Day 230 – Mirbat, Oman
Leaving Hasik and the Luxurious pavilion on the beach after the restday to cycle down the coast. Towards Mirbat which is the last town before reaching Salalah. My Eyes following a last time the cliffs in the distance where we came from the past days. The Road was relative flat but the wind strong from the seaside which made me realize how tiny and weak I am.
With the mountains to my right and the ocean to my left I cycled on a road where out of nothing a camel stands in front of me. It walked up the road to check out the trash bin on the parking slots. It’s quite common ones I had even seen a Camel in a town, digging their long neck in the trash of a gasstation without getting interrupted from anybody. A few meters further I stopped to check out a burned out car.
The Dolphins bay.
Dali was some Kilometre in front of me and texted me he is on a bay where Dolphins swimming along. I was really enjoying cycling and not in stopping mode at all, but later I thought this could be the bay and tock a look over the waterline where I spotted one dolphin jumping out of the water and doing spirals in the air. I pulled the brakes and was stocked immediately. In another part of the bay a small group maybe 20 Dolphins swum up and down very close to the beach. First I watched from the road, then I parked my bike under some bushes, went to the beach for a closer look and some pictures. In my head, thoughts bounces back and forth to go in. This is maybe a one a lifetime moment, so went back stripped of my clothe and went in. I swam towards them and got noticed, they stopped five meters in front of me to check me out and slowly passing by next to me, with 2 meter distance. I tried slowly to get closer, but they kept some distance. Never then less it was an interesting moment to be surrounded by them.
Bathroom looked like the SAW Movie
Time was running and I had another 30 k to do, so packed up and continued. The road went more inland and it was a constant up and down but doable. During sunset, I met with Dali again to camp in a Wadi with an old pick nick place which is not in use any more after the road crossing the Wadi on a bridge rather than going through the wadi like the old road. Surprisingly it was clean and well maintained, The toilets were also clean and there was even a shower. But during the night the bathroom looked totally like the scene from the first SAW movie. I kept the door open while I was showering because I couldn’t get the creepy feeling out of my head. In the next morning a guy came to clean the area and the restrooms. A bunch of water trucks stoped to store up water. The drivers came for a chat while I was fixing my puncture in the back wheel.
Mirbat old town & paradise Park.
I was a bit late so tried to cycle the 65 km to Mirbat in 2 blocks with a lunch break on a nice mosque in the middle of nowhere. The temperature showed 32 °C in January and the road went up and down all the time. I was struggling for the first 45 minutes to get into a rhythm, somehow i didn’t felt connected or focused to my bicycle or my body, maybe I was a bit tired from the past 3 weeks and 1000 Kilometres or just the fact that tomorrow I will finally arrive in Salalah. Surprisingly I arrived in Mirbat the same time as Dali who started 2 hours before me. We met at the old fort there to check it out and doing a bit of sight seeing in the old town of Mirbat. The fort was located in the heart of the historic centre which is beautiful and total crumble. Sometimes there are just walls showing the present of a house where now trees growing. Interesting to watch how time is running the houses down without anybody is doing something. Instead, they build just new houses outside the town. We checked out the fish market and eat like crazy again in an Indian restaurant.
Earlier I checked out the Park as I arrived in town, where we went for camp. It was huge in a triangle form, each side 300 meters long. With trees, coconut palmtrees and flowers it seemed like a paradise, so unreal and hard as a contrast as it gets.
