The Blog
For those that haven’t heard of us, and that can’t be many, we’re a group of scientists, divers and happy-go-lucky students off to discover the secrets of coral reefs. Our mission? To find out what makes the fish tick. We think of coral reefs as being places of beauty, with peaceful images of fish and turtles gliding by. However, for an egg or a young hatchling, a reef is a pointy-teethed nightmare, with just about everything trying to take a bite. As soon as the hatchlings get a chance they flee to the open water… and that’s the last we know of them.
At some point the fish return to the reefs, but whether it’s the one on which they were laid, one to which the currents take them or one that sounds like it offers the best place to live, we have no idea. And that makes looking after reefs a difficult task, but one that we need to do for the environment, the people that live by and with them and for the millions of people that just love to swim amongst them.
So we are trying to find out how these fish choose where to live by looking at fish from a single species, finding all the places where it lives and trying to work out how it got there. Luckily for us, just such a fish is the Omani clownfish, meaning that we are going to be spending our days driving the length of Oman in 4x4s, diving each day and sleeping on the beach each night.
Team Members: To be updated as we see fit – and depending on whom we find on the way…
Steve Simpson – Big Chief Ever Optimistic
Caroline Simpson – The real one in charge?
Sparky – Real name unknown. Claims to be from Madagascar. Known aliases “Mark Priest”, “Little Sparky”
JC - Our very own saviour
Vicky Robinson - Colin Farrell's new missus, apparently
Ruth Elphinstone - "Oh my god I've got an ipod"
Catriona Ferguson - Yes, she really did bring straighteners with her!
Clare Nisbet - Separated from Shakey for the first time in 6 weeks, coping well with few side-effects
Ed Sykes - How to be remotely witty about oneself? No idea!
Hugo Harrison - Tall, dark and slightly French
Elisabeth Rochel - Shorter, blond and definitely French
Tom Reed - Only interested in one thing!
Matt Robinson - Shaggy
Tabitha Innocent - Or is she?
Dan Bayley - In a tent on his own, apparently it's the smell
Rachel Colville - Has to share a tent with Catriona, poor thing! Aka "The Mountain Goat"
And this is the blog of how we’re getting on:
Day
1:
Holidays are supposed to be relaxing. It seems that expeditions are not. Our flight was due for 10:30 pm and being the sensible, forward thinking bunch that we are we decided to meet at 7 to try and sweet talk our extra 120 kgs of luggage onto the plane. For the good of the expedition I had kept my own kit to a minimum and am the proud bearer of 2 pairs of boxer shorts, 3 shirts and a pair of trousers – surely enough for 5 weeks? This however was balanced out by some of the girls bringing vats of moisturiser, conditioner and there were even rumours of hair straighteners! Oh Catriona!!
However, Gulf Air seemed to have other plans and weren’t even sure whether they could take us at all. Apparently there was a slight problem of fewer seats than passengers and no standing room allowed. The lady behind the desk, who kept referring to us all as ‘sweetie’ (or was that just me?) decided to make us all VIP and put us on an earlier flight.
Despite sounding like the chance of getting extra leg-room, champagne and possibly an on-flight massage, this actually meant forcing our way to the front of every queue, running down every corridor and trying to explain to everyone that ‘no honestly, we really should be pushing in’. If I hadn’t recently experienced sorting workshops in schools for hundreds of teenagers, then this might actually have been stressful. As it is, we are now sat happy and snug on our way to Muscat. We’ve got another 11 group members to get over here, but for now everything’s going to plan – except that we missed duty free and so now our trip really is going to be a dry one! Oh and Vicky’s a little upset that she missed some scenes of Colin Farrell getting his kit off in the on-board entertainment, but then again, who wouldn’t be.
A very sleepy Ed
Day
2:
The one thing that Steve guaranteed us was that there would be no rain – we’d be able to sleep without canvas, go for weeks without washing in fresh water and generally be very dry. It seems he was wrong. Very wrong. As our plane was winging its way to Muscat Oman was being treated to its greatest drenching in a lifetime. The sun-baked earth was unable to soak up any of the rain, resulting in what could only be described as a flood. Fortunately it didn’t last long and had mostly evaporated by the time we stumbled bleary-eyed from the arrivals lounge. But just to be sure, we’ve bought enough tents from our local supermarket – a veritable banqueting hall and department store rolled into one, although it still didn’t have any brioche!!
We’ve picked up our cars, which are brand new gleaming white Toyotas, with the all-important air conditioning. I’ve felt a little stupid a few times when grabbing air with my left-hand instead of the gear stick with my right, but driving itself isn’t too much of a problem as there just aren’t very many cars around. Though the ones that are there obviously still feel a little pressed for time as they seem to drive, talk on their mobiles and read the paper all at the same time – a feat which I don’t feel up to attempting!
Everyone’s passed out in the shared room upstairs – extremely cosy and only just starting to smell. Half of us are ready for bed, whilst the others are pretty sure it’s time for breakfast. Till next time, Ed ;-)
Day 3:
We just left
the police station, but have to go back again tomorrow. Steve, Caroline and
Sparky are trying to outstay their welcome in an official kind of way.
Everything is pretty relaxed here, from the driving, which is relaxed in one
way, to the pace of life which is relaxed in quite another. Certain things that
we’re very used to seem to come as quite a surprise to them, including the
rain. Since arriving Steve has gradually been letting on more and more about
conditions out here and it seems that the rain they had the other day was
actually a flash flood, with one eyewitness reportedly seeing 4 cars that had
been washed into a gulley, one on top of the other!
We set up camp last night just off the side of the motorway, which sounds a little wrong, but it was actually a very secluded spot in a little valley. It took only about 4 hours to make fire and we all felt very manly when we finally sat down to cook our vegetarian dinner. I think rice is going to be an underlying theme for most of the trip. By about 9 pm the camp was silent, apart from the odd snore from Catriona, but the ground was a little harder than we’d expected. The morning supermarket trip included a large number of mattresses, cushions and general bum protection. Then the lucky ones got to head to a wadi for a swim – apparently it’s one of the few in Oman with water all year round and so is an oasis of almond and apricot trees.
Unfortunately for Steve, Caroline, Sparky and I there were still a few jobs left to do in preparation for the trip down south. That includes checking out the dive gear we’ve rented. We were on our way when we received the worrying news that the only 2 compressors they had were broken. Our man on the inside seemed to have been suffering whilst sorting this for us, but inshallah (God-willing, and very common) we’ll now be getting some for FREE from an oil company ;-) This would mean that we have enough money left over to have 3 meals a day... each!
