Day 229 – Hasik, Oman
The Desert starts to get more and more alive, even everything still looks ruff but, some plants and bushes growing on the sandy surface along the road and bringing some colours and a place for insects to life. With the Insects, birds coming and singing while flying next to me.
The road is climbing up and down the cliffs and follows along the deep canyons which falling down the sea. This is a strong contrast after the long monotone days in the desert. One night Dali and I spend on top of a Plato after climbing 400 meters up from sea level. Up there the landscape changed with some dry grass and the evening sun made it shining golden till the horizon. It remembered me to Iran, a thought which Dali spoke out one minute after it was in my head.
Jabal Samhan Nature Reserve – Grand Canyon of Oman
In the morning we left knowing that the road will ascend another 300 meter up to 700 m asv. but the first stop was after 4 km when the view, left to the road, reached down the huge canyon of Jabal Samhan. A look on the map told us the drop was more than 300 meters deep in front of our feed. I threw stones as fare as I could and watched them falling down. It was hypnotizing to look at this massive wideness and hard to continue, but after 3 km we got another breathtaking view down the Jabal Samhan Canyon, even deeper and wider with the view until the ocean.
The road went on very wavy, up and down with no part of a flat distance, hard to find a rhytem, but I was stocked about the road ahead since I saw it on the map 900 km before while we had our Christmas camp in Al Ras Hadd. There I was, 700 m up, standing on a cliff, the view down until the ocean, my eyes following the road which was rigged into the mountains in all kinds of shapes to make these mountains drivable. On a map the road looks like a snake following the steep Mountains. In reality its more than this. The massive effort, and earth what was moved to dig this line in the landscape is unbelievable. On my downhill I often had to stop to take it in and try to realise the huge scale of this construction.
More than 10 km downhill later Dali and I reached a lagoon for lunchbreack before cycling uphill 300 m again for the last effort this day. I wasn’t happy to continue cycling but it was necessary, to say at least I was struggling to find a rhythm after lunch and somehow my body felt a bit worn out from the past 3 weeks.
Last Climb and a Rain Shower
Never then less I made it, knowing this will be the last proper climb for the next few days and afterwards the road will going downhill following the coast with the amazing view into to the blue water. On sea level again I passed a Military checkpoint, everything easy the guards sitting in the car with their feed outside through the open window in the door, the others sitting on a table playing cards and starting waving, like a long-lost friend when they saw me.
Out of nothing around a corner popped up a tall waterfall down the cliffs. Multiple levels of minerals formed over thousands of years by the water flushed down the wall. Underneath a pool were the water is dripping in like a oversized rain shower.
A nice wash later the day finished in the town Hasik which we spotted from the top of the Mountains, flickering like a white diamond on the end of the curved coastline. We found an Indian restaurant to get a massive meal (like always), and also a fancy pavilion on the beach where we decided the next morning to stay and take a day off while we already started to pack up. Always be spontaneous and especially when it serves you, like in this case. We both felt drained out and had stuff to organise for the stay in Salalah. The place was great just a couple hundred meters outside of town and 20 meters to the water for a swim.
