Surfin' UAE

Here is a trailer of our upcoming movie from last weekend's trip to Wadi Adventure.

(I need to get out more)

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!

Golf

A while ago, Muscat Hills, one of the local golf courses, held a clinic with their in-house professional team to showcase their course and encourage people to sign up for membership. I thought I'd take the girls down and show them how it's really done!!!  Very impressive 19th hole too!!

Turtle Power

Another weekend, another adventure. This time a road trip to the Raas Al Jinz Turtle Reserve near Sur along with our good friends Matt and Julie. We decided to call into the supermarket and pick up a 'few' items for the one night away. I think the girls got a bit carried away if you ask me!

En route to Raas Al Jinz we made a quick stop at the Bimmah Sinkhole. To me the word sinkhole conjures up images of houses being swallowed up in Florida and people disappearing from golf courses in Illinois, but this one is full of crystal clear turquoise water. As far as holes in the ground go, this was pretty cool. But it is a hole in the ground. Nothing more. Nothing less.

And onto the Turtle Reserve. We opted to book into the tents that they have on site and I have to say this turned out a brilliant option. The term tents don't really do these justice as they were pretty amazing. Very comfy, quite luxurious and they also had a fantastic view out the back. This is where we set up our BBQ and enjoyed a very refreshing and well deserved Pimms! Matt and myself then provided the ladies with a demonstration on how to light a BBQ, which from the look on their faces they were seriously impressed with. Man, food, grunt...

And the reason we came to this place - the turtles! So the Nature Reserve runs 2 tours down onto the beach. One is at about 9pm and the other is at 4am. In theory the one at night allows you to see the eggs being laid and the steps the turtles go to in protecting them. You might have to ask Jenny or Julie what the 4am tour consisted of as I made a very smart decision to stay in my very comfy bed. But as far as I can tell the tour was very similar but as it was daylight you could see more and were also allowed to take photographs. 

The crabs waiting to catch the baby turtles

The turtles leave the beach in a right mess!

This was a fantastic overnight trip, not just because of the turtles but also an opportunity to get out of the city and the lower temperatures allowed us to sit outside without passing out with the heat and humidity. 

There's nothing shabby about Wadi Shab

Jen and I have had a couple of very busy weeks recently, so last weekend when our friend Julie suggested heading out of Muscat for the day to go and explore Wadi Shab we jumped at the chance to escape into the country and get a bit of exercise and fresh air.

‘Wadi’ is the Arabic term for a riverbed which is typically dry except for in the rainy season. Wadi Shab is about an hour and half’s drive South East of Muscat.  We decided that as Ralph hasn’t really been exploring that we would take him with us and give him a good run. So, we threw Ralph in the boot of the car, stopped to pick up Julie and a picnic and headed off.

Now, when you arrive at the Wadi the car park is on the other side of the riverbed to the start of the walk. Usually, there are fishermen with their boats who will take you across the water for 200 baiza each (37p or 52c). However, when we arrived we found that there were no boats as it was Ramadan. So after a lot of beard scratching (and that was just the girls), we decided to leave anything important in the car and cross the water ourselves. There was another couple who arrived at the same time as us who had the same idea, so we graciously let them go first. Having seen them stumble around a bit we were able to map out a route across. The water got to about waist height in some places and there were a few near misses, but eventually we all made it across in one piece and with all our electronic items still dry.

                

Now allegedly the walk into the Wadi is only about 40 minutes, but I don’t know where we went wrong as we walked for well over an hour. We decided that we should stop and as there was no one around (have to be careful eating or drinking in public during Ramadan) we could have a drink and our little picnic. With the temperature being up at the 40 degrees mark, both Jenny and Julie were suffering a bit and were getting tired so it was good to get some food and drink before their moods deteriorated further. Whilst we were sat there we met someone who was heading back from the cave and asked them how far it was to the waterfall. They said it was about a 10 minute walk and then a 5 minute swim. I’m not sure what they’d been drinking as once we packed up and turned the corner we were right there. Can’t believe that we’d stopped just short of the cave.

We ditched the bags and dived into the crystal clear water. It’s about a 200m swim from the rocks to the entrance to the cave. After some initial trepidation Ralph jumped in and swam around with us enjoying the opportunity to cool off. 

The entrance to the cave is very narrow as you can see from the video below. Fortunately, you can swim under the water to get inside the cave as otherwise there was a risk that my slightly larger than normal head would become jammed between the rocks. Inside the cave is quite small, but there is a waterfall where someone has attached some ropes so that you can climb and jump off. I can’t remember who I’d been talking to, but I’d imagined a cross between Niagara Falls and something out of the film The Beach, so I was a little bit disappointed. Preconceptions aside, it was pretty cool and the water was nice and refreshing. 

Doing this walk at midday in the middle of summer here probably wasn't a great idea but Ralph found a way to keep himself nice and cold.

There are so many wadis to explore around Muscat which we are planning to do but from what I hear this is one of better ones !