If you are looking for somewhere to escape this infernal rain we are being subjected to, may I suggest Oman. Whilst it is not a cheap country to visit, in fact taxis and drinks are eye-wateringly expensive, it is beautiful and the perfect weather conditions for us fair-skinned people at this time of year. It also means that the sea is perfect too.
I have only ever transited through the Middle East, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, so Oman hasn’t ever really been on my radar until a few years ago when someone mentioned going there as a solo female traveller and how beautiful and clean and friendly it was. So fast forward and we have just returned from a week here and would highly recommend. It is just 7.5 hours or less if you have a tailwind from the UK and the time difference is just 4 hours.
We don’t often do ‘resort’ type holidays, we tend to like to move around, however, this did give us a great base to go out an explore.
Again, using Get your guide, we booked a boat trip out to the Daymaniat Islands to snorkel and see the turtles. After my experience ‘seeing turtles’ in the Maldives, I think I wasn’t really holding out much hope of seeing them. However, Oman is the the hidden diamond for turtles and we saw literally twenty to thirty, if not more, green and hawksbill.
My phone is full of videos of them, mainly up to around 5 years old as they were closer in to the coral beds until they were more mature so easier for us to see. In some cases I had to back swim to ensure I didn’t headbutt one as it came up for air. This was truly the highlight of the trip for me.
We also booked a further trip out for an overnight desert experience. This was organised through Nomad Tours and was also incredible. Within the two days we not only camped in the desert (posh camping mind!), but we also visited and swam in two incredible Wadis, Wadi Bani Khalid and Wadi Shab and visited the ship building factory in Sur where they still build dhows by hand.
Being in the desert was a fabulous experience, you may think…yeah, sand, and yeah, you’re right, but it’s crazy how quiet it is. We are so accustomed to perpetual noise, drones, white noise in our lives from traffic, central heating, tv that we never experience what it is for absolute silence and I must admit there were a couple of times where I did wonder if my ears had just ‘turned off’. Of course with this incredible silence comes the incredible dark skies. I have seen dark skies before, but it’s similar to the noise, we are so used to there always being a glare, that a true dark sky is quite a phenomenon. And mist! Did you know that there is mist in the desert, wet, cold mist. I suppose it’s obvious that the few plants need to stay alive somehow and this is their water, but it took me a little by surprise to wake to an ethereal blanket creating a crazy purple hue with the moon desperately trying to push it’s way through. Certainly and experience to go in the ‘once in a lifetime’ category.
Some tips if you decide to make Oman your next destination and enjoy some of the trips we went on:
- Don’t be like me and pack last minute (I don’t know what came over me, normally I pack so far in advance I’ve re-packed three times before I leave) and thus not really thinking through what you’ll need for a snorkelling or wadi trip: bring a microfibre towel, river shoes or shoes you don’t mind getting wet but won’t fall off (you’ll have flippers in the sea, but the wadis you need to walk and climb over rocks to) and bring your waterproof camera or case for your phone. Luckily for me we had a sweet taxi driver who had a spare case in his glove compartment and gifted it to me.
- The desert does get cold at night so bring thick socks and a thin sweater to sleep in.
- Oman is expensive. Whilst I loved being out at the resort and it was a great one and enabled us to have access to the sea and more snorkelling with turtles, cuttlefish and octopi, it was a long way from the airport and a long way from Muscat, so taxis were very costly.
- If you visit the Wadis, do Wadi Shab last. It is such an incredible Wadi, I think we’d have been disappointed to do Khalid last.
Now we’re home and it’s cold, the rain has temporarily ceased today, but the drone of the heating is penetrating my silence, perhaps it’s time to organise another trip?
