Fujairah, UAE. 22nd May 2025.

It was to be a border crossing day so another reasonably early start. I had the hotel breakfast and nabbed a couple of eggs for lunch. I stopped to take a couple of photos of the weird shaped airport control tower that I passed. It’s actually very good to see some imagination used in the design of functional buildings.

I called in at Kalba Fort on the way down the coast but it was closed. On the way I passed some really lovely buildings at the side of the road. Long terraces of houses, three stories high, with shops at street level, in a white and blue art deco style. They reminded me of English seaside towns and they looked great.

Then came the border. All very easy, on both sides. A slight glitch when I bought the insurance. I could have 14 or 30 days. I thought 14 might be running things a bit too close to the wire, so I got 30 days. Then at immigration, he asked me how long I wanted, saying that 15 days was free. So I went for 15 days. I’m not often over insured!
The customs hall also had an ATM so I drew out 50 OMR and got a 50 note. But there was no fee.
I ignored signs for an expressway and stayed on Route 1 all the way. I came to a town and spotted an Omantel shop. He had a 28 day SIM, with 20GB, for 5 Rial. But he couldn’t get it to register. So I had to have 16GB for 8 Rial (£16), which he reckoned was normal anyway. That didn’t stop me from being annoyed at missing out. He didn’t take cards so I was happy to be able to change that 50 Rial note.
I stopped at Sohar Fort. This one was open and was quite impressive. No signs once again but I was able to explore all around it. There were lots of towers to admire along with interesting architecture.

I carried on to the hotel in Muscat, Oman’s capital, making pretty good time. I had a nice room, with the essential fridge and kettle. The desk jockey said he can get food brought in from a place nearby, so I went for that. It was quite average. I had soup, which was spicy, and chicken noodles, which were OK.
I was up and out early again and it was HOT! Initially my plan was to take a ride down to Sur, further down the coast, and visit places on the way back. But as I was riding I was thinking, and realised it was too far for one day. Four hours riding and over 400 kms return, plus time spent visiting. The plan became to go there when I left Muscat. Then there would be a nice loop I could ride, to get me back towards the border.
So I re-planned my day and headed towards Bayt Al Maqham, an old fort. But it was closed. So a couple of quick photos then I moved on.
Next target was the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, which Google said was probably closed. And it was right because it was Friday. It can accommodate 20,000 worshippers and is a Friday mosque. I can’t begin to imagine the traffic jam. I saved it for the next day.

Then I went over to the Places and People Museum, very nicely located next to the sea. It’s run by an Indian guy and I got the impression he’d acquired an old house and filled it with items from Oman’s past. It was quite good, but not all that exciting. Women’s wedding clothes, household items etc.

On the rock outcrop above it is the Old Portuguese Watch Tower. Once I’d paid for entry it was over 100 steps to get to the lower part of the building. I needed to stop for a breather after 95 of them. I thought I’d done well.

It was an interesting place to wander round. It had various towers and cannons. It gave a great view across the bay and the Corniche, as it was built to do. There were a couple of photo frames so I stood in one and a guy took a photo of me pointing to the huge yacht moored in the harbour, acting as if it was mine.

There was a café there, just right for a coffee. There was another English guy in there, named Andrew. He comes from Derby but has worked in various Middle Eastern countries. He’s currently running the maintenance function on the Doha metro.
We had a good chat. He’s got a couple of bikes. I was telling him all about India and suggested he should go there and buy a bike, then tour round for 6 months. Or, go on a two week tour to get a taste for it.
He’s planning to settle in Cyprus, to avoid UK tax on his pension investments. He’s got a business there already. He said he’ll have to keep moving from one country to the other until he gets citizenship. A very interesting chat.

Next visit was to see the Al Alam Palace, home of the Sultan. I could only look from the outside of course, but it’s very impressive.

Opposite that was the National Museum of Oman. I had to wait 10 mins for it to open. It was pretty good I thought. Once again I was surprised by how early this area was settled. Artifacts have been found from around 6,000 BCE, including evidence of trading by ship. Fascinating stuff.

On the way back to the hotel I went to see the Muscat Gate museum but it was closed for refurbishment. It’s part of the old city walls and was built to deter sea borne marauders from entering the city.

