Wadi Bih - Musandam Oman

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Skaiidawg

Race Dog
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I called my friend Cobber and told him I want to go and ride through Wadi Bih. He immediately said yes and we opted to leave Dubai around 5 in the morning. This time of the year we are blessed with nice weather, o la la summer temps go sometimes as high as the early 50’s, so go figure.

Wadi Bih is in the Musandam district of the Sultanate of Oman on the Arabian Peninsula and about 130km's from Dubai. It’s a nice ride around the corner from the house.
Here is a Google Earth Map to show more or less where Wadi Bih is. The co-ordinates of the top is 25° 47' 7.70''N and 56° 12' 45.56''E The red line show our way from Dubai to Dibba.
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Wadi is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some cases, it may refer to a dry riverbed that contains water only during times of heavy rain or simply an intermittent stream.
I have driven through Wadi Bih on numerous occasions but never on a bike. This is a spectacular ride and I was looking forward to it. Getting to Dibba we have to go through a checkpoint. On the UAE side we stopped and the normal procedure of taking the helmet off and producing ones passport, the official checking it and asking the usual questions, we were waved through to the Omani side. So stowing away the passport, zipping the backpack, swinging on your back, helmet and gloves on, start bike and off to the Omani check point 50 metres away and low and behold they stop us to go through the same routine!! Normally the Omanis just wave you through, but I reckon it is that we were the highlight for the Friday’s activities.

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So a couple of kilometers later we hid the dirt road. Oh what fun! I noticed that there was water on the road and I was thinking man it can only get better.  
About 5 km’s into the ride there is another checkpoint and the usual greetings of “As-Salaam-Alaikum” and “Wa Alaikum Al Salam” were uttered  and then the question came –

Omani officer - “Where you go?”
Cobber - “Only up to the top and then back” For some reason we as expats are not allowed to travel all the way through and out the other side if Wadi Bih. Only Emiratis and Omanis can.
Omani officer – “Maafi Muskila” (no problem) actually in hindsight he was trying to tell us something, but his English were as bad as our Arabic. Any way we were waved through with a shake of the head.
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We were in our element, some mud and some water and then we saw that the road has been washed away! We negotiated the 1st “washed away” part fairly easy but 100 metres later it was evident that our excursion came to a premature halt.  As the road into Wadi Bih is following the same route and knowing how the road and Wadi winds through a gorge about 10metres wide further on, we knew it was futile to even try riding further and turning back was the only option. The ride was short but good.
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So Wadi Bih will have to wait another year before we will ride it, the government is not even going to try and repair it until after the rainy season next year.
One thing though is that Scorpions are nice for the slides but offer little grip…….
[flash=480,385]https://www.youtube.com/v/KFDhRqNrCqg[/flash]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFDhRqNrCqg
 
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