So now we’re off to try and find the others at this mythical wadi – see you soon, Love Ed
Day
4:
The wadi was pretty fantastic. It started off with an off-road drive (not because we were going anywhere remote, but because they just hadn’t finished the roads yet) that led to a construction site. Not what you would consider a great start, but Steve assured us that it would be worth it. What we could actually see was a number of builders, vehicles, pipes and piles of rubble at the mouth of an incredibly steep canyon. We wound our way through all the work and along a small track that quickly led out of sight of the road and up into the canyon. After about twenty minutes of climbing we found the others swimming in a pool of surprisingly warm turquoise water with the canyon walls stretching neck achingly high. There was a fair amount of squealing and giggling as everyone played in the water and there was quite an amusing time as the girls tried to change out of their bikinis whilst maintaining as much dignity as possible in front of our entourage of Omani onlookers – though seeing as many of the girls were just in their underwear, I’m not sure if they achieved this!
We headed
straight from there to our next campsite at a place called WhiteSands where the
expats apparently go to camp. It was so warm and comfy that very few of us
actually bothered with tents and we just slept on rollmats and mattresses on the
sand. We got our firelighting time down to about 20 minutes and were soon lying
in bed watching for shooting stars.
Before we all left the beach this morning, Steve told all of us our strict timetable. One to which we had to adhere. So we first thing we did was try and shoot some dynamic film for our records, which mainly involved me nearly getting the car stuck on a sandbank. Then we headed off back to the wadi (at least us kids did, whilst the adults went and did important things in the city). Steve had told us that just a little further on from where we were yesterday was a little surprise. So we headed back to the construction site, got a new entourage and headed up the canyon. At each twist and turn we figured that we must have reached this amazing site, but the path simply carried on. Eventually we couldn’t walk any further so we climbed into the river and carried on working our way upstream. Eventually we reached the end of the canyon, surrounded by nothing but rock. But we could hear something and by swimming right to the far end of the canyon we spotted a tiny hole in the wall – behind which was a faint amount of light. By squeezing through and swimming underwater we popped out into a small cave on the other side of the canyon, one with a waterfall running into it. If you’ve seen The Goonies then you’ve got an idea of what I’m talking about! Others had obviously been there before as a rope was attached next to the waterfall so that people could clamber up and out of the cave. I would love to say that I was the first to attempt this feat, scaling the heights, but those of you that know me wouldn’t believe it so I won’t bother lying. It was Rachel “The Mountain Goat” Colville who was straight up there, sliding off the side of the rock at the top and jumping (? Or at least falling) into the water 5 metres below.
One dead fish later and we were heading back down the canyon and on to Sur, town of the boatbuilders. We knew we had to be back in Muscat by 3 so it was more of a fleeting visit than an insight into the industry. In fact after getting lost a few times, discovering that no food shops are open at lunch and then heading back to the road to Muscat, we discovered that we had only an hour and a half to get back. Unfortunately this road was a little longer than we were expecting – all 350 km of it! We quickly had to get into the Omani spirit of overtaking whenever possible, or indeed just whenever someone was in front. My first attempt was perhaps a little disheartening as the oncoming car that I was trying to avoid turned out to be a police car. I think he was just flashing his lights at me in recognition of a manoeuvre well done.
So now we’re all back at our first campsite, with two more cars and awaiting the final members of the group. Tomorrow we have an 11 hour drive ahead of us as we attempt to get all the way to the southern city of Sallalah. See you then, Ed x
Day 5
So us undergrads arrived last night to a ‘camp site’ for a few hours kip before the mission south. Sleep under the stars sounded glamorous until the late night flights kept coming into Muscat airport till 3 in the morning. Those flies buzzing around our head turned out to be mosquiotos, lovely fun scratching those bites! Off to the only super market in the country, jokes but not far off. Having stocked up on snacks and supplies we hit the road in our team cars. Fraser.
Leaving Muscat behind, the 7-strong convoy of vehicles joined Route 31, which was to be our friend to take us down south for some 1064Km. The journey started off by passing through some breath-taking and dramatic rocky scenery. However so taken in by the beauty of it all the next motorway junction caused slight difficulties and managed to split the convoy in two; but after many distressed mobile phone calls we managed to all reunite on Route 31 once again.
So onwards, and downwards we continued, stopping at every Shell garage to fill up both tanks to the max (yes we have the luxury of a reserve tank just in case we get in a pickle). A lot of passenger car swapping occurring en route to spice up the drive and so that Michel always had some company in his Hummer. Unfortunately comparing notes afterwards we all seemed to have asked him the same questions, so after having talked about how roads in Oman are made, his 13 year old daughter Emily etc for the 10 th time he was probably a wee bit fed up of all the car shuffling that occurred!
Passing by one huge sand dune to the left of us we continued onto Shell garage # 3 which marked the place of the affectionate reunion of Shakey and Claire, not so embraced by the Omani company that were hooting and shouting ‘ ｧﾚｩﾊﾌﾑﾝﾝじづぴの ’, far too impolite to translate I’m sorry. Fired up with more coffee and flatbread we hit the road again. Next stop supper, which the organisational gurus Matt and Tabi (who were a few scores of Kms ahead of the rest of the pack) had managed to recce and book at a roadside joint. Good grub, especially as it managed to break the trend of an all veggie diet. Back on the road for 2hrs we suddenly veered left and stopped for the night. The temperature dropped and the winds picked up, but we all managed to pitch our tents (or in Adam’s case just take his pop-up tent out of its pouch) or find alternative spots in boats and cars and slept very snugly. One spectacular athletic moment from Ian must be noted, as his tent managed to take off into the air. Rachel x
Day 6
I’m afraid that you have to put up with me (Ed) typing again – it’s been a fairly eventful time since we last wrote anything down but I’m currently sitting in reception at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Sallalah, probably the most upmarket hotel I’ve ever been in, but also sporting the tackiest Christmas decorations I’ve ever seen!
After our night in the desert (and a few more hours of driving)we finally arrived in the region of Darfur where we were informed that we had been requested to meet the Regional Minister. Steve told us all to be on our best behaviour, which meant our least smelly clothes and trying to do the most limp handshake possible – anything remotely resembling a British handshake is considered far too aggressive. All 25 of us crowded into the slightly taken aback man’s office; in fact only about 11 of us could squeeze in before we had to move to their largest room. There was a brief chat with lots of polite nodding and 25 people repeating “thank you” whenever it seemed even slightly appropriate. It quickly became apparent that he was genuinely interested in our work and we had the ministerial stamp of approval – so it was time to get underway again.
