Look closely at the ground around Royal Mound 7 and you will find more life than you expect. The limestone plateau looks barren from the road, but a morning visit reveals tiny desert plants gripping the cracks, lizards flicking between stones and larks running ahead of your tyres. After rare winter rain the whole area turns briefly green, with annuals and small wildflowers pushing through the gravel, and then fades again within weeks.
Bahrain's wild country is limited. Much of the island has been built over or reclaimed from the sea, but patches of desert scrub survive, with thorny acacia, ghaf trees and the toughest shrubs. The island's most famous tree, the Tree of Life, is a lone mesquite growing in the southern desert, said to be around four centuries old and still alive despite having no obvious water source. A visit takes you through a good chunk of Bahrain's dry interior and past the old oilfield that started the modern economy. Further south, Al Areen Wildlife Park protects a population of Arabian oryx and sand gazelles, and offers a glimpse of what native fauna looked like before roads and oil.
Mound 7 itself belongs to the royal cluster at A'ali, a few minutes from Madinat Isa, and is part of the UNESCO listing. For riders, the main concern in this area is surface and weather. Roads are good, but sand drifts across them in places, especially near the edges of housing developments, and there is hardly any shade. Heat, from early May until October, is tough, and the humidity along the coast can make even a short ride draining.
Fuel and food are close by. Madinat Isa has a wide choice of restaurants, from Indian and Pakistani to Lebanese and Bahraini, and a plate of machboos, the island's spiced rice and meat dish, is a good end to a day in the sun. Prices are modest, and portions are generous.
Wait for a still moment, and listen. In the quiet of early morning you can hear birds, and for a few minutes the traffic disappears.