Dibba Dhow Cruise

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When I was researching my trip to Dubai, I was looking at the different day trips on offer and the ones to Oman caught my eye. So after a few minutes deliberation I booked one. Not that we would be spending much time on land in Oman, but we would be sailing along the coastline. The trip also sounded nice and relaxing, which suited me down to the ground. I was picked up very early in the morning and we drove for a couple of hours. I was surprised as I was the only one in the minivan, but was told we were picking some others up. I enjoyed the drive as the landscape was like nothing I am used to. Once we left the city, it was all desert. I saw the camps where you can do the camel rides and dinner in the dessert. Eventually, we stopped a picked up a family of three, that were staying at a resort in the middle of nowhere. As we drove, the landscape changed and it became more rocky and mountainous. It was really cool and looked a bit spacey. We drove on through the Emirates and came to the border town. Two of the Emirates, Fujairah and Sharjah, border each other here, and one is a lot stricter than the other. At the roundabout, he pointed out that if you went one way, there would be no alcohol or other fun stuff as that is the deeply conservative Emirate.

The border we crossed at was some kind of special one, if I remember correctly, meaning that the formalities were a bit different. We had stopped just before the border to be given the paperwork we needed to cross. Because we were using this border and only doing a day trip, there would be no stamp in my passport, gutted! Also we had travelled to the Musandam peninsula, which is separated from the rest of the Sultanate by the United Arab Emirates. Luckily, it was quiet so we got through the border quickly and drive to the port. The town of Dibba looked pretty small and unremarkable. We drove for a few minutes more and reached the port. There were loads of boats in the port and we had to make our way across several other boats to reach ours. Our boat was massive, the guide spirit can fit well over 100 people on it, maybe even 150 and there were only four of us, score! I settled in on the cushions at the front/back of the boat and one of the staff brought me a cup of coffee. I could get used to a life like this! There was more staff than there were customers, excellent!

We left the port and cruised along the coastline. It was a nice, sunny day, but not too hot. I really liked watching the scenery as we went by. Just beyond the coastline, there were lots of mountains. The coastline was pretty deserted, too. Especially, once we left the vicinity of the port. The places that we passed were only accessible by sea, there was no land route, except for a very fancy and expensive hotel, which had built a private road to get to their resort. I watched the coastline go by, it was a little hazy, but nothing too bad, and it cleared up the further out we got. There was a bit of traffic on the water and we passed other traditional Dhow boats as well as smaller speedboats. I was so relaxed, it was hard to stay awake and I did lose my eyes for a bit. After an hour, or maybe a bit longer, we reached our first stop. We had two options here, either we could go for a swim or snorkel near the boat, or take the smaller boat to the beach. We all opted to head to the beach. The place was called Haffah Qadema. The beach was quite small but deserted. There were a couple of houses set back a bit from the beach. I decided to head into the water and stripped down to my bikini. Just as I had done that two blokes and a dog emerged from one of the houses and headed to their small boat and sped off. Obviously, the sight of me in a bikini scared them away. I spent a while splashing about in the water. I had a bit of a swim and just floated about. Relaxation was what I wanted today. Also the waterways a little chilly, so I ended up getting out after a while and dried off and warmed up in the sun. I then went for a little walk along the beach. There was a huge sign explaining the rules of this little beach. One was that women should be conservatively dressed especially if there were locals about. I probably had mortally offended those two blokes by shopping my kit off. Nevermind, nobody on the boat had warned us and I thought that the locals would have been gone by the time we got there and to be honest, I bet they've seen more flesh.

Back on the boat, we relaxed some more and sailed along the coast some more. Then it was lunchtime. The crew had prepared a real feast for us. Despite there only being tour of us, there was plenty of food. The buffet was all paid out on table in the centre of the boat. One of the guides explained what everything was. I filled my plate with rice, salad, beef, chicken, hummus and flatbread. It was all really tasty and I really wanted to like my plate high with seconds, but the other people didn't, wtf?? I don't understand how pass up the chance for more tasty food. I did get more but had to use my self control so I didn't look like a total pig. After lunch had digested a little, we had the opportunity to go out on the smaller boat for a bit of a cruise about. That was fun, the water felt a lot more choppy in the small boat and I enjoyed that ride a lot. It was cool to get up closer to the coastline and we went in a small cave, that was inaccessible to bigger boats. Back on our Dhow, we started making our way back along the coast. We stopped at a plan e to snorkel, but they water was a bit dirty. I was the only one that wanted to go for a snorkel, so they took me a bit further away to where the water was cleaner. I had a nice little snorkel. There wasn't much to see in the water, I have definitely been to better snorkelling spots on my travels, but it was still nice to be out in the water.

Our last stop was to do a spot of fishing. We spent about half an hour or so trying to catch some fish. Needless to say, I was totally useless at it and caught nothing. I just can't tell whether there is anything biting or not. The others had more success, one of the crew caught quite a few. We then headed back to the port. The drive back to Dubai wasn't too torturous until we hit all The rush hour traffic in Old Dubai. I was tired when I got back, so relaxed before heading to the convenience store to grab some dinner and breakfast for the next day. I finally received my pick up location for my tour for the next day so spent some time researching how to get there, before having an early night.

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