There was a brief takeover of the local supermarket as a bedraggled crowd of white people swarmed through the aisles trying to find tomato ketchup, leg razors, chocolate bars and baby wipes. As we were waiting for everyone a few of the local gentlemen began complimenting the girls, insisting that they must be of French origin or, in Catriona’s red-headed case, of Arabian parentage! Ruth was tempted to discover how many camels she was worth, but decided her suitor might become a little too excited with her ending up as a hostage. However all the girls emerged unscathed and comparing compliments.
A short while later and the tarmac roads ran out again, meaning that we must soon be at our latest camp site. Eagle bay turned out to be a sheltered area just east of Sallalah, with a few local fishermen in the distance, lots of sand, rock and sea. Pretty much what you might expect really. After everyone had re-emerged from an obligatory dip in the water everyone began setting up a more permanent camp (there’s a possibility of staying here for 8 days) even going so far as to make a proper toilet, complete with toilet roll-holder and umbrellas for privacy, at least from the land – they’re not much good at hiding you from anyone out diving, snorkelling, swimming, washing or fishing!
We ended the day with a talk from Steve telling us why we were actually here – which was quite handy really as a few of us were a bit confused ;-) Sparkey then gave us a brief lecture explaining how not to die and then, feeling far safer, we all fell asleep in our new home. Ed x
Day 7
Hmmm so this is my first attempt at writing the blog and I’m stressing already that there’s no way it will be as witty as everyone else’s…. but here goes anyway!
We woke up bright and early, after being told last night (by Matt and Ed, diving officers extraordinaire) that the first wave of divers was to be in the water by 8:00am. Breakfast was, of course, the Project Nemo staple diet of flatbread, this time with honey. I did go through a stage of never wanting to see another flatbread again, but luckily that seems to have passed and they are tasty again!! There was then a flurry of activity with everyone generally running around pretending to be organised, carrying dive bags, tanks, weights etc until we were all in the right car or the right groups and we were ready to go!
Those who still had Sports Diver training to do remained at base camp and dived from the beach there – and I’ll let someone who was actually there write something about that! Anyway, the rest of us headed off to find a site called The Aquarium – apparently so called because of the shoals of beautiful fish that are found there. Well, to cut a long story short, after a fair bit of driving around on the surface of Mars (as the landscape around camp has come to be called, due to, well, it’s resemblance to the surface of Mars), we arrived at a small stony bay which was about 100m from camp and has taken about 10 minutes to drive to! This apparently wasn’t the Aquarium but we decided to dive here anyway while Tabi and Steve went searching for the real Aquarium!
Mike, Elizabeth, Emma and I headed out as the first wave of divers – we had a lovely dive, despite what everyone said there was more to see than seaweed (I’m sure it was a different type of seaweed to the stuff in Green Ends Gully anyway… therefore almost exciting!)! We spotted a few scorpion fish, blotched porcupine puffers, rabbit fish, trigger fish and even a trumpet fish (also known as a flute-mouth. Or a needle fish. Or a pipe fish. I think perhaps some work on fish identification may be required…) BUT no Nemos!!! The dive went well, except when it came to the exit when it turned out that all the rocks were covered in the sharpest shells known to man – we had it out with several lacerations each which helpfully contained lots of little fragments of shell!! The Savlon spray, my favourite possession on this whole trip, was out in force!
After the dive we headed back to camp, either in the cars, or as Mike and I did, by walking the 100m over the hill back to base! Before lunch there was an important task to be done – co-ordinated by Fraser, everyone searched their tents and bags for the missing car key!!! After that didn’t turn them up we switched to a fingertip search of the sand around the car, it was a very organised effort with everyone overlapping, and any “slaves” that complained being whipped by Fraser! But the keys remained determinedly lost, which was lending support to Harriet and Emma’s theory that we had a thieving crab on the loose in the camp!
After a tasty lunch prepared mostly by Fraser, it was time for the second diving waves to head out, this time to the real Aquarium! Sparky, Mike, Tabi and I took the lead as Tabi knew the way – after a couple of circles around the headland we successfully found the beach and parked up. This time with minimal faffing (highly technical term used by all those in the diving world) we got into the water and had a really good dive! Mike and I found loads of Nemos, a lionfish, a turtle (yay!), and the usual puffer fish, trigger fish, moray eels, groupers etc. The Aquarium lived up to its name with huge shoals of bream (and some other pretty things but I won’t even try and name them!). The diving is really good, there’s a fair bit of coral (apparently the coral increases up North) and the reefs are completely unspoilt as they are barely ever dived. The visibility is apparently perfect for compass practice – which translates to the vis is good!
After everyone was out of the water we headed back to camp and set about the usual evening activities – getting the fire going and helping Vicky with dinner, which was a tasty cauliflower, chickpea and tomato curry. Over dinner, there was a big round of congratulations to the new sports divers in the team – Catriona and JC!
We were all sitting around the fire, eating the lovely curry, when we heard shouts of “Shark!” from the sea. Pretty much everyone ran down to the sea to find Steve and Fraser knee-deep, dragging a fishing net behind them, with some very happy Omani fishermen! It turned out their nets had come loose and they didn’t want to go into the water at night because of the stingrays, they were really grateful for them being brought back and gave us pretty much all of their catch! They also had a huge catfish and a baby shark, which (being a conservation expedition!) Sparky, Steve and Fraser attempted to release. The shark turned out to be the more intelligent of the two and made it off the beach after about five attempts – unfortunately the catfish wasn’t so lucky and ended up being added to the rest of the catch!
After waving goodbye to the fishermen (Fraser had made such good friends he even got a hug!), we took the fish up to camp and Sparky did a sterling job of gutting them all – there was a bit of debate about whether a twitching fish was a live fish, but Vicky sorted that out by smacking them against the wheel arches of the nearest 4 x 4! The catfish proved to be a bit of a challenge to prepare - it might have been better if the knives where even slightly sharp, but in the end Sparky went for cutting it into steaks which seemed to work pretty well!
Whilst the fish where cooking, Steve gave us a brief demonstration of how we were going to catch the clownfish tomorrow, ably assisted by Sparky. Hopefully we all went to bed dreaming about Nemos and how to clip their fins….bring on tomorrow! Ruth x
Day 8
Right here goes. Catriona here. Sorry in advance about blog. Sun + my brain = interesting combination.
