Salalah to Muscat, Oman 19 - 22 May 2008

Diving and driving

Although we were at a five star air-conditioned hotel with internet access, we could not work much on getting up to date on our web site as our laptop has broken down with a serious hardware error. Fortunately everything has been backed up recently, so we don’t expect to lose anything. We therefore had a relaxing morning by the beach and pool.
We planned our departure from Salalah at 3 p.m. local time in order to reach Muscat just after sunset to reduce suffering from the heat as daytime temperatures have recently been around 44 degrees. We flew over the desert at 11’000 feet near the top of a dust haze layer, so there was only visibility straight down. The air was pretty stable so there was just light to moderate turbulence in places. We landed 15 minutes after sunset but the temperature was still 39 degrees with a dew-point of 5 degrees, so very dry. The apron was oozing with heat. We rented a 4WD car (with air conditioning, naturally) and drove to the Intercontinental in the embassy district of Muscat where the Middle East Jeppesen charts were waiting for us.
Muscat has grown considerably since our last visit on our round-the-world trip in November 2001. Buildings have mushroomed and they now have motorways and flyovers to cope with the increase in traffic. We reckon it is largely thanks to Sultan Qaboos bin Said that the country is so well developed. The economy had been stagnating under his father, Sultan Said bin Taimur, until Qaboos overthrew him in a bloodless coup in 1970 and began the task of modernizing Oman’s semi-feudal economy.

20 May. We had an early breakfast, but by the time we got to the car it was already 41 degrees! We drove to Bahwan IT (Toshiba service center) in the nearby district of Qurum, and turned in the laptop for warranty repair. But they may not be able to get the necessary parts before we have to leave for Iran on Friday.
We drove to the Oman Dive Centre east of Muscat which hadn’t changed much since our last visit seven years ago. The dive centre is run by a Swiss German lady and most of the clients seemed to be Swiss or German. It was HOT: 44 degrees! It was possible to go snorkelling straight from the beach but we had to swim out for about 20 minutes before we started to see anything. Visibility was even hazier in the water than it was in the air yesterday. We were finally rewarded with the sight of many reef sharks and a turtle in addition to shoals of colourful fish.
After lunch, Flemming went diving at Wall Street and saw moray eels, squid, and eagle ray. It was nice and cool down at 20 meters below. Meanwhile Angela went snorkelling, also from the boat, and saw less than she had in the morning, with the exception of one moray eel.