Dubai man ends 5,000km cycling tour for social cause

Dubai: A Dubai man returned home on Tuesday after cycling more than 5,000km across the Gulf Cooperation Council countries in support of children with special needs.

Jalal Bin Thaneya, 27, an Emirati, cycled for 27 days in support of Dubai-based Al Jalila Foundation, which teaches parents how to care for children with special needs.

According to Bin Thaneya, this is the first time anyone has cycled across all six GCC nations.

He set off in December, 2013 from Muscat, Oman. Bin Thaneya covered the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain before ending the gruelling trip in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Friday.

He returned to the UAE, through the Ghuwaifat border crossing, in a four-wheel-drive that had accompanied him on his journey.

Bin Thaneya has previously pushed himself to the limit to draw attention to issues facing children with special needs.

He has walked 2,000km from Abu Dhabi to Makkah, covered all seven emirates on foot, climbed the stairs of 100 Dubai skyscrapers and walked the desolate Empty Quarter.

The UAE national said children with special needs should be included in regular schools as much as possible and have more specialist care centres as well.

Bin Thaneya wants to visit UAE schools next to encourage students to be active and to help instil a sense of responsibility towards children with disabilities.

“I want to talk to them, let students do even more than me when they grow up. Maybe I can inspire them towards healthy, good living,” he said.

“I could show them my bike and say ‘hey, this went 5,000km’. They could ask me why I did that, so they will learn about other children [with special needs] in this way.”

Bin Thaneya added: “But I need support, from government departments, schools, Al Jalila Foundation, other people. I can’t do it alone.”

During the trip, he tried to cover roughly 100-200km every day, surviving on little food, which he mostly bought at remote petrol stations and towns along the way.

“On the last day, I was in excruciating pain. My wrists, my knees were hurting. There were a lot of broken roads. That can damage your bike and your body.

“It wasn’t easy, not everyone can do this.”

But the hardest part, Bin Thaneya added, was dealing with “difficult people”. At one point, he said, a motorist in Saudi Arabia attempted to run him over but Bin Thaneya jumped out of the way.

He was also held a number of times by police, paramilitary forces and border guards suspicious of him.

“What hurt me is that some people said ‘why are you doing this, go back home’. It added to my mental strain. But I was never in any doubt that I could do this,” Bin Thaneya said.