Friends Thomas Manfe and Antoine Collet, who together form The Lost Road, head to Oman in search of gravelly adventure. They discover a land of incredibly friendly locals, green turtles, natural swimming holes and brutal headwinds.
Day 1 - Munich Airport
"We didn't bring a spare tyre. We might have been a bit stupid here" That was the first clever remark of the day. We had already caught two flights today - Toulouse/Frankfurt/Munich. Now we had another four hours to wait before taking off for Muscat. And I already had the “ants in my pants”, probably due to the fact that for reasons of space I was wearing my cycling outfit including shoes. This gave us a rather atypical style, especially in the middle of November in an airport terminal.
Alone with our thoughts we waited, trying to imagine what our journey will look like. The rest of the wait was articulated around the ideas of trips and adventures and we took the opportunity to buy medicines "just in case". We walked around in the same clothes that we will wear all week. It was quite strange to travel with just a tiny bag which was in fact the bar bag from our bikepacking setup.
We were on the home straight. Just a 7-hour flight and we arrived in Muscat.
Day 2 – Muscat. Let the adventure begin.
Where to start! We arrived at the airport at 7 a.m., went through customs clearance and the recovery of our bikes in oppressive heat close to 30°C, despite it being so early in the morning. After 1 hour of mechanics to rebuild our bikes, all the adventures really began.
Although Muscat was a reasonably sized capital, getting out of the city was one of our first assignments and we had some drama, having to take the highway out of the city. People laughed and honked at us, but in a benevolent way.
After some GPS hassles we were finally out of town. We traversed a small village with a mountain in the background. It was dangerously close to us and the first ass kick climb was murderous. The combination of oppressive heat and bikes which weighed more than 35kgs was not a good one. After an ascent of more than 45 minutes, we arrived at the first of many gravel trails. It was still tough riding, but the reward came with a gentle descent of more than 12 kms.
Between the jet lag and eating too many snacks, we managed to forget to stop and eat lunch. This was a bad strategy and we were eventually forced to stop to eat properly and to drink lots of water. The following trails were a mixture of gravel and soft sand tracks where we pushed the bikes for more than 10km, what a hassle! At the exit of the dry wadi we arrived literally in the middle of a soccer field with more than 40 kids and adults - really an incredible scene.
Some of the local people invited us to eat at their place but we still had two hours of riding left on our itinerary to get to the settlement of Quiryt, so we had to decline. The two hours turned into four hours of riding/pushing with a hilly and sandy profile. We followed a canyon which led us towards the lights of a village. After what seemed like interminable efforts, we arrived at the coastal village where we made a well-deserved stop at a Pakistani restaurant. Chicken, rice and vegetables were on the menu – who could ask for better!
After dinner, we had to find a place on the edge of the beach to put up our tent, so that we could spend our first night in Oman. We had more than 120 tough kilometres in our legs from our first day. Good night. See you tomorrow!
Day 3 – Bakeries, swimming holes and roadside help.
The night was less than tranquil. Yesterday we were so tired that we put our tent on the beach next to a road and the nightlife was quite intense in Oman - a lot of noise! We set off, but took a quick stop beside the road to eat at the local bakery - a really nice experience. Later we had a second breakfast in an Indian restaurant to recharge our batteries.
By 9:00 a.m. we were on the road again. It was still very hot. We started by attacking a long, steep canyon where there was a lot of portage [hike-a-bike]. We decided to follow a broken track that ran alongside the highway. Bad idea - it was even worse. It took two hours to do 3 or 4 kms. We had to push our bikes constantly – it was steep and not passable. We ended up crossing the highway and riding on the hard shoulder to get out of this mess and to our surprise the few passing cars greeted us and were very careful.
