having exceeded the national GDP!
And what an absolute rip snorter
of a road they’ve created. I have no
doubt, that this section of road being
some of the best riding country any-
where in the world, with little to no
traffic and stunning coastal vistas.
Not only does this coastal route now
extend to Salalah but also to the bor-
der with Yemen, a distance of some
250km’s.
After checking into our digs in
Mirbat, we offload the bikes and get
them ready for the next few days of
riding in territory neither of us are
familiar with.
Rising early, we leave Mirbat and
stop at a roadside restaurant for
breakfast and fresh camel milk be-
fore heading into the hills above
Salalah. Once again we are blown
away by the twisting roads and
smooth asphalt that greet us at every turn. One thing we pick up on quick-
ly is the amount of stock wandering
freely, with no boundary fencing to
keep them in check. Camels, cows,
donkeys and goats all having free
reign over the rich pastures in the
hills above Salalah. We stop at Tayq
sinkhole before continuing to Wadi
Derbat which is its own unique eco-
system and then onto Ayn Razat
spring where fresh cool water is liter-
ally pouring out of the mountainside.
Knowing sundown is not far away,
we head for the coast and Mugshayl
beach for the night, where we camp
on the sand, with only the crabs and
dolphins to keep us company.
The further south we ride from
Salalah, the more dramatic the coast-
line becomes as we head towards the
Yemen border. Once again, we are in
awe by the engineering that has gone
into completing this coastal route,
with only the Swiss Alps being the
nearest comparison we can think of.
As we wind our way slowly but surely
towards the Yemen border we pass
through military checkpoints who
take down our details and enquire as
to our route. We explain where our
intentions lie and no further ques-
TRAVERSE
71
tions ensue, only to bid us safe trav-
els. These Omani’s are surely some
of the most hospitable and dignified
people you are ever likely to encoun-
ter.
As we wind our way down the es-
carpment, I start to get that uneasy
feel in the rear end when you lose
tyre pressure, and sure enough the
rear tyre has picked up one hell of
a puncture. The thing with the KTM
990 Adventure rear wheel is, it is a
proverbial bitch to remove the tyre.
We remove the wheel and give up
not long after trying to remove the
Mitas E09 from the rimlock and de-
cide to head for the nearest village
with a tyre shop. There we seek out
Khalid, a seasoned hand with tyres
of all shapes and sizes and the air
compressor to prove it! After having
a quick look around Dalkut, we dou-
ble up again and climb back up from
where we came. Before this little de-
lay, we had envisaged being 150km’s
inland from the coast and well on our
way into the Empty Quarter or ‘Rub
Al Khail’. Now we need to re-assess
our travel plans and whether we can
reach it in time, with Torsten being
off to the Desert Championship in