Crossing the Wahibah Sands

We wanted to see the yellow, orange, red sand dunes and cycled to Badiya which is the 'entrance' to the Wahibah Sands (and the place where the road ends and literally turns into sand). So why not find a nice Omani who would take us through the desert? It didn't take long until we had our bikes and all staff on the truck bed of Bader's pickup, 250km through the sand ahead. It should turn out to be a fatal decision..

The 'track' condition was okay in the beginning because there are some Beduins living with their camels and sheep and a few tourist camps. But it got worse and worse and we were fascinated how a car can be so full of power and robust to master the incredibly steep ups and downs through the deep, fine sand. And we were even more impressed by the beauty of the landscape. What an awesome run! What we didn't really notice was that our bikes and bags were heavily bouncing up and down in the back.

When we arrived at the sea on the other side of the desert it felt like entering a different world. People were living in tents and simple huts there, the humidity was overwhelming and it looked like the massive sand dunes are moving into the sea - what a surreal world. The sun was already set so we told Bader to drop us near the road. We unloaded our staff from the pickup and when we tried to push our bikes we augured ill. After turning our bikes upside down we could see more with our flashlights: Silke's chain was off and her rear wheel completely askew, touching the frame which was bent by maybe 5cm or more, her rear brake bent, Hauke's brake broken and lost the oil, the rack bent as well. What a screw-up! The following 24h became a nightmare..

Pitching our tent under tears, being sticky and sandy, desperate and hopeless, not knowing what to do we found ourselves sitting next to the road with all our staff and broken bikes the next morning, after a sleepless night with many more tears, somewhere in the nowhere.

The rock bottom of our journey, we thought that was it, we have to fly home..

(We're pretty sure that we would not have written the lines above like they are if we weren't back on the road again, and cycling!)Read more