In the morning I went back to the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. As I went in a guy offered to be my guide but I saw the price – 25O R. That’s £50! There was an audio guide as well, which I didn’t bother with. I just did my usual thing and wandered round taking photos.

I went into the women’s hall first. Then round to the men’s. Which was, as I’d seen written, quite amazing. I’d read about the size of the carpet but seeing it is something else. It truly is massive. It’s the second largest hand woven Iranian carpet in the world, at 60 x 70 metres. The chandelier and the dome are beautiful too.

I walked back to the bike, admiring the gardens on the way. Then I rode across to where I’d been the day before, aiming for the Al Jalali Fort. Unfortunately it’s inside the palace complex, so inaccessible.
To finish the day off I got on with some writing.
When I left for Sur the next morning it was hot! Over forty degrees. I could feel the heat through my riding trousers. But I went up into the hills by a couple of hundred metres and it cooled a bit.
My first stop was at Quriyat Castle, in Quriyat. A small place, more like a fortified house. It had rooms with artifacts in them, as is often the case. They reflected Omani life. But a nice view over the town from the tower. It was built in the early 19th century, on the site of an older Portuguese fort, using traditional architecture.
There was a woman there who’d taken my money and before I left I asked her for some water (I’d spotted some in the fridge). She gave me two small bottles and some sweets. I enjoyed the sweets more than the water!
There were several other places to see in the town but …. too hot! So I rode out to look at the commercial salt beds.

These were very well laid out, in small, square pools. There were guys raking in the salt and piling it up along the sides of them. When dried it was bagged and taken away. All very industrious and well organised.
From there I rode further south, heading to the Bimmah Sinkhole. This was a pretty good place. It’s got some rocks around the side of it and stairs going down to it. From Wiki: “A lake of turquoise waters, it is 50M by 70M wide and approximately 20M down to the surface of the water. It is only about 600M away from the sea.

The sinkhole was formed by a collapse of the surface layer due to dissolution of the underlying limestone. However, locals used to believe this sinkhole,, in the shape of a water well was created by a meteorite, hence the Arabic name Hawiyyat Najm which means “the deep well of the (falling) star. It ranges in depth from only a metre to over 100 metres in the deepest part. ”
When I arrived I saw a guy at the entrance and he had invited two young ladies in for figs and coffee. I joined them for figs and coffee but didn’t go in – boots! The coffee had cardamon in it and was mild and tasty.
When I’d admired the sinkhole I sat in a covered area to cool down. Then a couple and their kiddie joined me. They’d been swimming in the sinkhole.

They’re from Birmingham, their family originally from India. His father owns a garage and does recoveries for the AA and the other motoring clubs. We had a nice chat about my travels and this time I remembered to take a selfie. I bumped into them again at the next place I went to, Wadi Shab.
This was a free flowing river, with caves upstream and waterfalls too. It’s great for hikers and there are river trips on boats. It all looked very lovely.

I carried on into Sur, calling in at the Dhow Factory of Sur. They have a very good museum, with a full size boat inside, with some displays of tools etc. The firm has existed since 1750 and is still owned by the same family. I was able to wander freely around the yard and admire all sorts of different boats and a really big boat they were refurbishing. The craftsmanship that goes into this work was plain to see.

Then I came to the hotel. I decided to stay two nights and try to do some writing and then some walking next day. Sur is a nice town, with a Corniche and a harbour. I had been planning to walk along to Al Ayjah castle, and watch the sunset. But it was just too hot. Maybe tomorrow.
Then I realised that I’d made another big mistake. I’d left my laptop charging lead behind. Normally, when I unplug my laptop or phone I put the charger somewhere close to my luggage bag. Stupidly, I left it plugged in.
I tried to ring the hotel but got no answer. I was thinking that I’d have to go back up there the next day. I checked Google for computer shops, just to give me the option of buying one, but I wasn’t enthused by what I saw.
Another job was to get a haircut. I found a place about 20 mins away and the lad did a good job, for £4. Then I rechecked the location of the computer shops and saw that a likely looking place was only another 20 mins away.
So I walked up there and, to my pleasant surprise, he had a charger. It cost 8 OMR (£16), probably about twice what I would have paid for fuel going back to Muscat. But it avoided a very hot 4.5 hour ride so was very well worth it. There was always a chance that the hotel didn’t have mine anymore.
While I was walking up there I had yet another woman in an abaya and a hijab say hello to me. That had also happened in Tabuk. Muslim women don’t normally address passing strangers so I can only speculate as to what she may have wanted.
A lazy day ensued. I went out at about 4.30 and walked around to near where the fort was to see the sunset from its tower. Then I realised that the fort was closed. And the sky was cloudy anyway. So no sunset view.