First day of attempting to catch Nemos! Went to the aquarium again (Vicks and Clare continued SD training on beach ) – The more experienced divers went off to get their personal tutorials from Steve whilst the less experienced (lowly) ones got to play! Saw tonnes of pretty fish – huge shoals, fish of every colour, amazing corals (well through my Scottish diver eyes!). Me and Aidain went up and down pointing at cool stuff, overusing the “WOW” sign; Aidain perhaps overusing the “You look like that” sign I taught him when in the presence of an particulary ugly fish (not good for either my ego nor preventing the mask filling due to laughing!). Went on a small mission to find a turtle but, alas, none to be found (got a bit excited by a round rock at one point – no I’m not obsessed, honestly!) Saw some of the much talked about Clown fish swimming around their anenome – much bigger than I thought they would be! Finished the dive via a massive colourful lobster!
Seems like the first attempts at fin clipping went really well – record to beat is 11! Went back for a tasty lunch and a rest in the shade before the afternoon dives.
My next dive was with Sparky – learning how to fin clip! Totally helped that as soon as we descended, we came across a little family. Everything went fine (obviously with a bit of inaccurate tweezer action on escaped free-floating miniscule piece of fin!). First attempt successful – sample number 13 (ie “Lucky”). Continued rest of mission and, despite spending a lot of time searching along barren sand, managed to get 5 clipping (lost 2 due to loose eppendorf lids but we wont talk about that :/).
Abrupt end to blog – but dinner ready – sure you understand!!! Cat J x
Day 9 & 10
It’s Ed here again and it has fallen to me to write about days 9 and 10. Now, we know that these days must have happened as we’ve reached day 11 – the problem is that no one seems to be able to remember them. So, purely for continuity’s sake, I’m going to fill in the blanks with a little story of what might have happened – in fact for all we know it may well happen (time in Oman is a little flexible and it is indeed possible to know of future events, at least possible ones – see the car crash of day 11!)…
It was a surprising morning for Sparky as he awoke to find he was not in camp. He was only a few hundred metres away, but they were a surprisingly wet number. The tide had come further in than usual and swept him away. Fortunately he wasn’t too worried as he could always rely on his new best friend Allan. Although not a founding member of Project NEMO, Allan has done his best to involve himself in everyone’s life since joining us at camp. Being something of a recluse he prefers to spend most of his time underground in a small, yet undoubtedly comfy crab hole. The reason that it’s quite so comfy is because he has the hint of a kleptomaniac about him. As a result he can usually be relied upon to have found whichever item you have recently lost. Unfortunately he also has a hideous appearance and an ignorance of the need for personal space. The result is that most people find him slightly disquieting and pretend to ignore him (in fact Steve still claims never to have met the poor lad!), however Sparky is one of those chirpy sorts (as the name might suggest) that can put up with anyone and so he took it upon himself to really get to know Allan. He started by rolling stray cricket balls down the entrance to Allan’s home and knocking interesting items off his mattress at night, hoping they might entice Allan to his corner of the camp. And, little by little, Allan started to become an increasingly frequent visitor to Sparky’s neck of the woods, going even so far as to stray into the torchlight when few others were around.
The night before this particular morning when Sparky found/will find himself at sea, they had shared a very intriguing conversation in which Allan had been describing all the treasures that he had been gathering in his home beneath the beach, including one very useful item – a small, yellow submarine. So when he awoke on his mattress, adrift on the open sea, Sparky did not panic. In a moment of early morning clarity, he took one of his shiniest hair pins (he has a fair few), tied a few of his longest armpit hairs together and concocted a small fishing line with the pin as bait. Dangling it over the edge of his mattress he settled down to wait. His luck was in, merely a few minutes later ripples in the water indicated the arrival of Allan. It must have been a particularly shiny hairpin to arouse him in daylight, or maybe it was the aroma of Sparky’s hair itself, but either way it did the trick. With Allan sheltering beneath the mattress (he was still shy, even with Sparky) and a few well-chosen words, Sparky was able to explain his predicament. Allan was only too glad to help and in a short while the submarine’s periscope popped up through the waves.
Sparky reached into his knapsack (he was far too seasoned a traveller to have a rucksack) and took out his book of NEMO operation procedures. It contained some useful information about how to deal with dehydration and long-periods of exposure to the sun. It also featured a rather handy appendix that included a full, if somewhat lengthy, description of submariner techniques. After a few adjustments he was soon pootling along in his yellow submarine.
He had just passed a particularly lovely anemone that was home to a few disgruntled clownfish (Hugo had been working there earlier) when he spotted Caroline diving for flatbreads. Now in most countries flatbreads are simply unleavened discs of bread, but in Oman they are quite, quite different and are actually found growing on the sea floor. When Caroline had first been seen diving, many local fishermen had thought she might be diving for the sacred abalone, but she had soon put them straight with the yogi postures rainbow-scattered-by-water, morning-sunlight and guinea-fowl-in-flight, a particularly hard series of moves. Caroline dived most days for the hungry NEMO crew, so Sparky was not particularly surprised to see her. However he realised that Caroline was not focused on her large basket of flatbreads, but upon Harriet who was also out for a morning swim. Harriet was flailing her arms, screaming loudly through her snorkel and pointing excitedly at something in the deep. To Sparky she almost seemed a little upset. Before he could ponder further, a couple of huge octopus arms snaked out and curled around both Harriet and Caroline – dragging them down into the deep. Sparky watched agog unsure what to do. The curling, pulsing mass that had captured his friends was something for which he was totally unprepared. So, he did what all sensible NEMOers would do and took out the standard emergency operating procedure guide (expanded version, part 2). After a moment of flicking through the pages he found the answer and checking the diagram against the submarine control panel, he pressed the CAT-ATAK button. All at once a shrill whistle sounded and somewhere on the beach above Catriona’s in-built security function whirred into life. This normally docile child sprang to her tent grabbing her weapon of choice, and with a shriek of rage, dived into the water in search of the alarm…
As Sparky watched the ensuing fight from inside his protected bubble, he realised that he had chosen well. The octopus may have had thick, strong arms curled around Caroline and Harriet (who have immense breath-holding capabilities) but Catriona had her ceramic straighteners and before long the octopus had given up, turned and fled from the red-haired berserker. Still screaming she chased it out of the water and onto the beach of Eagle bay, where the rest of the NEMO members were waiting anxiously. Adam, dressed only in his vest, reacted quickest of the group and was soon clubbing the octopus on a nearby rock, softening its powerful arms still further.
