Diving The Musandam Peninsula, Oman, January, 2007

By Sarah Lee and Ken Scott


The Plan

Flights were booked independently with Gulf Air as we currently live in Cyprus, Larnaca to Bahrain, Bahrain to Dubai. There are direct flights from Larnaca to Dubai with Emirates although more expensive. The flying time is 3 hrs, the stop in Bahrain adds on 2 hours to the journey.

The diving, all hotels and transfer to Khasab were booked through Regal Dive. We planned 3 days in Dubai then transferred up to Khasab for 5 days diving then back to Dubai for 2 days. The pre booked transfer from Dubai to Khasab by road, a distance of about 120 miles, cost £53 pp. The road journey is OK and takes between 2 and 3 hours depending on time of day and traffic. The journey took us through various terrains of sandy desert to residential areas, road works, building sites and industrial zones.

The crossing into Oman is at Tibat and will cost AED20 pp to leave the UAE and 12OR pp to enter Oman. (we had already obtained Oman Rials in Dubai ready to cross the boarder). From Tibat to the Golden Tulip Hotel in Khasab takes around 30 mins. Once across the border the traffic eases off and the road begins to meander along the coast with golden beaches, blue sea and the mountains that the areas is famed for. The road drops down into a bay where the hotel lies nestled on the waters edge at the bottom of the mountains and is the only sign of habitation.

The Hotel.

The Golden Tulip Hotel lies just outside the small town of Khasab and is classed as 3* hotel with the dive centre on site. There is a choice of accommodation; chalets which are just next to the main hotel or a room within the hotel. I booked a chalet because they are bigger but don't always have the full sea views. On arrival we were allocated a room within the hotel, which after a look at decided it would be fine. There were 2 double beds and balcony so we had plenty of room. We had a look at the chalets later on in the week and in fact most seemed to have a sea/mountain view, the layout was still open plan but there was a seating area and bedroom area - I preferred them to the room but there wasn't a lot to choose from to be honest.

We were on a B&B basis, breakfast was buffet style with plenty of choice but not much variation for a week. The eating arrangements were probably the biggest disappoint for us as we found it expensive. A five course buffet dinner was OR10 pp (£15) plus 17% tax and a service charge which goes onto most things. The alternative was an all day menu that we tended to eat from. This menu had a limited choice and an average dinner (main course only) for 2 of us with soft drinks still worked out about £10 pp. There is in fact a half buffet consisting of main course and desert or salad, soup and desert at OR6 pp but you only get offered this if you ask as it is not advertised! A can of Carlsberg beer (Coke can size) in the bar cost £4.30 so this curtailed any drinking. We were sure we could eat cheaper in Khasab centre itself, about 4km away, but to get there the hotel has to arrange a driver as there are no taxis. We never found out the price of the journey as Tom the dive centre manager kindly took us into Khasab for our last 2 nights to eat. We were able to eat (more than enough) for 10OR for 4 of us including drinks and a tip ! The food was excellent in town, cheap and plenty to choose from. Incidentally there is a bar just at the main entrance to the hotel, again the hotel doesn't tell you about, for the locals, apparently the beer is much cheaper and there are even dancing girls - we didn't get to sample it but if you want a cheap beer then this seemingly is the place to go if you can put up with the loud music.

The diving

We booked a 10 dive pack though Regal dive which gave us 2 (2 tank ) boat dives a day and hired BCDs and regs - rental was per day rather than per dive. The Padi dive centre is on site and is run by Tom Adriaens, through Extra Divers. Tom had worked down in Muscat and recently moved up to Khasab so has a very good knowledge of the Omani waters as well as an impressive grasp of the local language.

We booked knowing it was low season and the coldest time of the year. Water temperatures were around 22/24 degrees with air temp between 22 - 28 degrees depending on cloud cover and wind. We wore 5mm semi-drys, I wore a hood and, gloves and chill cheater under garments and felt chilly towards the end of some of the longer dives. The coldest times were between dives especially on the days when it was overcast. A good wind proof and hat is advisable, that said it wasn't unbearable just a uncomfortable at times.

