Friday morning play

[tod.branko_imp]

Mrs. Branko woke me up at 3.30am to a thunderstorm.. she knew I was about to get up to get ready for a ride, and I think in some dark of her mind she thought I'd take it for granted and go back to sleep. But I made other plans, so I got up to study the movement of the storm and seeing how this "artificial rain" already mad everything wet, it was safe to assume the worst had passed, so I got on with my preparations and left to meet a friend in Dubai and do a full circle of the Northern Emirates.
Turned out we were chasing the rain, and at a some point we caught up with it, but for a very short while, I didn't even get a chance to pull my rain gear out of the bag before it was over. For the remainder of the trip the sky was clearing up and temperature was rising steadily to reach a very decent 41°C around 10am, which was a signal to cut the adventure short and retreat to the comfort of our home air-conditioners.
We didn't stop much apart for an occasional picture and gas, and the kilometers added up quickly.
Home safe having done 408km and just over 2 liters of water.

In picture:

- An old watch-tower near a place called Fili by the birder with the Sultanate of Oman, obviously it has been completely restored, and they've built a roundabout around it, but it's a nice little lesson in history to remain for future generations.
- A random pool of leftover rain from last night, I just thought it would give a good platform for a reflection photo - which it did

'14 CB1100 STD 5 speed

[max]

Your camera lens seems to get you just in the right position for an interesting shot, i'm still training mine to to the same

Just followed some of your route on streetview ( great fun ) and noticed that although there are many coastal roads there was only one stretch of road close to the water close to Fujairah airport, and with a 400 km stretch i can see the need to stick to the faster routes as you did and the watch tower looks fantastic.
Also interesting that the roads look very well done mostly and withstand the heat, ours start melting at35c, must be a better bitumen mix.

Some years ago i went on holiday from Amsterdam and rode to the south of France ( on the cb550 ), i immensely enjoyed the coastal roads there as they went on and on for the whole afternoon with generous views of the "mediteranee" and have never forgotten that, we do have some coastal roads here but just not as magnificent as in France, a real treat and thanks again for posting the trip.

[peterbaron]

Tod, great trip , story and pics.
Your sky blue CB looks good.

[tod.branko_imp]

Your camera lens seems to get you just in the right position for an interesting shot, i'm still training mine to to the same

Just followed some of your route on streetview ( great fun ) and noticed that although there are many coastal roads there was only one stretch of road close to the water close to Fujairah airport, and with a 400 km stretch i can see the need to stick to the faster routes as you did and the watch tower looks fantastic.
Also interesting that the roads look very well done mostly and withstand the heat, ours start melting at35c, must be a better bitumen mix.

Some years ago i went on holiday from Amsterdam and rode to the south of France ( on the cb550 ), i immensely enjoyed the coastal roads there as they went on and on for the whole afternoon with generous views of the "mediteranee" and have never forgotten that, we do have some coastal roads here but just not as magnificent as in France, a real treat and thanks again for posting the trip.

Most of the east coast highway goes right besides the water except for where taken by resorts and cliffs, the west coast is mostly urban, so the seaside roads are busy and very city-like riding, no fun in that. And the reason we avoid rising by the sea at this time of the year especially is humidity, it's much hotter by the sea than in the mountains, mountain air is more dry, and temperature drops a bit with elevation.

As for the camera lense, I got it used from someone who is a better photographer then I am, so I guess some of his skill rubbed off on the lense so it makes me look good now

'14 CB1100 STD 5 speed

[GoldOxide_imp]

A nice reflection Tod.

[tod.branko_imp]

Actually I decided to flip it and create a sort of an optical illusion

'14 CB1100 STD 5 speed

[GoldOxide_imp]

Tod: This is a cool shot. This side of the CB looks so "authentic".

[pdedse]

Looks like a fun outing...that beautiful blue is easy on the eyes.

[the Ferret]

looks like a water reflection