By the time Sparky had returned to the beach the wild celebrations at saving the girls had subsided and everyone had got round to the serious matter of cooking. A lovely smell of garlic and octopus wafted through the air and the NEMOers were sitting around salivating, waiting for Mother Caroline to dole out their helpings. Sparky and Allan (who was hiding beneath JC) joined them and the feasting began. Now it’s a not-well-known fact that Oman is host to a number of octopus species, the largest of which is Octopi Omanicuriosi, as this particular specimen happened to be. And the most curious aspect of this octopus, other than its weakness against hair straighteners, is that it is in fact an extremely intelligent animal and as a result generally finds its life in the Omani waters a little boring. Over evolutionary time, it has in fact managed to stop itself from ending its own dull existence by cultivating a variety of toxins in its bloodstream that it can mix from different glands at leisure. Essentially it lives its life in an ‘enlightened’ existence. The NEMOers were unaware of this fact and it was not until they woke on the 11 th day that they realised anything was amiss. And, as far as we can tell, that is quite probably where the two lost days went – or at least where they will have gone, if it is that we find that they do in fact go.
Back to reality, Ed ;-)
Day 11 Christmas Eve
5 th day of diving – We woke in the morning in the knowledge that that night we would be engaging in our first drinking sesh since leaving Blighty. Orders for the day were therefore necking as much water as possible whilst the slave master ‘Steve’ drove us to work our last day of diving before our rest day. The temptation for the lads to test their land cruisers to the max was too much for some. On the way to the dive sight there may or may not have been a slight bump between two of the cars (naming no names) which may or may not have left a rather large bash in the side of one of the vehicles blowing out the headlight of another. But it’s all good with no real harm done! Editors note: We think that there almost definitely will be a very-minor-and-not-to-be-concerned-about-particularly-if-you-are-a-parent-car-crash but we’re not sure when yet, it’s all a matter of timing)
The afternoon was spent for the most constructing our pseudochristmas tree for us to pile the secret santa presents underneath. At the afternoon dive site Fraser and Elizabeth got talking to some Abalone fishermen who were really friendly and gave us crisps and drinks. Elizabeth even managed to score a lobster tail off one of them (you can get far in Oman with a nice smile and Blond hair). Steve and company were in Heno bay at the same time. Whilst shore cover they watched a local fisherman pull sharks in off his lines and carry them to his car on his shoulders. Having dumped his catch on the roof of his car and having posed for photos with his massive Travelli they parted ways. Once our party drove off this fisherman drove off in front with us crawling behind him for half a mile. His catch was balanced precariously on his roof and was about to fall off untill Steve flashed him to stop. After explaining how to use his own rope and then actually tying the load onto the roof.
The evening started after a hearty meal cooked by Rachel and Dan. Duty free purchases were arranged onto the make shift bar and the party began. With the tunes pouring out of one of the land cruisers courtesy of Ruth’s iPod (the worst of cheese you could imagine) we danced through the night.
Day 12 Christmas Day
Despite the hangovers of the previous night and the incredibly small amount of sleep, everyone woke early on Christmas Day – this was due, at least in part, to Ruth and Vicky’s excitement at soon being able to open presents. Whilst not having the most usual of settings, there was a festive air as people were singing carols and gathered round Harriet’s home-made Christmas tree. We’d even re-written the words to 12 days of Christmas, giving the song a distinctly NEMO theme (the words will get added soon so you can all sing along at home). Beneath the tree was an enticing bundle of Secret Santa presents and we watched as each person opened theirs, starting with the youngest (wee Shakey) and going on to the oldest (I’ll let you try and guess). There were some fantastic presents including an extremely useful false moustache and nose set, plus an amazing looking rocket complete with parachutists (unfortunately it never left the ground, but the thought was there).
Sparky, Steve, Caroline and myself then headed off to find a wreck that Steve had dived whilst on a previous visit to Oman. He’d drawn a small treasure map at the time and was positive that he’d be able to find it again. We arrived at the bay and Sparky and Steve snorkelled out to drop a shot-line near its bow. Nearly an hour later Caroline and I began to wonder what had happened to them as they still hadn’t returned. Eventually they clambered out and Steve admitted that maybe he wasn’t looking in the right place after all, not even the right bay. Thankfully we could ring Youssef who managed to explain in impressive detail just how to find it. Sparky and I set off with the underwater video camera in tow and managed to capture what is possibly some of the finest footage since the Blue Planet. Having surveyed the wreck the plan was to let the other NEMOers dive it on the day after Boxing Day, just before moving camp.
We followed the dive with a group visit to the Baobab forest (a baobab tree looks rather like it’s upside down with the roots spreading into the sky)and the hills that one can roll up – it’s all to do with a large deposit of magnetic rock that pulls the cars towards it. Or it’s an optical illusion. Take your pick ;-)
The day was finished off with a proper feast at a local restaurant, complete with the large hookah pipes and various types of fowl, though possibly not turkey.However no one managed to stay awake for long and soon we all fell to sleep exhausted from the partying the night before – a proper Christmas day.
Day 13 Boxing Day
A day in the life of a NEMO worker (by Harriet and Emma). The sun rose and with it came the clanging of the morning wake up pot. Full and rested after a Christmas meal to match all Christmas meals and our Christmas campout under the Omani stars we ate our flat breads and banana and gathered up our diving kits back on the road after a festive break.
We headed to witches bay with Paul Simon coaxing us on, Dan the driver behind the wheel. We took the bends in our stride, pausing only to stroke the camels. We traversed down the shale into the bay as the sun sparkled on the waves. We had arrived and without further delay we donned our masks, fins and snorkels and headed out to see what lay within. A shout from Emma indicated that all our Christmas dreams had come true and it was the happiest day of Harriet’s life for creeping below with eagle eyes Emma had sighted a cephalopod of power, the one and only octopus and monster of the sea. We dived down to look eye to eye with this intelligent beast and after a while continued on to see what more treasures awaited in Aladins’s cave. What a day it was for on reaching the far depths of the cave a squid shot forwards leading us into the path of Mr Loggerhead the turtle, a shock for him and a treat for us, Ed in particular, his first turtle of the trip. On heading back out of the cave we turned and came face to face with a family of six cuttlefish, cephalopod city out here today. And this was just the beginning………….
