The Shifting Sands

Union Station in Washington, great example of a railway architecture but the platforms lacked the grand halls of the European stations. It was a quick trip.  I arrived in the morning off a direct flight from Dubai and spent most of the time in Washington in a windowless room reviewing documents.  On the upside, I caught glimpses of the Washington monument from my previous visit to these parts over 30 years ago.  I was also able to catch up with 3 colleagues from the Denver bid.  Almost 36 hours after I arrived I was a at the spectacular Union Station in Washington boarding a train to NYC.  The experience was interesting as there was a real sense of decay through this part of the journey.  Union station building and retail areas was spectacular, the platform ordinary, the Accela high speed train was primitive, Baltimore was rusted and Penn Station in New York like something from a Scorsese film from the late 70’s. ...

The drive through Al Ain with Jebel Harfeet in the background The next of the big UAE bike climbs is Jebel Harfeet.  It also located next to the the Oman border at   Al Ain and is is shorter and steeper than Jebel Jais.  It is a 767 metre climb up to a height of 1033 metres over 12.5 km at an average grade of 6.1% but with with a steepest 1km section of 11.3 %. The climb flattens a little at the top, past a hotel, then you ride along the ridge before the final viewing car park at the end of the road The start point with Green Mubazzarah, a hot spring and park, in the foreground Some of the switchbacks leading uphill The start is a 90 minute drive from Dubai and it has the added benefit of being adjacent to Wadi Adventures, the white water kayaking/rafting and surf pool operation.  This means I can get in an early ride then head to the Wadi Adventures to cool off in my kayak Looking back along the summi...

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 ...

The main square in Gigondas under grey skies Part Three of our Easter break in France, after Antibe, and   Chateauvert, saw us in the shadow of Mt Ventoux, north east of Avignon, in the village of Caromb.  My intent was to climb in the area of Montmirail while enjoying the countryside of Provence.   The area was much busier than Contignac and Chateauvert and it was dotted with hilltop villages.   It seemed that the higher you were the smaller and cuter were the towns. Ada finding somewhere to hide in Gigondas I was familiar with Mt Ventoux, as it had long been a famous climb on the big bike races like Paris-Nice and the Tour, but I was unaware of how popular cycling was in the area.   There were any number of well mapped cycle routes some flat and some very hilly.   We lost count of the groups we passed while driving and I wished that I had the Black Bullet (my road bike) with me. Every medium sized town seemed to have one or tw...