Sohar, Oman, January 21st-22nd, 2025

Received a late request to attend the Oman International Rally and it was a frantic run around to arrange the logistics.

I have reported on 18 Oman rallies and been present at 10 (seven as media officer) but it’s amazing to think it’s 2007 since I last attended the event, which was won by Khalid Al-Qassimi and Nicky Beech in a Subaru Impreza – 18 years….!

After surviving the rigours of the customary awful flight from mainland Britain to Doha – nothing wrong with the ‘plane or service – but the broken demographics of a radically changed United Kingdom now makes these flights intolerable without a great deal of patience. The first flight was a far cry from the comfort and ease of the one-hour transfer to Oman on a new A350.

Anyhow, it was a long day and a late evening two and a half hour drive up the coast from Muscat to Sohar, the birthplace of Sinbad the Sailor, the cause not helped by having no Oman data on the mobile for hotel directions.

The Oman Automobile Association have been busy: a brand new route and special stages for the opening round of the 2025 MERC with much of the action centred halfway between Muscat and Dubai in the neighbouring Hajar mountains.