The afternoon saw us heading to the aquarium, a site renowned for its abundant and diverse aquatic life. Not only this but a popular hang out for the local fishermen who were curious about our tanks and seemed to enjoy breathing the air so much that it was hard to get our equipment back. Fortunately they left enough air for us to carry out our survey of the clownfish habitat, a successful dive and a visit from another octopus, this time blue.
The third site meant some extreme off-roading but driver Dan did us proud, safely manouvering there and back again just in time for jacket potato supper.
So I find myself sat in a Toyota Land Cruiser looking out to sea with the sun on my face and everyone merrily fin clipping away in the warm blue waters that stretch out along the horizon. The only problem I have with the situation I am in is that Ed has just handed me the laptop to update the blog. Upon reading the blog I am now aware that the last entry was boxing day, day 13. It is now the January the 4th, which makes its day 22. Now unfortunately my memory is not as good as it was in my heyday so my recollection of the events of the last 9 days my be hazy, slightly vague, or at worst complete fabrications without a grain of truth in them. Sparky
Day 14
A sad day for everyone involved with the project. Today we said a temporary goodbye and farewell to Ed, who is returning home to get his washing done and attend his sisters wedding. Caroline and Sparky drove him to the bus stop and waved him off with tears in their eyes and also the prospect of getting a descent coffee as they were in town. See you in a few days Ed, hope the wedding goes well (obviously I am writing this after his return and on his laptop and in the third person but stick with it). As Ed made his way back to Muscat the rest of the monkeys were packing down camp, this was completed in a surprisingly short space of time and there was a fairly large incentive. A wreck dive beckoned. The cars were loaded and off they went in search of treasure, gold bullion and in the case of Shakey, a good propshaft. The dive itself went well; all divers returned. The next port of call (see what I did there? Used a nautical term) was LouLou, a small supermarket in Salalah. We quickly refuelled on junk before hitting the road. One more pit stop was required to balance the wheels on JC’s car (of course it had nothing to do with a 360 spin on oily tarmac) and then we were off.
Now I’m not sure how many of you will have travelled across the desert but let me tell you this, it’s can be pretty dull and tiring. Especially if you are towing a boat across unsurfaced roads with everyone else disappearing off into the horizon, not waiting for you and even worse if the only music you have for company is Ruth’s ipod. To cut a long story short we got horrifically lost in the middle of the desert and kept finding our path blocked by pesky oil pipes. Thankfully Hugo ‘Mr Garmin’ Harrison got us out and we eventually landed in a small town with a name I can’t remember. After another feed we pushed on through the night until we got to the coast. A scene reminiscent of Wacky Races (again showing my age) followed. We turned off the main road across the sand dunes to the sea looking for a suitable place to camp when out of the blue, well black of night, a couple of mini buses appeared and overtook us. Followed by a random selection of pimped up, past their use by date saloons. Luckily they seemed friendly enough and once we explained we were conducting an investigation into the population genetics of amphiprion omanensis they seemed content to leave us to our own devices. N.B. It is also at this point we realised a weld had gone on the trailer and a piece of metal had pierced the hull of the boat
Day 15
Having just managed to navigate ourselves through the dangers of the desert the previous night we did the only sensible thing and headed straight back.
The terrain was intense. We decided to ditch the boat in the desert as it was holding us (or more precisely me) back. We cunningly hid it behind some sand and continued figuring you couldn’t sail a boat out of the desert. It turned out that we made the right decision. At various points we descended down to the coast looking for suitable clownfish habitat. It was on one of these descents that Dangerous Dan Mango lost control. Unsighted by the clouds of dust kicked up by the first cars he took the wrong line through a hairpin bend. There was a loud bang, the car veered, shook and cartwheeled through the air (in reality he got a puncture). After spending around an hour working out how to get the spare wheel out we changed the tyre in record time and proceeded to the shore. No reef. Back up then, across a ridiculously steep and loose gravel track. As we reached the summit Tom proclaimed ‘I left me shoes on the beach’ and back down he went.
While we waited we homed in on the boat; it was still there, thankfully.
North to Duqm. Well if you want the truth I missed a turning and that’s where we ended up. To the joy of the group we found a shell garage, a fruit and veg shop, a puncture repair shop (Dan’s tyre, also spelt puncher!) and lo and behold a restaurant. After a very tasty and filling meal we drove on, well backwards, to our next beach camp at Ras Madrakah.
Day 16
Another morning, another glorious expanse of white sand, azure sea and blue sky. First up a highly skilled reconnaissance team was despatched along the beach to survey the headland. Off they raced across the sand, until Steve got his car stuck. No worries, we’ll push her out on our return from the reef. No such luck, on both counts. Plenty of fish but no coral or clownfish. So over an hour later once we had dug the axels out of the sand and could see light under the floorpan, and after the wheels had been chocked, we drove back to camp. Slightly deflated (along with our tyres) but not downhearted we moved out of Ras Madrakah and another team was sent to Ras Matazz (not 100% on the spelling). Same result. Before you start to become dejected there was some good news. We passed a metalworks on our journey North and for around £10 our trailer was welded back into action. So at least we could now tow our knackered boat without causing it further damage (more good news later…) A decision was made to continue North to the next major campsite, Bar al Hickmann. The roads were good, the scenery spectacular and I had managed to find some better music on Ruth’s ipod. The road took us to the town of Hijj, it was here we rested our tired engines and stopped for dinner. What a strange place! We stumbled upon a yamaha dealership and waited for it to open in hope of securing some fibreglass to repair our stricken vessel. Whilst waiting I was approached by man who after a brief chat pointed me in the direction of a mechanic who possessed a thumb that stuck out at a jaunty angle (I say mechanic he was wearing overalls and looked greasy). After inspecting our boat he told me to wait while he drove off, true to his word after 10 minutes he returned. This time with another man who again inspected the boat. My next instruction were to join them in their car and they would take me somewhere. At this point I jumped in much to JC’s surprise (he proceeded to cause a scene by insisting I was being kidnapped). We drove for approximately 300m before the engine was stopped and he told me he’d fix the boat for about £25 in an hour. Result. In the meantime we ate at another establishment found by our ‘food fixers’ Matt and Tabi.
An hour later and the fixed boat was back on the fixed trailer. Then Hamed arrived. Steve had previously spoken to Hamed the taxi driver earlier that day regarding the prospect of ferrying Ed back down from Muscat when he found us ready to embark on the last portion of the days driving. At this point most people would say hello and let us carry on our merry way, not Hamed. He invited us all (24 in total) back to his house for tea and coffee.
