Muscat day out · Falaj Al-Katmeen

413 km from Muscat

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Why this ride

413 km from Muscat to Muscat, about 7 h 07 of riding. The stops in between: Falaj Al-Muyasser, Falaj Al-Katmeen and back through Falaj Al-Muyasser. The highest point is about 1,100 m. It suits an unhurried touring pace.

Roadbook

1. Muscat start

   Muscat is long, low and white, a city squeezed between the Gulf of Oman and the bare ridges of the Hajar mountains. Instead of towers it has a limit on building heights and a taste for cream-coloured walls, so the whole coast looks calm. The old heart is at Muttrah, where a corniche curves around a working harbour, the souq lies in a maze of alleys filled with silver, frankincense and cloth, and two sixteenth-century Portuguese forts, Jalali and Mirani, stand watch on rocks above the old palace of the sultan at Al Alam. The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, finished in 2001, is the grand modern counterpart, with a vast carpet and a chandelier that dazzles even people who say they are not impressed.

   For a rider the city is a gateway. The new expressways cut inland through the mountains toward Nizwa and the interior, climbing through rocky gorges where the rock is rust, black and grey and the air feels thin and dry. Beyond, there are forts, date gardens and the high plateau of Jebel Shams. Two of the rides here are about the falaj, the ancient irrigation channels that carry water from mountain springs to villages by gravity, and the World Heritage listing for the aflaj of Oman includes Falaj Daris at Nizwa and the Al-Khatmeen channel near Birkat Al Mawz. Some of these systems are believed to be well over a thousand years old, and a village committee still divides the water by time.

   The weather settles the riding season. From late October to March the days are warm and pleasant, but in summer the heat is severe, with temperatures over forty degrees, and a ride in full gear is only for dawn and dusk. Roads are excellent, with good signs in English, and speed cameras are frequent and strictly enforced. Dust and sand blow across the road in places, and camels and goats do cross, particularly at night.

   Fuel is cheap and available on every main road, and in the capital you will never be far from a station, a cafe or a workshop. Try the halwa, the sticky spiced sweet that Omanis serve with coffee, and take the coffee as it comes, small and flavoured with cardamom. A visit to the harbour at sunset is worth the time.

2. Falaj Al-Muyasser sight

   Water decides everything in Oman's interior, and the falaj is how people have managed it for well over a thousand years, by some accounts much longer. A falaj is a channel that brings water from a mountain spring, a wadi or an underground source, sometimes through tunnels dug by hand, and divides it among the farms of a village according to a strict timetable of shares. Falaj al-Muyassar in Rustaq is one of five aflaj inscribed by UNESCO in 2006 as examples of this system, which still keeps date palm gardens green at the edge of the desert.

   Stand by the channel and watch the water run, clear and fast, under the palms. Traditionally, an official, the arif, oversaw the distribution, with time measured by the sun by day and the stars by night, and shares of water could be bought, sold and inherited like land. Mosques, washing places and the gardens all had their place in the order of the flow. In the heat of the afternoon, the shaded gardens along the falaj feel like an oasis in the literal sense.

   Rustaq is one of the historic towns of Oman, once a capital, and its fort, restored and open to visitors, is a vast mud-brick and stone structure with towers looking out over the plain to the mountains. Nearby, the hot spring of Ain al-Kasfa flows out at a high temperature and is channelled into bathing pools and the gardens. Behind the town rise the Western Hajar mountains, the highest in eastern Arabia, rugged, bare and cut by deep wadis.

   The riding is excellent and needs respect. The main roads from the Batinah coast to Rustaq are wide and well surfaced, with long fast curves across the gravel plains, and traffic is light outside the towns. Beyond, gravel tracks lead into the mountains, most famously the route through Wadi Bani Awf over to the other side of the Jebel Akhdar massif, steep, rough and spectacular, normally driven in four-wheel drive and serious terrain for a heavy bike. Heat is the main enemy: from May to September, temperatures are extreme, and riding should be limited to early mornings. The winter months are glorious.

   Rustaq, a town of tens of thousands, has fuel, shops and restaurants, and is only five kilometres away. Carry plenty of water when you leave it. Omani hospitality means you may be offered coffee spiced with cardamom and a plate of dates, and accepting is part of the pleasure.

3. Falaj Al-Katmeen turn

   At the foot of the Hajar mountains, near the old town of Birkat al Mouz between Izki and Nizwa, the Falaj al Khatmeen is one of five Omani irrigation systems listed by UNESCO as the Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman. A falaj is a channel that brings water from a spring or an underground source, sometimes kilometres away, to villages and date gardens, and this one has been running for centuries. What makes the aflaj remarkable is the system of sharing: the water is divided among the owners of shares by time, traditionally measured by the shadow of a sundial by day and the movement of the stars by night, and the rules are managed by the community with great precision. Walking along the narrow stone channel, with fish darting in the clear water and the shade of the palms overhead, you feel the coolness that comes from water in the desert.

   Birkat al Mouz has a ruined old quarter of mud-brick houses climbing the slopes behind the gardens, and a restored fort. The mountains behind rise steeply to the Jebel Akhdar, the green mountain, a high plateau with terraced gardens of roses, pomegranates and walnuts, famous for the rose water that is distilled in spring. The road up to the plateau begins nearby and climbs in a long series of steep bends; there is a police checkpoint at the bottom that controls access to the plateau, so check the current rules for vehicles before you go.

   Riding in Oman is a pleasure in the cooler months, from October to April. The roads are excellent, smooth and well signposted, traffic is generally disciplined, and the mountain scenery is spectacular, with bare rock in shades of brown, grey and purple. In summer, temperatures are brutal, and riding in the middle of the day is unwise. Watch for speed cameras, which are very common, and for camels and goats on the road outside towns.

   Nizwa, about fourteen kilometres away, is the big town of the interior, with its massive round fort, the souk and the Friday livestock market, an extraordinary sight early in the morning. It has fuel, hotels and restaurants, as does Izki. Try Omani halwa, a sticky sweet flavoured with rose water and saffron, served with bitter cardamom coffee and dates, a ritual of hospitality you will encounter everywhere.

4. back through Falaj Al-Muyasser stop

   back through Falaj Al-Muyasser, late in the day.

5. Muscat finish

   Back at Muscat. That is the ride.

Where this sits

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