A day of riding – a day on the road. Quite fitting for the day we surpass 30.000 km traveled on this trip. Yesterday ended up being one of the top three days in terms of distance covered, 520 km. Today, it was going to be one of the most impressive.

We got up with the first light, again, and methodically started packing the tent. Even though we’d spent some time last night to take another round of starlight pictures, we were packed and ready to go as early as ever.

At first, the ride continued the way it had ended yesterday. Almost perfectly straight on a vast gravel plain, few features as far as the eye can see. Something to mix it up were the two dry fords that had been completely washed over recently and had the road covered in sand. No fall to report, though.

All of this changed when the first steep cliffs of the Dhofar Mountain range appeared like a sheer wall at the end of the road. Just after Sinawt the cliffs cut the landscape in half, ending in steep cliffs at the water’s edge. The road was about to change radically as an enormous ramp appeared in front of us, lifting us 400 m up the plateau – where once again most features disappeared to give way to a wide, featureless plateau. To make sense of what just happened, we took a small detour, back down to the water’s edge and the town of Sawqrah at the end of a wadi cutting into the edge of the plateau. Little did we know that the engineering and landscape marvels here were but a little taster of what was to come further towards Hasik.

During our first fuel and drinks break, we once again got a taste of the unique Omani hospitality. An Omani came past in his 4WD and beeped the store clerk over (as seems to be custom here. Everything is done “drive in”). He saw us and we had a brief chat – then he swiftly called the store clerk again and shouted us coke and water before driving off.

The road continued on the plateau for a while until it turned and headed down to the sea again to go through the town of Sinawt. The ride down was breath taking. We stopped at the first dip to marvel at the sandstone cliffs and limestone crust of the wadi we were about to descend into. Everything seemed to be perfect – the temperature, the sky and the road. This was road trip heaven. And then we hit the beach, with perfect picnic and camp spots right there, and these cliffs as a backdrop on the other side.

It was too early to be thinking of calling it a day, but just perfect for a siesta to wait out the afternoon heat a bit. We chilled for two hours, sleeping, listening to the sound of the sea and blogging in between.

Just after we got back on the road, behind Sinawt, we got another hit to our diminishing sanity. Euphoria started to creep up on us when we spotted flamingos in the wild, hunting in Khor Sinawt (khor are estuary wetlands with water and greens year round).

When it was time to go up the Dhofar mountains one more time, we were even grateful for the clouds gathering around. Combined with the rise in altitude, it made for perfect riding temperatures again. We stopped once more a bit further in on top, because I got a suspicion that there might be a good view just over the crest next to the road. The massive valley that opened up when we reached the edge nearly knocked me back on my butt. It was overwhelming, beautiful and sublime. We would have to stop soon or I might get dizzy from all this. In the end, it did not stop.

On the other side, the road went down again, once more almost to sea level. It was brand new on this stretch. So new that our Lonely Planet got a bit annoying to read, since it still assumed the town we were heading for could only be reached from the other side. The GPS was playing up to, trying to route us the 400 km around to Hasik, 30 km away. As we came down, we at least solved that mystery. A landslide had buried the brand new road at least 10 m deep on a stretch of 100m. Lucky for us, by now the repair work was in full swing and a daring detour allowed us to go around the obstacle. All hail Omani road building – I am a fan!

The picture perfect ending for this day came soon after in the form of an oasis at the end of a wadi we were crossing. It had date palms, a cool lake, stunning scenery and camp spots shielded perfectly from the road. And it was easily accessible with the bike. And we had it all to ourselves. I had to jump into the lake, maybe just to not go bonkers for all this … we love Oman!