So we all ended up in his front room eating fruit, drinking ridiculously strong coffee as he tried to make us smoke some of his ridiculously strong tobacco. Eventually once the coffee had run out (by this time most of the drivers were running on a diet exclusively made up of caffeinated drinks) we ploughed on through the night to Bar al Hickmann West, our home for the next few days (getting there was fun as we crossed salt marshes and mud flats along the way). Everyone drifted off safe in the knowledge that at least there was definitely coral and clownfish nearby.
It is now getting late so I must retire as my memories are now becoming less clear and the battery is about to go. Sparky
Day 17
Ok maybe enough battery for one more day so I’ll make it fairly quick which shouldn’t be too hard as I can’t remember any exiting events or witty anecdotes from it. Most of the day was spent setting up camp and working the reef just in front of it. The boat finally saw the water and spent the day ferrying people to and from the reef. Unfortunately the wind and tides weren’t in our favour so most of the diving was done at a shallow depth with low visibilities. Highlight of the day for JC and I was the arrival of dolphins as we were marshalling divers from the boat. It’s a hard life eh?
Aside from that, nothing extraordinary. We got some fin clips (5), anemone clips and bethos surveys completed, good job. Just a few extra things. The cans of carbonated drinks all have old school ring pulls that pull right off and their capacity is 355ml. I reckon we get ripped off in the UK! Sparky
Day 18 New Years Eve
It’s cold. I boldly proclaimed at the start of the expedition that tents are for pansies and we won’t need them in a hot country. I’m not going to admit I was wrong but the seeds of doubt have been sown. I had to sleep with a jumper over my head last night, not very promising. The sharp downturn in temperature may have been caused by the increasing velocity of the winds buffeting camp. This lead to particularly poor visibilities in the locations adjacent to camp. Even the site by the palm tree was blown out! There was however one moment of magic when Ruth and Tom managed to find and clip a fish in visibility of less than a meter. As this was going on our part-timer Ed was winging his way back to Hijj in a taxi with our old friend Hamed. It turns out Hamed had been to prison before for speeding, so Ed closed his eyes tried not to look at the speedometer. Apparently there are so many speed cameras on the motorways that the only safe places to speed are through the urban areas. Ed was greeted in Hijj by a welcoming committee of Caroline, Elisabeth, Rachel and I (also 24 boxes of water and 50 flatbreads). Again we took up Hameds offer of coffee and fruit before making our way back to camp (this time managing to spin the car in the mudflat, but at least we didn’t get stuck!).
By the time we returned the preparations for the new years eve party were in full swing. A banner was erected emblazoned with the slogans ‘welcome back Ed’ and ‘Happy new year’. At this point there was a tear in Ed’s eye and lots of hugging, mainly due to the parcel of goodies Ed brought back with him. So onto the celebrations.
Day 19 - New Years Day by Ruth
So, the first day of 2007. And I woke up with a cracking hangover, nothing suprising there. Luckily (or unluckily??) I wasn?t the only sufferer, and the day began very gently with lots of lying around on the beach (hmmm, waking up in the UK on a cold, grey new year?s day morning or lying on a white sandy beach with turquoise blue water?.tricky one?). We even managed a traditional hungover brunch of last night?s, ever-so-slightly-sandy, veggie burgers! The highlight of the morning has to be a group of ten of us successfully completing the Guardian ?Quick? crossword in a total of forty minutes. Who says you have to be intelligent to do a science degree??
Once everyone was feeling vaguely human again, we began the task of packing up camp. Having a) been totally blown out and b) found no fish, it was time to head to Barr Al Hikman East and hope that we found more there! We packed up surprisingly slickly considering the general levels of hungoverness, finding more and more ingenious ways to pack our ever expanding kit into the cars (at one point I did find myself jumping on top of the rubbish bags in the boat in an effort to squeeze in that last box of empty water bottles!). Then we were on the road again, straight across Barr Al Hickman (which, in case no-one has explained, is basically a huge sand peninsula. All there is for miles is sand, unless you?re lucky and then you might get stuck in a salt marsh?.Saying that it?s a really amazing place, this is going to sound stupid but there?s something really cool about just being surrounded by just flat sand as far as the eye can see). And it very quickly got dark?.oh, and the only way to find things is by GPS.
The convoy went pretty smoothly, until we were literally 200m from camp. At which point, whilst following a fairly ambitious off-road route over soft sand and large mounds of grass, Sparky?s car got stuck. I have to point out that we were not only towing the boat, but also had a compressor and a whole load of personal kit in the back, and after a few attempts we swiftly reached the conclusion that we were never going to dig it out that night. So luckily it was just a short walk across the dunes to camp where the cooks had prepared a tasty tomato pasta (sorry, I am obsessed with food. I can?t help writing what we had for every meal) and then we headed to bed. Well actually I tell a lie, there were lots of important planning type things that happen at night too, like getting all the science kits together and sorting out the diving, ooo, and I wrote up a very exciting white board with all the plans for the morning (including, most importantly, what was for breakfast!).
Ruth x
Day 20 - 2nd Jan by Ruth
Had a bright and early start (6am??) and Tabi had the ingenious idea of playing The White Stripes at full volume to get everyone out of bed in time! Tabi, Rachel, Vicky and Clare were getting our permanent camp ready, whilst Ed and Matt headed out on the boat to reccy for sites, and the rest of us headed over to the sites on the West (where Tom and I had made our miracle fish catch a couple of days before).
To cut a long story short, we made it to the West site, only to
discover about two foot of surf and worse conditions than last time.
With Mike still nursing a slightly mangled knee from the last time, and the rest of us not to keen to get in the water, we decided to give it a miss and head back to camp. When we got back, the camp team had set everything up and all that remained was to erect the shelter, a task which proved surprisingly tricky due to the fact we appeared to be several poles short?eventually it was constructed with a lot of dodgy looking guy ropes that were found on the beach and tied to a few shrubs and old tyres. Perfect. In fact Ian even found a use for another old tyre as a toilet seat, almost luxurious!
The next task was to make some bread, with Cat and me learning the ropes from the breadmaster of the trip, Sparky. It?s amazing how well bread works out in an oven dug in the sand and with the bare minimum of ingredients ? I have to say I think Cat?s sultana and cinammon loaf was definitely the best!
After lunch, and the return of Ed and Matt the seafarers, we decided to head round to another site about 20 minutes drive/boat ride from camp. Sparky and Matt took the boat round, whilst the rest of us jumped in the cars. And so we arrived at ?Whale Tail Bay?, so named
for the fact that there was literally a whale?s tail on the beach.