I’d identified a restaurant round that way and I had a chicken kebab plate. It came with warm flat bread and some humus. It was lovely, so the walk was worth it in the end.
Sur had been a very nice place to stay. So what would Nizwa be like?
I didn’t leave until almost 10am. I stopped for fuel then got on with it. Despite spending most of the day at around 500 metres, it was still incredibly hot. Around 45 degrees, according to my weather app.
Towards the end of the ride the bike kept overheating. I just stopped and let the fan cool it down. It happened about 5 times. I couldn’t really work out why though. I put it down to the extreme heat. I later discovered that Honda had upgraded the cooling sytem for 2025, suggesting there was an inherent fault.
Once I got to the apartment in Nizwa I made a coffee, cooled down and had a snooze. At about 4.30 I went out to explore.
The old city was only a ten minute walk away and within its walls were the fort and the castle. I wandered in a little way and found a nice restaurant.
Mushroom soup in a loaf of bread plus a ‘Sizer’ (Ceasar) salad. I had to send that back because the chef forgot to put the chicken in it.

Then I walked around the old town. The houses were mostly made from mud brick. Some of them are dilapidated but many, including the gateways and the city wall, have been refurbished and rendered with modern plaster, in a pink-ish colour. It all looked very attractive and old.

I went up onto the wall and walked around it. There was a point where they hadn’t quite finished the rendering so I was able to see what it used to look like. The wall overlooked the buildings of the old town, demonstrating how these towns were constructed.

Then I went into Nizwa Fort. The key feature of this place is the round tower. Its diameter is 36 metres, with a height of 30 metres. Its filled with earth and rubble but there are 4 or 5 shafts that access the stream that runs beneath it. There were placements for cannons near the top and crenelations for musketry above them.

The only access to the top is via a steep, winding staircase which has heavy, studded wooden doors at intervals. If this wasn’t enough there were ‘murder’ holes above them through which boiling water or oil could be poured down on the attackers.

There were exhibition rooms with all sorts of interesting information about life in the castle and surrounds. It’s a very fertile and therefore valuable area, with important trade routes across it, so worth protecting.

By the time I left the fort it was dark and all the shops were open and lit up. The ambiance of the whole place was very pleasant on a warm evening.
There were some sites to visit nearby so I went for a ride the next day. I went out at about 9am and rode to Bahla Fort. It’s really big! I had a look in the old mosque first. It shows the old style of Omani architecture, especially for mosques. Lots of arches and columns.

The fort is massive. Lots of towers. Dozens of rooms spread over 5 storeys. It was built between the 12th and 15th centuries by the local tribe, who controlled the frankincense trade. Restoration has taken place but it wasn’t carried out very well. The fort is of mud bricks but some sections have been repaired with stone, spoiling its authenticity.

I wandered around the whole place. But I wasn’t very impressed with the presentation. Various rooms were labelled according to an activity but there was nothing in them relating to that particular activity. I spoke to the guy on the ticket desk about it but his English wasn’t good enough to understand what I was saying.
I had a coffee then moved on.

The next place was the beehive tombs at Wadi Al Ayn. It required a bit off off roading to get there, and a climb up a steep slope as well. When I got up there I saw a young couple who’d come up the proper path, which I’d not noticed. Cheats!
Essentially this is a necropolis. The tombs are about as big as a small shelter. They’re about 20 metres in diameter. Their construction uses dry stones, carefully stacked on top of each other. I looked inside one. They were just as bare inside as out. They date from around 3,000 BCE.

The next destination was up in the hills and it was a lovely ride up there. Twisty roads in good condition. But it all came to a sudden end. The road was closed for construction. No way through. So I went back the way I had come, and returned to Nizwa. I went over to the same restaurant as the day before and had a pizza.

I had been debating what to do next day and my decision was to head for Dubai. I’d seen all the places I’d wanted to in Oman. Those that were open, anyway.
After considering all my options regarding shipping the bike my decision was to put it on a plane from Dubai. In short, flying would cost more, but customs charges would be less. Although the cost of flying, in total, would be more than shipping, the saving would have been eaten up by extra accommodation costs due to the much longer travel time. Shipping times are variable, flight times are fixed. So, flying it would be.

