocks and walking around to find a wind protected corner while the surrounding Camels stared at me between confused and obsessed. At the end I pushed my bike in an empty cabin, 100 Meter next to the road. From an outsider perspective this looks like a shit hole (definitely some used it as one) but in the situation I appreciated the values. It kept me away from the wind, I was even able to close the door, so I was not visible from the road and the little podium in the middle was perfect for cocking. Definitely an upgrade compared to sleeping in the sand behind a rock.
Somehow the endless cycling days through the monotone desert with strong winds are over when we arrived back on the Ocean, a good opportunity for a day off to relax the legs before heading inland again. The Towns on the coast often have some pavilions on the beach, perfect to stay there.
After the restday the road made a change uphill the shore coast on a flat hard plato back into the inland again. The shore falls down and opened the view into wide canyons, a bit of a taste for the impressive mountains and valleys ahead. The sand dunes from the previous days were exchanged with rocky, hard nothingness. Outstanding though was the many birds singing and flying playful next to me for a couple hundred meter. The road was straight and flat but it always looked like a slight uphill where I reach the pick just in a minute, in reality the uphill was an illusion and I never reached the pick in the heat blur on the horizon.
One of the most mind-blowing experiences since a while I had in the evening that day. I grinded the flat road since 120 km till the small town Shelim. We checked out the park there while the sky turned colours during sunset. The park was green all over, trees full of leaves, grass thick and soft with the unbelievable smell of wet grass. That smell felt hypnotic, I took my shoes off, laid down, closed my eyes and breathed deep in and out. I felt like being in Europe again during summer. Somehow it felt I had an Out of Body Experienced, obviously a bit a shock for the system because since month I saw just sand everywhere. Dali asked me when I saw grass like this the last time. It took quite long till I came up with “Gilan in the north of Iran” as an answer. That was four months ago in September. What a sick lifestyle.