Trust me, whale vertebrae are quite large! I was in the first wave with my trusty buddy Aidan, and as we headed out the boat did seem to be shipping quite a lot of water and generally cruising pretty slowly.
But we were in safe hands with our two skippers and we didn?t worry too much when the engine cut out. Several times. And seemed rather unwilling to start again. No worries!
Again we seemed to be just off the habitat of the clownfish and didn?t find any, although Aidan and I did see a couple of turtles and a huge ray which was really cool. We got picked up by the boat and headed back to shore ? again the engine seemed a little temperamental ? but nothing to worry about?. Whilst waiting for the second wave of divers to return we got a call on the radio from the boat ? it seemed the engine had finally given up the ghost, leaving them about 500m offshore. Like the slick shore-cover team we were, we scampered to find them, only to arrive and find the six of them swimming the boat back to shore and we didn?t have any booties to go and help them! Tom was already in the water helping, and as I wandered on the rocks alongside shouting encouragement (or something like that anyway!) I managed to fall in too, excellent work!
We finally got the boat back to the sandy beach and with a mammoth effort from the guys (and a few of us girls, to be honest probably getting in the way more than anything but at least we felt useful!), we managed to haul both the boat and the engine up the beach. Then it was back to camp, with some good games of ?Car Tropicana? (an expedition favourite, basically involving turning up the heaters in the cars as high as possible and waiting for someone to crack) to warm
everyone up! Suprisingly enough for me, I have no idea what was for
tea, but I?m sure it was tasty! Most of us then headed to bed, while the hardcore few went to retrieve the boat, it?s now back in camp and almost working?.
Ruth x
Day 21 - 3rd Jan by Vicky
Well this is my first attempt at writing the blog, furthermore only my 2nd time at using an apple mac so beware!! Woke up finally to a rather warm morning, you might think well yes you are in Oman but trust me its been really rather cold at night and super windy! Had delicious bread and jam for brekkie, as always much of my trip revolves around the gastronomic experience- I?m becoming amazed at the different combinations that can be created using similar ingredients and spices and open fires but different peoples? ideas of food, anyway I digress!
Boys started to play a game of football to heat them up with us girls shouting out rather useful, or useless comments, or just getting our dive gear ready!
Finally got Tom away from the game, he was our driver and my Buddy, hence vaguely important for the day! Set out to go to Bar Al Hickman West going apparently a rather more amusing route than normal but there really are no landmarks around here other than sea, beach, desert and salt marsh! Finally got to the site, after going the wrong way round a lagoon- even these amazing Land Cruisers can?t get through them which really is rather shocking! First major hint that there might be a problem at new site was slight inability to open car door owing to rather brisk gale?.hmm so that was diving called off!! So not long there when Steve called to ask how it was going, it wasn?t, so the decision was made to come back to camp while the others packed up to move to Masirah.
So you might be fooled in thinking that going back the same path was easy enough, but oh no, that wasn?t quite the case! In trusting the old GPS we somehow ended up on a salt marsh, not too bad until either you slow down or you have lots of tanks in the back or worse yet a combination! Ed managed to get stuck so as Elisabeth headed for the high ground, Tom decided to drive back over?then we got stuck hmm!!!!
Managed to push both cars out then back on our way?.to another salt marsh, seriously they were just appearing from nowhere! Ed managed to get stuck again and this time we sensibly decided to take the tanks out and transfer kit to Tom?s car. Lots of pushing and shoving ensued, think that us girls really did rather well at helping even though several of us got covered in a lovely sandy, mud mixture- surely must be a new beauty regime we have been waiting for??!! Elisabeth then tried to get car out still to no avail so we tried the luck of the Irish, which worked thankfully so we were back on our way!!
Encountered a sandstorm on way back to camp only to be greeted at camp by a rather impressive sandstorm requiring the good old sunglasses out to prevent those pesky grains of sand from getting in our eyes! The first two cars were all packed so they headed off towards Shana from where the ferry sets sail leaving us to pack up tents, personal kit and the rest of cars with the best directions of going over the salt marsh (which one?), turning at the clock tower (turned out to be a mobile relay thingy) and turn right onto tarmac road (oh yes tarmac- cue major excitement!!!)
Whilst we tried to sort ourselves out, Ruth?s tent was trying to self pack or at least collapse choosing the moment we got there to transform into a kite! Both of us launched ourselves in to prevent its escape and get our sleeping bags out to then realise it was a near impossible task so Ruth got out to properly attempt to dismantle it while I used my weight to keep it down!! Meanwhile Ian had developed a very nice approach to sandstorms and a new use for dive masks- wearing one whilst in the storm really did seem to work a treat at stopping that delightful sand getting in our delicate eyes!
Packed up and hit the road managing to get to the tarmac road with much rejoicing considering salt marshes that we didn?t get stuck in and that some of the cars were already using reserve tanks! Cue call from Steve, ferry leaves in 15mins and we are 13 clicks away and to call when we make right turn for Shanna?..made it with some fab driving to see Steve chatting with ferry crew to let the other three cars on! All aboard and off we go to Masirah managing to munch lunch of last nights leftovers!
First impression of Masirah was really that it was much larger than we had expected and rather really built up in comparison to the other parts of Oman that we have been driving through although there has been a whole of desert! Luckily on getting off boat there was two of our most favourite places- a Shell garage for the all important fuel and a cold store for the yummy delights of fizz, chocolate and ice-cream with several of us stuffing bags full to be charged 500 baisa, that?s about 70p!!! Having started to go on an eating rampage we were glad to be back in the car for the search for the next campsite although the sugar high is always amusing, apart from Sparky and Adam our car buddies! Managed to go to site on GPS but looked rather windswept so decided to set off for a more suitable spot!
Found a lovely spot but wondered about the whole spring tide, full moon thing but luckily there was a shelter on top of the hill with two Omanis in it so stopped to have a chat! Had a fab talk with them- Mother and son, son chatting lots and mother chattering away in Arabic and waiting for a response but unfortunately I struggle with English enough let alone trying Arabic! Basically offered shelter to stay in but once we said there was 24 of us aah was the response! Set up camp at bottom of this hill and some members of their family who were out on a Dow brought us firewood! Ruth, Cat and Rachel made amazing dinner of pasta with a lovely tomato sauce followed by the hardcore peeps setting out to sort out the dive teams for the morning and us knackered peeps that haven?t been driving or doing anything really important headed to bed?hmmm!!!
Vicky xx