CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
816 km from Muscat to Muscat, about 10 h 04 of riding. It goes by way of Falaj Al-Muyasser, Falaj Al-Katmeen, Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman and Falaj Daris. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 69 km this is Oman Jebel Akhdar Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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.
Read the complete Muscat write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Muscat is where the day begins. Next is Falaj Al-Muyasser.
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.
Read the complete Falaj Al-Muyasser write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Falaj Al-Muyasser comes up 57 km in. Next is Falaj Al-Katmeen.
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.
Read the complete Falaj Al-Katmeen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least 153 km in you reach Falaj Al-Katmeen. Next is Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman.
Nizwa lies at the foot of the Hajar mountains in the interior of Oman, and its date groves exist because of a method of bringing water that is older than the town. The aflaj, plural of falaj, are channels that carry water by gravity from mountain springs or underground sources to fields and villages, sometimes for many kilometres. UNESCO listed a group of five in 2006, among them Falaj Daris, which feeds Nizwa and is one of the largest in the country. Some aflaj are believed to be very old, perhaps thousands of years, and they are still in use, with the water divided among families by time, measured by sundials in the daytime and by the stars at night.
Read the complete Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman, about halfway. Next is Falaj Daris.
Water has always been the measure of wealth in the Omani interior, and at Nizwa it arrives through a channel that has been flowing for centuries. Falaj Daris is the largest of the aflaj, the traditional irrigation systems of Oman, and it carries water from underground sources in the foothills of the Jebel Akhdar to the date gardens and fields of Nizwa. The system works by gravity, with tunnels and open channels sometimes running for kilometres, and the water is shared among farmers according to an ancient system of time-based rights, managed by a local official. Falaj Daris is one of five aflaj inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2006, recognising a technology that may go back two thousand years or more.
Read the complete Falaj Daris write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Falaj Daris sits at 230 km, about halfway. Next is back through Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman comes up 287 km in. Next is back through Falaj Al-Katmeen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Falaj Al-Katmeen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
344 km in you reach back through Falaj Al-Katmeen. Next is back through Falaj Al-Muyasser.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Falaj Al-Muyasser write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Falaj Al-Muyasser, late in the day. Next is Muscat.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Muscat write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 816 km.
Muscat → Falaj Al-Muyasser is 140 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Falaj Al-Muyasser → Falaj Al-Katmeen is 236 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Falaj Al-Katmeen → Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman → back through Falaj Al-Katmeen is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Falaj Al-Katmeen → back through Falaj Al-Muyasser is 239 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Falaj Al-Muyasser → Muscat is 138 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.