Bobbi and I have had excellent dives in northern Musandam, either
going from Dibba on long boat trips to Fanaku, what Chris at Nomad Ocean Adventures used to call the far
north. We had also had good luck with Extra Divers, whose shop and guest house
occupied the promontory overlooking the camping beach just around the corner from the port, near town center, at Khasab. In the old
days when we used to go there before all this was built we used to camp on that
promontory to avoid the crowds on the beach. We could have it pretty much to
ourselves, the only noise being the 'putt putt' of boats passing by in the
morning, which we could watch overlooking the vast expanse of water while
sipping coffee heated from embers revived from our dinner campfire.
Greg and Joyce Raglow were walking near our camping spot and waved to us from there when we pulled up to the hotel after the 4-hour drive from Al Ain, plus the double-border crossing less than an hour from Ras Al Khaima. Greg is one of my ex-dive students, open water and advanced. He's also an accomplished guitar player, and he and I have passed the guitar back and forth at many an open air evening outside at Nomad Ocean Adventure while sipping icy beverages churned out by Chris's infamous slurpie machine.
We
can still enter Oman for 5 riyals visa fees paid at the border, special price
for GCC residents who fit certain job categories, teacher being one of them.
The inexpensive transit visa has been canceled though and now tourists are charged 20
riyals for the month long visa even though they might want to stay only a day
or two. This creates a considerable hardship for parents traveling with children, so
the hotels offer special Groupon rates to attract customers. The Adana Khasab
Hotel had one for 35 riyals (about $100 a night) for a delux room for
two with full buffet breakfast and all the expresso we could drink, so we took
advantage of a three day weekend to book Friday and Sat nights at the hotel and
we booked diving for Sat and Sunday.
I can’t say we were impressed that much with the dive shops. There
were three I could find online. One of them, https://www.scubashade.com/khasab-diving, gives a Dubai phone number but their
website didn’t have enough information for us to actually make a booking in
Khasab. We reached someone at Ras Musandam by phone, https://www.rasmusandamdiver.com/, who said he would pick us
up at the Adana Khasab Hotel on Friday, but he didn’t take our name nor ask
what kind of divers we were, and when I emailed with that information there was
no reply. My last email was to say that the days of our three day weekend had
changed and we would not be there Friday after all, but would dive starting
Saturday. Again, no reply.
Meanwhile, Rommel at Musandam Discovery, http://musandam-discovery-diving.com/, emailed us back straight
away with answers to whatever query we had, and even whatsapped us weather
updates to help us go forward with our trip. There was a storm system hanging
out over the area especially impacting the Dubai, RAK, Abu Dhabi coastline with
rough shamal whipped seas, but impacting less the Khasab side of the peninsula.
When Rommel assured us they would be diving Fri/Sat/Sun we confirmed our hotel
bookings and made plans to dive with Musandam Discovery.
In the end sea conditions were rough and the boat trips were awash
with cold wind-driven waves strafing the boat, soaking everything and everyone. The boat had to
hide in coves out of the wind for dives, and the dive profiles were not that
ambitious. On the first dive the divemaster started us in the very protected
and shallow end of the cove and told us we would work our way to the not so
distant point and then turn around and come back. Mishaps happened with some divers
in the cold water, one had to surface due to ear problems, but Bobbi and Greg
and I went on as instructed, reef on our left, and INTO the current, which took
a bit of our air at the beginning of the dive. We were down to a hundred bar
when we got toward the point where the diving was starting to get interesting
with deeper rocks down to 25 meters or more, better vis, more scope for play,
and no current. At that point the guide signaled we should go back, so most of
the dive was in effect in the uninteresting shallows. I have not been expected
to dive from a boat at anchor and return to the boat since diving with BSAC last
century; most boats follow divers on one-way trips in Musandam. So this dive
was unexpectedly disappointing.
This was followed by snack of paratha bread spread with cheese and
jelly and washed down with water. There were also bananas on board. It’s good
to have something to eat between dives, but this was again beneath expectations
when in a competitive business people want to attract you back for a return
trip.
The next dive was a little better. We had schools of batfish and juvenile
barracudas, and a sting ray that played for the GoPro. But one diver signaled out
of air at 35 minutes leaving Bobbi and I to go off on our own another 15 but
not very ambitiously, so we didn’t see much. Then it was back up the narrow
steep ladder onto Suleiman’s boat with the seats too low for divers laden with
kit to effectively stand up, and the worst part was the trip back in the cold
wind and waves, wetsuits being our only protection, clothing not really an
option unless it were a sou’wester.
All in all the experience plus the fact that a repeat the next day
would cost us over $100 each caused us to cancel our diving plans and get an
early start from the hotel after breakfast to arrive home in time to go for
a jog before sundown in the oasis back
home in Al Ain. We enjoyed the trip but were not thrilled with the diving, and
we’re not sure where to book next time we go, having found no one there yet to replace the
quality of a really well-run dive center the likes of Extra Divers.
