Jebel Hafeet by Night — A 40C Dinner, Glowing Mountains and a Curvy Finale

Today's episode covers a PRG night ride to Jebel Hafeet — a long one, with food, and my first time seeing Al Ain's iconic mountain road after dark. Spoiler: the famous curvy road is visible from a very long distance at night, glowing up the mountainside like someone draped a string of fairy lights over a sleeping giant. Let's start rolling.

Smooth Roads and Staggered Discipline

As usual, we gathered at a gas station along the way — around 12 or 13 bikers. The roads of the UAE are an absolute pleasure; my only previous riding life was in Pakistan during university days, where potholes arrive unannounced and every ride is an exercise in extreme caution. Even compared to Canada and the US, where cracks and surprises still find you, riding here is gloriously stress-free. These are roads built for motorcycles.

We rode in staggered formation, which is its own kind of mildly stressful fun — hold your left or right slot, keep safe distance, resist every urge to wander. Riding alone, I'd happily drift around lanes, speed up, slow down, follow whims. But group riding has responsibilities and discipline, and weirdly, that's what makes it satisfying. We took breaks every 40-odd minutes, which I appreciated deeply — I assumed only my aging backside needed rest, but it turns out even the young guys like to unstick themselves from the saddle occasionally.

Dinner at 40 Degrees

The plan was dinner first, mountain after. The restaurant was a small miracle: around 40°C in the open air, yet the terrace was wonderfully comfortable thanks to coolers spread everywhere — open-air climate control, desi engineering at its finest. A fabulous dinner later, we finally pointed our headlights at Jebel Hafeet, and soon the curvy lit road appeared in the distance, winding all the way to the top. The excitement in the group was instant.

If you look at the wall, you will hit the wall. Look where you want to go — your mind will take you where your eyes are.

The Ascent and the Golden Rule

The final ascent is everything the photos promise: smooth tarmac, curve after curve, occasionally just intimidating enough to keep you honest. One of our fellow riders summed up the entire art of motorcycling on the way up — look where you want to go, not where you are. It works on hairpins, on roundabouts, and frankly on most of life. We stopped at the first viewpoint to take in Al Ain glittering below — the UAE government has built proper touristy facilities in what is otherwise wilderness, and it's a strange delight to find them up there — then rode the last stretch to the summit for chai, gup-shup, photos, and an appearance by the famous Dr. Daddy shirt.

One confession: my Insta360 footage mostly died this trip because I overrode the auto time-lapse setting and fixed it at 10x, like a man who trusts his own judgment more than the engineers'. Too fast, unusable. Lesson logged. If you're building your own UAE mountain bucket list, the best motorcycle roads in the UAE ranks Hafeet against Jais and friends — and the next PRG outing, the Mango Festival ride, traded curves for kulfi.

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