Kayak & SUP Safari

Stand up paddleboarding is becoming quite popular in Oman and a number of our friends have their own boards. January seemed to have been a busy month for many of our friends, recovering from the excitement and overindulgence of Christmas. For us, it was a busy time at work and also we had the pleasure of entertaining our friends from Chicago, Sinead, Valerie and Barry (Barry not so much of a pleasure!) So, a plan was hatched to do a bit of a paddleboard safari around Bandar Khayran and a camping trip. I’ve tried SUPing a few times and whilst it’s OK it doesn’t rock my boat, so to say. I’d much rather be in a kayak. So that’s what we did.

There’s a little road that leads down to BK from the highway, which is only accessible by a 4x4 – which meant a long walk for Anna!! Despite the location being relatively inaccessible, it was still quite busy with families picnicking and enjoying watersports, so we decided to set up our camp on one of the neighbouring beaches. As the tide was out, loading up the kayaks and the paddleboards and wading round the corner wasn’t too much of a big deal.

Bandar Kharyan is a small bay inlet about an hour's drive from The Wave on the road to Sifah. The scenery is absolutely stunning. Sadly, it was a bit windy and the video doesn't really do it justice, but hopefully it gives an idea of the crystal clear waters and beautiful coastline.

Now of course, it would be wrong for us to leave Ralph at home whilst we're off enjoying ourselves and he loves to get involved. He got to try both SUPing and kayaking, and whilst he was particularly skilled at SUPing, I think he prefers to be in the water rather than on it. 

The placement of the tent is very important and we thought we were being clever and all Bear Grylls by looking at the tide mark before deciding where to set up camp. However, it turns out that we weren't so smart as we were enjoying our barbecue when the tide came right up and through the middle of the area where we were sitting. Fortunately, it just missed the tents, so we were good for a dry night's sleep!

So the idea of having a nice quiet beach away from everyone else was a good idea on the night before, the morning after we had to resolve the issue of getting all of our stuff back to the car, now that the tide was in. After a bit of head scratching we decided to lash together three of the SUPs and load our kit onto that. I then towed everything back to the cars in the kayak. It was a bit hairy at times, making sure I kept it all balanced, but we made it back in one piece with everything still dry. That just left the others to swim round! 

Camping - bedouin style

Before we went to Petra, we spoke with friends who'd visited earlier in the year and had been guided by Abdullah. They'd said that the highlight of their trip was a trip to the top of a mountain to watch the sun setting over Petra. On this recommendation we asked Abdullah to arrange something special for us. However, there must have been something lost in translation as rather than taking a leisurely stroll to sit and watch the sun set over Petra, we ended up on a traditional bedouin camping experience. 

This involved being collected by Abdullah's mates in an old Hilux, (with the three of us squashed in the back) and being driven for about 30 minutes to the edge of the park. Once at the edge of the park, we were given a sleeping bag each and had to walk for about an hour up the side of a mountain to around 1300m. The rest of the kit for the night followed behind on 2 donkeys.

The mountain that we climbed, Jabal Harun, was allegedly the site where Moses' brother, Aaron was buried. I'm not sure if sleeping on someone's grave was supposed to be the highlight of the tour, or just an added bonus!

Anyway, despite the longer than expected hike, we made it to the top in time for sunset. Just. 

This is just a short description of the trip, but sometimes, what happens on holiday, stays on holiday. Isn't that right Barry?!!!

Let's go fly a kite!

One of the best things about being in Oman so far has been the number of public holidays. At the end of Ramadan there is a big celebration called Eid Al Fitr. Because Oman determines the sighting of the moon using a committee rather than scientific data and observations, the date for the holidays was not determined until the very last day. If the moon was sighted on the Wednesday then including the weekend we would have had 4 days off, but if the moon was sighted on the Thursday we would get 6 days. It seems that despite the rest of the Gulf region sighting the moon on Wednesday, it wasn't seen in Oman until Thursday. No complaints here though!

Amongst our friends here there is a lot of talk about kitesurfing and how Oman has some of the best conditions in the world. So we thought that we better give this a go and with our good friends Gil and Amy we made the most of a couple of these long weekends and headed to Masirah.

It is a 4 hour drive through the mountains and across the desert to Shanna where you catch a ferry across to the island. Well when I say ferry I mean a decommissioned greek car bathtub that has seen better days and is staffed by a large bunch of guys who all have a different view of how to best board their passengers. Certainly an experience but once you arrive at the Kitesurfing beach you realise it is well worth it.

Obviously strong winds are a critical element for kite surfing but not the best thing when it comes to camping out. An overnight sand storm equals a quick 'de-camp' to a nearby hotel.

The next day the wind had dropped enough for us to get out onto the water and we managed to finish our course. After a short exam we were presented with our certificates and officially allowed to give it a go on our own.

Jenny's amazing kitesurfing abilities really began to draw a crowd!

The short video below is some footage of the 2 trips that I put together with our new Go-Pro. Absolutely loving this camera, especially for outdoor and water sports. Any readers of this blog are likely to see a lot more of this in the upcoming posts. Enjoy!