In northeastern Oman, a group of teenage daredevils have responded to the disappearance of public space with four-wheeled frenzy. Meet the Bousher Bike Life Crew: a roving collective on a mission to take back the roads – then their city.
Text and photography: Bas van Est
It’s spring in Oman – the time of the year when the relatively pleasant temperatures start to give way to relentless desert heat. On this particularly sweltering day, we’re in Bawshar – a wilayat (province) in Muscat, in the country’s northeast – and there’s dust in the air. It moves and billows across the apartment complexes and construction sites that surround the famous sand dunes. Here, it combines with beads of sweat, trickling along foreheads and down into eyes.
If you squint, you can just about make out where it’s all coming from: outlines of people, zooming up and down on bikes at the foot of one of the dunes. Because, as the sun begins to set on Thursday – the end of the working week – this is where crowds gather to thrash around on their wheeled weapon of choice. Between now and nightfall, dune buggies, bikes, quads and 4x4s will swirl around in harmonious, Mad Max style as they take turns on the steep, soft faces of the highest natural sand mound in Muscat City.
The Bawshar neighbourhood lies on the southeastern side of what is Oman’s capital, backed against a section of the country’s largest mountain range: Al-Hajar mountains. The dunes separate the neighbouring suburb and the east side of Bawshar: there are two main mounds of sand, cut in half by a major highway, a roundabout and a growing strip of apartment complexes and hotels. The largest of the two dune sites is double the size and height of the other, and more suited to experienced riders. From its highest point, there are incredible views of the city.
It’s here that you’ll usually find the Bousher Bike Life crew*. The youthful collective consists of around 30 active members, ranging from 12 years old to the late teens, all of whom hail from Muscat. They travel as a unit, meeting at the dunes before taking to the roads like a swarm of bees, meandering through traffic and pulling various different styles of wheelies. To the untrained eye, the young daredevils make an impressive and somewhat aggressive first impression: the bikes are loud, fast, and they seemingly operate without concern for other road users. It’s not until you spend some time with them that you realise they’re actually just a bunch of friendly teenagers, who are deeply passionate about what they
