Five seasons in one day on Jebel Jais

While the Al Qudra cycling track is easy to access and has great facilities, after some time you get a little tired of the terrain and you wish for something a little more. While most of the UAE is flat, the border region with Oman provide some smooth and wide roads to the mountain tops on the border.

The car park at Jebel Jais with a shelter shed and clean toilets. Impressive!

My first outing was to Jebel Jais, on the western edge of the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, about 120 km north of Dubai.  For this little adventure, I convinced Paddy, my running buddy and neighbour, to dust off his bike and join me for one last adventure before he and his family relocate back to the UK.

We set off at 0430 hrs under a starlit ski and no wind but by the time we passed through Sharjah, 20 minutes to the north, everything had changed. The scene would have done George Miller proud, Sharjah was doing its best impersonation of a apocalyptic wasteland.  Winds at about 60-80kmph were buffeting the car and driving a dust storm that made us slow down significantly and coated the bikes with a layer of dust.  Tumble weeds rocketed across the road along with the occasional cardboard box.  All we needed was a one armed Charlize Theron in her war rig.

About half way into the ride the rain started

Things has calmed by the time we reach Ras Al Khamaih and, as we unloaded the bikes at the at the car park start point, the air was cool and calm.  There were a few others riding their bikes so we cleaned the dust off our bike chains as best we could and set off.

The first 15km of the 35 km and 1446 vertical meters to the top are low angled at 1-2% before the road steepens into a series of long switchbacks at an average gradient of about 6% for 20 km to the top. By the time we started to climb seriously the rain started to fall. It has been a wet winter in Dubai and the rain and breeze kept us cool for the remaining 20 km that we had to cover to the top of Jebel Jais.

15 deg C with rain and wind on the top.  Photo time was a quick affair
The switchbacks in the background was the route we had followed.

It was raining hard as we hit the top after about 1.50. We stopped for the obligatory photo but with the LED screen of the concession stand reading 15 deg C we didn’t wait too long before beginning our descent.  Normally I would have planned better and had a jacket and decent gloves but you don’t expect this kind of weather in the UAE.  









Fortunately we were able to beg for a couple of plastic bags from the concession store which we used to line the inside of our jerseys in an effort to cut the wind and keep us a little warn on the return trip to the car.

We set off cautiously with water streaming over the road and there was a sheen from oil washed off the road in the puddles on the side.  I didn’t want to go home with a bad case of gravel rash so I was hard on the brakes, particularly around the corners. We were suffering from the wind chill and before long neither Paddy nor I could feel our feet or hands which was a bit of an issue when it came to braking.  At one point I was shivering so badly that my front wheel developed a shimmy and I was concerned that I was going to fall off.

The rain and wind chill transformed my normally ruddy hands to
lily white with purple fingernails

After descending a little the ambient air temperature increased and we were able to stop out of the wind to warm up and pay homage to professional cyclists in Europe who race over snow covered maintain passes in the wind and snow with considerably less body fat than Paddy or I.

We rocketed along the last 15km, enjoying the easy angled downhill and the warmer temperatures but it was only when we were in the car and half way back to Dubai that I began to feel my toes. We unloaded the bikes at mid-day in Dubai's baking sun after a good little half day adventure