Shalalah or bust
When it’s 45 degrees outside and you’ve been riding all day, a bowl full of steaming hot camel’s milk is not what comes to mind for refreshment. But that’s what I was being offered, and to decline it seemed completely inappropriate.
Based in Dubai, with six days off in prospect, my wife and kids back in Europe, I would soon be leaving the Middle East for good – for a second attempt at the long trip down Salalah, so it was now or never.
Located in the far south of Oman, Salalah is an amazing oasis of lush green hills in an otherwise dry barrel desert region. It boasts wild, empty beaches, seasonal waterfalls and, best of all, an average summer temperature of 27 degrees, while the rest of Oman and the Middle East swelters in 45 degrees and horrible humidity.
Most people travelling to Salalah from the UAE will fly, as it’s a long 1200km drive down through empty desert on dangerous roads, and in August with the heat, humidity and blowing sand, it’s no fun on a bike. Still, this was my last chance to have a go at riding there.
My first attempt, two years earlier with a friend on another GS, started well but was followed by two days of
