The inland drive
The road from the capital to the oasis city is straightforward, fast and comfortable: a wide carriageway through open desert with well-spaced services and enough gentle changes in scenery to keep the drive from becoming dull. It takes roughly ninety minutes at an unhurried pace, which makes it one of the few genuinely easy day trips in the country. Most drivers arrive fresh, which matters, because the interesting part comes afterwards.
The one thing worth watching on the approach is the wind-blown sand where the carriageway crosses open ground. On a calm day it is invisible. After a windy night, thin drifts collect on the hard shoulder and occasionally reach into the nearside lane. They are shallow and harmless at a steady speed, but they will unsettle a car that hits them while braking or changing lanes, so give yourself room and keep your inputs gentle where you can see sand on the surface.
The climb itself
The mountain road above the city is a genuinely fine piece of engineering: a long, beautifully surfaced climb with a great many well-cambered bends, generous width, sturdy barriers and a gradient that is sustained rather than brutal. It is the kind of road that flatters a comfortable car far more than a firm one, because the pleasure lies in flowing through the bends smoothly rather than attacking them.
Drive it in a lower gear than instinct suggests. Letting the engine hold the car on the climb keeps the transmission from hunting between ratios, and on the descent it does most of the work that would otherwise fall to the brakes. Take the bends at a pace where the car stays flat and your passenger is not bracing against the door. Anyone in the car who is prone to motion sickness will be far happier with a steady line and early, gentle braking than with a quick one.
Brakes, cooling and the descent
The descent is where a comfortable car earns its keep or shows its limits. A long continuous downhill run on the brakes will heat them considerably, and the first sign is a soft, longer pedal rather than any dramatic noise. Select a lower gear at the top, let the engine restrain the car, and use the brakes in firm, short applications with gaps between them rather than resting your foot on the pedal all the way down.
Cooling deserves a thought too, particularly in the warmer months. A sustained climb in high ambient temperature with the air conditioning working hard is one of the few situations in ordinary driving where a well-maintained car can still show a rising temperature gauge. If you see the needle climbing, ease the pace, turn the air conditioning off for a few minutes and let the cooling system catch up. It almost never becomes serious if you respond early, and it almost always does if you ignore it.
The summit, the viewpoints and the light
There are pull-offs at intervals all the way up, and the ones near the top give you the long view back across the plain to the oasis city and the palm belt beyond it. The best of them are on the outside of the bends, so approach with care and indicate early, because the drivers behind you will not be expecting anyone to slow. The summit parking area is generous and usually shaded in parts by the late afternoon.
Go up in the last two hours of daylight if you possibly can. The plain below turns from washed-out beige to deep gold, the city lights come on while there is still colour in the sky, and the temperature at the top drops noticeably compared with the valley floor. The same road at midday in summer is hot, hazy and far less rewarding, and the parking area offers little relief.
Making a comfortable day of it
The pattern that works well is a late-morning departure from the capital, a long lunch and a slow wander around the oasis city with its shaded walkways and water channels, a rest through the worst of the afternoon heat, and then the climb in the golden hours. That leaves the descent for the cooler evening, when the brakes are dealing with lower ambient temperatures and traffic on the mountain road has thinned out.
Coming home in the dark is entirely straightforward, since the carriageway is well lit near the towns and quiet in between, but the return is the stage where tiredness shows. Break it with a stop even though it is short, keep the cabin cool rather than warm, and bear in mind that you will have done a lot of concentrated driving on the mountain before you start. A ninety-minute run at the end of a full day is not the same as a ninety-minute run at the beginning.
The route index
- Select a lower gear for both the climb and the descent; engine braking spares the brakes and keeps the pedal firm.
- Watch the temperature gauge on a summer climb, and ease off early rather than waiting for a warning.
- Arrange the day so the mountain road happens in the last two hours of light and the descent falls in the cool of the evening.