It was a hard day for me and the bike. Before I left I checked the tyre pressures and was stunned to find that the front was 17 psi and the rear only 11. Was it the heat or leaking from the sealing bands? Either way my new pump soon had it sorted out.
I was on the road by 8.30 and it was a case of just getting on with it. A long and very hot ride. I had my buff up over my face and wore my gloves. I’d got a bit burnt yesterday through not doing that.
I stopped straight away for fuel. Later I stopped in a service station for a short break and a drink. Then stopped for fuel again. I also stopped at a shopping centre where there was a coffee outlet. Coffee and cake was consumed.

Google took me to a border post that was Arab only. The guy there sent me to another one, which I’d actually already passed. I was through quite quickly, as I’d expected. Once I’d got through I stopped to change SIM cards. A couple of women in a car stopped and gave me a drink, which was very kind of them. Several of the officials gave me drinks too.
By now the bike was overheating again. Once, within 10kms of the previous occasion. But then I’d go a long way before it happened again. There was no logic to it.
I made it to the shippers at 5.30. For some reason I thought Alan was Irish, or maybe English. Nope, he’s Indian, but from Goa. I wasn’t really surprised.
We talked it through and he was happy to store the bike until I was done in Thailand, where I was going for some R&R, then he’d ship it. I said I’d take it to him the next day, which was Friday. I planned to leave Thailand for Nairobi on the Tuesday week. He was OK with all this.
One thing I thought was odd was that he reckoned customs will want the Carnet. Why, was my question? It makes no sense as UAE is not a Carnet country. Anyway, I’d have to leave it with him.
I booked the same hotel as before, just for one night, until I decided what to do. I contemplated flying out next day but it would have meant an expensive flight and it was all a bit too quick.
Friday came next and it was a productive day. Alan’s company keeps Western hours so I needed to get the bike to him before the weekend. I got everything organised, making sure I had everything I might need from the panniers, and in the right place.
At the warehouse the bike was brought inside. I changed out of my riding clothes as they, and my crash helmet, would go with the bike.
I disconnected the battery. The guy asked me if I had anything else flammable, such as oil. I said no, but later remembered I had the chain oil and lube. Never mind.
The guys there seem to know what they’re doing anyway. The young guy rides a Honda CRF, which was wrapped up under a cover. All of that kind of thing gives me confidence.
Alan explained it all to me. He kept my Carnet. I still wasn’t sure which day I’d leave Thailand but as we talked it through it became obvious that Tuesday 10th was the best date. He’ll put it on a plane on that day. I’d pay him by credit transfer. He’d send me an invoice once the bike had been crated.
He was talking about some of the bikes he’s transported and was saying something about a multitude of Ferraris. It sounded like he’s involved in a team or something.
He said he’s Christian, from Mangalore (near Goa), hence the English name. His brother’s name is Frank! Then he very kindly gave me a lift to the metro station. A simple journey back to the hotel.
Then I got online and booked a flight. The quickest and easiest was at 17.00 Saturday, via Bahrain, arriving in BKK at 10 am Sunday. An overnight flight. How wonderful.
Thailand have introduced a form, to be completed online ,about arrival, where staying and departure. That’s new. I identified a flight to Nairobi and put that number on the form. Oddly, they didn’t want a hotel name, just an address.
With that all done there was nothing left to do except waste time on the internet. On the Saturday I got a taxi to the airport and checked in. Goodbye Arabia.

Oman had been a delightful place to visit. I have a friend who spent a long time there and had plenty of spare time to wander around. He gave me lots of suggestions for places to visit. There’s lots of fertile areas there, with plenty of interesting old buildings to visit. The towns are quite delightful and the people are great. I would very happily visit again.
I had thoroughly enjoyed the whole of the Arabian peninsular. The challenges of life there had been overcome in many different and clever ways across the millennia. It was the management of water where I saw cleverest solutions.
But it was, of course, the discovery of oil that drove the modernisation of the region. All of the countries are young, only having their borders defined between the wars. But despite the modern cities, with their malls and skyscrapers, it’s still the Bedouin tribes that rule the desert. I found my self delighted by the places I saw and all the great people I met.