Meeting time is 08.30 for a 09.00 departure for a short truck run to the port where the dive centres boat is located. The boat can take 14 divers, the most we had on the boat at one time was 8 people including the skipper and 2 dive guides. I would think that 14 would be a tight squeeze to be honest. Water, fruit and biscuits are provided between the dives.

Most of the sites lie at the top end of the peninsula about a 45 - 60min boat ride away. The boat only has soft seating (next to the engines) for about 6 otherwise you have to sit on the hard surfaces around the boat which is OK if the waters are flat but we had some rough water days and at times it was back breaking and wet ! Memories of UK diving on a RIB come to mind. It was our choice not to sit next to the engines on the soft seats but if it is rough (only 2 months of the year apparently) it can be a little uncomfortable, there is also very little cover from the elements so we ended up quite wet on one day.

It is however just as the brochure describes: remote, uninhabited fjords of Arabia. This is no exaggeration - it is certainly remote and with the rare exception of a passing boat we had the whole of the Musandam peninsula to ourselves - a great luxury. The dives tended to be drift dives either over reefs or along walls. If you have less than 20 logged dives you have to dive with a guide so we were left pretty much to dive on our own. We chose to put up a DSMB on a number of occasions because we were happier knowing the boat knew where we were. Musandam is often described as a dive location for experienced divers - whilst I wouldn't disagree with this because some of the currents were quite strong and the remoteness of the area I really don't think it would present any problems for UK divers used to diving with currents and using a DSMB on unguided dives.

The visibility all week was between 6 - 10m due to plankton - no bad things because this hopefully meant big fish First impressions after the first couple of days was that it didn't always have the wow factor of the Red Sea when you splash into brightly coloured corals and masses of golden anthias but what it does have is BIG fish and plenty of them and untouched, pristine corals (albeit in various shades of brown and beige on some reefs).

There were times that the coral stretched, unbroken as far as the eye could see and was quite breath taking. It was like we were the first people to ever dive some of the sites. We saw turtles on several of the dives, huge parrot, groupers, porcupine, trigger and angle fish, massive painted cray fish, eels - two of which were as thick as a mans thigh and huge star fish. At one time we were circled by two schools of huge barracuda only a metre away from us as well a some very big and inquisitive yellow fin tuna all at a depth of only 10m. There were a few sting ray however the highlight for me was when an eagle ray swept past us out of the gloom. In fact we saw them jumping out of the water several times to and from the dives sites.

There were never more than 6 divers in the water all week, most of the time it was just 3 of us and a guide. The last day we were the only divers so we opted for a 3 tank dive. We did a night dive on the Humsi wreck mid week which is one of the closest sites to the centre a short 20 min ride. It sits at approx 10m and is generally only used for night dives.

There is no doubt about it that this is home to some very rich seas and with commercial fishing banned it has the potential to see some very exciting marine life. It's a shame there aren't a couple of wrecks but the marine life is very exciting and corals are staggering. We would certainly consider a return visit.

If you choose to stay at the Golden Tulip take lots of books because there really isn't anything else to do at the hotel itself. The hotel can arrange trips into the mountains which I understand from the other guests are spectacular.

Another option for accommodation is at the Extra Divers guest house located in Khasab itself. Tom showed us round it and it is certainly where we would stay if visiting again. There are 6 double, ensuite rooms which look very comfortable and at OR30 per room all year B&B it represents good value for money. Whilst you don't have the view of the sea you are in the town which may be small but it does mean you can eat out and have a wander in the evenings and get a taste of Omani life.

Sarah Lee DL 185 dives
Ken Scott AI 250 dives


Websites

Regal Diving
Musandam Diving
Extra Divers
Golden Tulip Hotel


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