Hels on Wheels shared her experience cycling for 73 KM to small Middle Eastern town, Sinaw.
While sharing her experience on Facebook, she wrote:-
A surprisingly sweaty night in the little abandoned house next to the mud ruins. The pre-dawn call to prayer woke me (I recently learned the line “prayer is better than sleep” is added to the early morning version of the song).
I was glad of the early start; this morning, I was visiting Sinaw Souq. At its finest on Thursdays today, the camel souq was empty, but the fish market was vibrant, and I met some friendly men who dressed me up in the Omani ceremonial knife belt.
With plenty of time ahead, I was aiming for Birkat Al Mawz. I stopped for tea and paratha at a service station, but otherwise, the highway was uninteresting.
And so I cut a corner on what turned out to be about 10 km of increasingly deep sandy gravel track just as I was losing patience though I was reunited with the bitumen. Hungry now and eager for snacks, I was dismayed to find the convenience store closed.
But the adjacent mosque, as well as providing shade and icy cold water, also offered a table of dates and hot coffee in flasks! How this extraordinary custom is not better known in the wider world is a mystery to me. Hereon it will be one of the first things I tell people about Oman.
Heading north an unfriendly headwind picked up which, on top of the dirt road put me behind schedule. I could’ve stopped early of course but I wanted to complete the distance having big plans for tomorrow.
And so after sunset I was still pedalling up and down palm tree-lined alleys in the rapidly fading light in search of a camp. Almost out of light an open space which may have been a wadi floor was my last option before dark. Because of how safe Oman feels I had no qualms pitching the tent with the light on.