Jebel Hafit Desert Park and Hili 2

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Jebel Hafit Desert Park is where the day begins. Next is Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs.

2. 2. Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs

   Jebel Hafit rises out of the flat desert at the edge of Al Ain like a long, pale whale, and on its lower slopes sit some of the oldest buildings in the United Arab Emirates. These are beehive tombs, circular cairns of stacked stone, built around five thousand years ago in the early Bronze Age, which give their name to the Hafit period of Arabian prehistory. Dozens of them survive on the ridges and foothills, and the ones near the wildlife park are easy to reach, standing in the open on a spur of rock with the town on one side and the dry mountain on the other.

   Read the complete Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs comes up about 26 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hili 2.

3. 3. Hili 2

   Jebel Hafit rises out of the flat desert like a wall of grey limestone, and at its foot lie some of the oldest tombs in the Arabian Peninsula. Hili 2 is part of the archaeological park on the edge of Al Ain, in Abu Dhabi emirate, where beehive-shaped stone tombs were built around five thousand years ago, in what archaeologists call the Umm an-Nar period. The round towers of neatly cut stone, some with carved animals and human figures on the doorways, held collective burials, and the place is also home to remains of a Bronze Age settlement and ancient irrigation channels called falaj. The tombs, together with the oases and the hill, are part of the UNESCO listing of the cultural sites of Al Ain, inscribed in 2011.

   Read the complete Hili 2 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 42 km into the recorded legs you reach Hili 2. Next is back through Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs.

4. 4. back through Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Al Ain Wildlife Park Tombs, late in the day. Next is Jebel Hafit Desert Park.

5. 5. Jebel Hafit Desert Park

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Jebel Hafit Desert Park write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Jebel Hafit Desert Park. That is the ride.