CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Al Buraymī it runs 79 km to Al Buraymī; allow about 1 h 33 of riding. It goes by way of West Ridge Hafit Tombs, Jebel Hafit Desert Park and back through West Ridge Hafit Tombs. It crosses from Oman into United Arab Emirates - carry ID and check the toll rules. Dry, open country - carry water.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 14 km this is Jebel Hafeet Mountain Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Five thousand years ago, people on the edge of the Arabian desert built beehive-shaped stone tombs on the ridge of Jebel Hafit, and the oasis town below them has been continuously lived in ever since. Hili is part of the Cultural Sites of Al Ain, and the park holds a grave of the Umm an-Nar culture, the Hili Grand Tomb, built of precisely cut stone with carved reliefs of human and animal figures on its entrance. Traces of a Bronze Age settlement, with circular towers and wells, add to the picture of a society that had learned to farm in a dry land through the falaj, the underground channels that bring water from the mountains.
Read the complete Hili Archaeological Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hili Archaeological Park is where the day begins. Next is West Ridge Hafit Tombs.
The road up Jebel Hafit is one of the best-known motorcycle climbs in the Gulf, and it is easy to understand why. It runs for about twelve kilometres, with dozens of well-surfaced bends and hairpins that wind up the flank of the mountain to a summit plateau at roughly 1,200 metres, and from there you can see the whole of Al Ain spread out below and the desert running into the haze. In a country of motorways and flat horizons, it is a gift.
Read the complete West Ridge Hafit Tombs write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
West Ridge Hafit Tombs comes up about 14 km into the recorded legs. Next is Jebel Hafit Desert Park.
For riders in the Gulf, there is a road that people talk about with real affection. Jebel Hafit, a long, rocky ridge that rises out of the flat gravel plain on the border between the United Arab Emirates and Oman, is about 1,240 metres high, and a smooth tarmac road snakes up its eastern flank in a long series of hairpins and bends to the top, a distance of about eleven kilometres. At the summit, a hotel and a viewing terrace look out over the oasis city of Al Ain, with the desert stretching away to the horizon, and at dusk the lights come on below like a field of stars. Motorcyclists and cyclists come here in the cooler months, usually early in the morning or at sunset, and the road is one of the best in the country.
Read the complete Jebel Hafit Desert Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 34 km into the recorded legs you reach Jebel Hafit Desert Park. Next is back through West Ridge Hafit Tombs.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete West Ridge Hafit Tombs write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through West Ridge Hafit Tombs, late in the day. Next is Hili Archaeological Park.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hili Archaeological Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Hili Archaeological Park. That is the ride.
Hili Archaeological Park → West Ridge Hafit Tombs is 14 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
West Ridge Hafit Tombs → Jebel Hafit Desert Park is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Jebel Hafit Desert Park → back through West Ridge Hafit Tombs is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through West Ridge Hafit Tombs → Hili Archaeological Park is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.