This is not a slide show but a single picture we wanted to share with you.  More so, we wanted to share the story of this particular graded road.  Keep in mind we are not scientists so we offer no explanation, logical or otherwise, for what we are about to tell you though I'm sure one exists and you are most welcome to hazard a guess and share it with us!  However, it's fun not knowing the reason behind the story!

While traveling in Dhofar we heard the story of this short stretch of graded surface so we went to check it out.  We took a left turn off the main road and entered onto a graded surface which leads up to a mountain road and continues on up into the mountains.  But we needn't go that far before the story takes place.

The surface is level for a short stretch and then it takes a dip down hill then on over to the mountain.  So we took the challenge and put our manual gear 4WD in neutral facing down hill, took the foot off of the brake and made sure all other braking mechanisms were not engaged.  We prepared to coast downhill...but did not.  The truck didn't budge.  I thought sure the driver was playing a joke as did other passengers in the car but even the driver himself was amazed.  The truck wouldn't roll.

We turned the truck around, now facing up hill, disengaged all brakes, again put the gear in neutral.  Again, the car does not roll down the hill.

We heard this "magic" does not occur on the area of road on the mountain and we checked it out and it was true. Only between the main road and mountain road is there some sort of "hold" on the vehicles.

And just as odd as this experience was than did the next one become...we went to the relatively level surface...disengaged breaks and again truck is put into neutral, much to our surprise the truck started to roll towards the main road ON A LEVEL SURFACE!  At some point we had to break or risk flying out onto the main road and putting ourselves in eminent danger, however, for as long as we could we let the truck coast on this level stretch of magical graded surface and clocking our speed, we reached 52 kilometers.

Is Ripley still around?

Believe it...or not!