21st to 23rd April 2005 - I'm sent from the desert into Muscat for an urgent job - but it's a long weekend!
With my time in Paris at an end, I returned home to Oman. Ahhhh, paradise... But only for two weeks, because I am scheduled to take 6 weeks off to travel around Europe with Bradley.
I spent my first few Omani days in Muscat, and then headed back to my dusty shed in Fahud - home sweet home. But I wasn't there long before I was called back to Muscat for an "urgent job" only four days before I was due to fly to Europe. Sounded very important... It was one of those late afternoon phone calls where you're told to leave first thing in the morning (we're not allowed to travel at night here). So back to my shed I went to pack for my urgent job, and my 6 weeks off. Packing was hampered a little by an impromptu going away party and feast that Sunna and Habib insisted on throwing, but within 5 minutes of my departure time the next morning I managed to zip up the bag.
As arranged, I called my boss for further instructions as soon as I arrived in Muscat. This is where everything changed. It turned out that I had arrived in Muscat on the first day of a long weekend and that everything was closed - no can do urgent job - must take three days off. It was Prophet Mohammed's birthday and therefore a long weekend! Well, three big cheers for Mohammed!! And happy birthday to-boot!!!!! Mohammed would normally get three kisses at this point, but I dare say that's not allowed in these parts so three hearty smiles will have to suffice. Woo-hoooooo! Three days off to prepare myself for my 6 weeks off!
I spent no time at all arranging myself a hired set of wheels and I was off like a rocket to the beach at Al Bustan Palace for one of my favourite fresh lemon mint drinks on ice, served under a shady palm tree. Now this was the life! On my way back into town I stopped at the Oman Dive Centre and organised a scuba diving trip for the morning. I finished off my first day with a fancy Japanese dinner and some sake; and of course a toast to Mohammed!
Next morning was an early rise; up in time for a quick walk to a mountain lookout, and then off for an 8:30am arrival at the dive centre. The lookout was great. It took about half an hour to get up the hill, where I took these shots looking back towards the coastline.
After about 30 minutes' motoring out and along the coast in the dive boat, we arrived at this big rock island where we went diving.
We were only booked for two dives, but we ended up doing three because the first one was ridiculous. For the first dive they stopped the boat and said we had to wait while they checked the site. Two instructors went down for about 5 or 10 minutes and then came up to say there was a great reef with good visibility about 20m down. However when we went down in groups of 4 or 5 it was a complete disaster - especially for me with my hired equipment. For me, my snorkel leaked, my regulator (air supply into my mouth) leaked water, I was stung by a jelly fish around the ankle, my diving computer didn't work (it showed zero depth), and we descended into a swampy mud to about 25m in which you could hardly see your hand in front of your face. Need I say the dive was aborted, and we all returned to the boat. What a circus!
Because of the dive operator's generous nature, he was kind enough not to charge for our first dive. How thoughtful...
Our second dive was in a shallow little bay on the side of the big rock in the picture above. After we parked the boat in the bay I got one of the other divers to take a picture of me.
The second dive was a lot better - good visibility and sea life, although my snorkel and regulator still leaked badly and I had no dive computer. I saw a big patchy moray eel and two huge cuttlefish feeding next to some coral. The eel had patches like a tortoise shell marked out with bright yellow lines along his body and he was several feet long. I was diving with a guy that had an underwater camera and he's promised to email me the pictures. If I receive any, I'll put them on the web in the future.
The next dive was also close to the edge of the big rock island, only over the other side. It was good too. This time I saw a big sting ray, and loads of moray eels of many different species. Some with the tortoise shell look, some speckled, etc... I even found one that was travelling and I snuck up and touched his tail. Cool!
When the diving was finished we motored back to the dive centre. This is a picture of the rock island as we're motoring away.
It was a pretty hazy day so it was impossible to get clear pictures of the coastline, but I did my best. The pictures below show the coastline as we headed back.
Below is Al Bustan Palace where I go for iced lemon mint drinks on the beach.
As you can see, the coastline of Oman is rimmed in jagged mountains, although they're still like deserts because there's almost no vegetation on them. The mountains here are quite spectacular though. The rock formations are really incredible, especially those you pass on the 150km drive inland from Muscat to Nizwa. However the interior where I live isn't mountainous, it's mostly sand with the odd rock outcrop. Some of the interior has moving sand dunes which change their position from day to day as the wind blows, but most of the dunes in Oman are not mobile as they've got a solid rock base below the sand.
Here is the dive centre as we are arriving back on the boat.