After a very long descent of 5kms we arrived in a small village, but to our dismay there was no restaurant. We made a quick stop at a tourist place to take some water and take a break at "the sink hole" - an underground swimming pool which connected with the ocean. After a splash about we were back on the bikes. We travelled along a road which ran alongside the coast. It was really magnificent. We passed the famous beach of white sand. By this point it was already 4:30 p.m. and we still needed to make a last effort to reach Wadi Shab and its collection of natural swimming pools.
We are really surprised by the benevolence of the locals. The number of cars that stopped to ask us if everyone was ok and to offer us water or help was really great. Our result for Day 2 was 70kms for 700m of climbing in five hours!
Our happy luxury of the day was finding a shower after two days of cycling and sweating. We took the opportunity to do a little makeshift laundry. We again planned to camp on the beach, but this time away from the road in a magnificent setting. We set up the tent before closing our eyes at 8:15 p.m.
Day 4 – Wadis and green turtles
In the morning we decided to take a break to visit the Wadi Shab. It was really extraordinary - the natural pools followed one another to finish in a cave with a waterfall in the middle – truly magical. And in addition, a little freshness helped us to attack the rest of our trip.
We took the road towards a fishing village called Sur. Our pace was good and we were progressing well. We arrived in Sur around 4 p.m. Here we made a quick stop to eat a kefta kebab at a local Turkish restaurant.
We motivated ourselves to continue our journey a little further. Why should we not try and reach the direction of the turtle springs at Ras Al Hadd, not far from 60km further on?
We arrived at 8:30 p.m. and headed straight for a break in the local restaurant. There we met a local who invited us to come and see the green turtles at 4 a.m. - we couldn't say no! It was really impressive, but the lack of sleep was starting to be felt and our desire to share and discover, instead of taking a rest was likely to be felt quickly. We slept for a few hours in our tent and then left the next day.
DAY 5 – Mosquitos and makeshift taxis.
The night was short, hot and full of biting mosquitos - really not ideal.
We ate some rice and chicken at the local canteen and off we went again for another long stint on the bikes. We stopped for a quick rehydration session where we meet two children who wanted to try our bikes and were curious about our cameras. It was quite frustrating not being able to communicate with them, but it was a pleasant moment.
We hit the road again and attacked a long part with a terrible headwind. The day looked like it would be a long one. The first kilometers were painful and fatigue was felt after our early start to see the turtles. Finally, around 3pm we turned inland and were greeted with a tailwind. After riding sometimes at less than 15kph into a headwind, it was nice to get back to a normal pace.
After several breaks to eat and drink we took advantage of the 3/4 tailwind to churn out some kilometers. Only the sand whipping our legs and face slowed us down.
On a long gravel track in the middle of nowhere we came across a mini tornado. It was quite trying and it was starting to get difficult - the discussions between us were getting shorter and shorter and I felt that we were really worn out by the wind, the heat and the sand.
The next village was 16km away it seemed to us to be the other side of the world. We eventually arrived and stopped there to eat rice chicken and to rehydrate. We took a nap on the floor in the restaurant before hitting the road for another 40kms towards the entrance to the highway.
Our plan was to either find somewhere to put our tent up or to find a taxi to take us to Muscat. We were leaving the next evening and we still had 220kms to go and we were not able to do them! I believed that physically we were shot, with our visits and our lack of sleep taking their toll.
It was from the taxi that took us to Muscat that I wrote these final lines. It took us just three minutes to find someone ready to drive almost 300kms to Muscat, even though it was 10 p.m. at night. We even managed to find a pickup driver who also agreed to take our bikes. It was almost unbelievable.
We arrived in Muscat at 12.15 a.m. We thanked our two makeshift taxi drivers and we gave them 50 OMR or €110. It was time find a hotel and finally sleep too.
It was 1:30 a.m. After we found a bed and despite the fatigue, it was impossible to fall asleep. This adventure and the adrenaline was still in our bodies. It kept me awake part of the night, where I rewatched the mental film of our adventure and I fell asleep already planning the next one.
Text by Thomas Manfe. Images and video by Antoine Collet