When Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman circled the globe on motorcycles in Long Way Round, they had each other - someone to share the fear, the breakdowns, and the doubt.
Loay bin Qais al Balushi had none of that. Just a BMW R 1250 GS Adventure, a stack of visas, and 43 days to ride from the deserts of Oman to the glaciers of Iceland, alone.
By the time he rolled his bike onto Icelandic soil on July 30, 2026, he’d crossed more than a dozen countries, fallen into a valley of near-freezing water, and become the first Omani ever to reach the Faroe Islands by motorcycle - and only the second Omani to ever ride across Iceland at all. What he found on the road, he says, changed him more than the destination did.
“I wanted to represent Oman while experiencing different cultures, countries and landscapes on two wheels,” Loay said. “This journey was not simply a trip for me. It was a personal challenge.”
The plan crystallised after Loay watched a fellow Omani traveller’s adventures unfold online. If someone else could turn the road into the story, why couldn’t he? “Why not make the journey itself part of the adventure?” he asked himself.
Months of preparation followed - visas, insurance, border paperwork, and the choice of a machine built for exactly this kind of punishment: a BMW R 1250 GS Adventure, “capable of handling different types of roads and weather conditions.”
On July 5, 2026, Loay rolled out of Oman, riding through the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq before angling north through Türkiye, the Balkans and Central Europe.
“Leaving Oman was a very emotional moment,” he recalled. “There was uncertainty. But I didn’t let doubt stop me.”
Not every mile was scenic. Somewhere along the route, disaster nearly struck. “One of the most difficult moments was when I fell into a valley,” he said. “The water was extremely cold, around 2°C. But I managed to get myself through it.”
Turning back was never an option. “Whenever something went wrong, I focused on solving the problem.”
Hardship had a way of being softened by strangers. When his motorcycle’s battery failed in Germany, someone he’d never met pulled over to help.
“He didn’t know me, but he still stopped,” Loay said. “Kindness has no nationality.”
By July 24, Loay reached Denmark and boarded a ferry north. Two days later, he rode onto the Faroe Islands - a first for any Omani motorcyclist.
“I felt proud because I was doing something that had never been done by an Omani motorcyclist before,” he said.
On July 30, he reached Iceland - his ultimate destination, and the moment the whole journey had been building toward.
“Finally reaching Iceland felt like I had reached the destination of a dream,” he said.
He spent two weeks touring glaciers and black-sand beaches, and swam in Silfra, the fissure between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates - “something I had never experienced before.”
Loay hopes his ride inspires young Omanis to take their own leaps of faith.
“Don’t wait until you feel completely ready - that moment may never come,” he said. “Start with what you have, and take the first step.”
His family wasn’t fully on board at first. “They were worried about my safety, but they also knew how much I wanted to do it,” he said. “In the end, they supported me.”
The distance, he added, sharpened his appreciation for home. “You start noticing the things about your country that you may have taken for granted.”
Asked to sum up the 43-day odyssey in one line, he didn’t hesitate: “Dream big, start with what you have, and don’t let fear decide your limits.”
Loay’s journey from Oman to Iceland ran from July 5 to August 13, 2026.
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