When we sailed into
Muscat’s attractive harbour, with the Sultan’s huge yacht (the size of a small
cruise ship) manoeuvring next to us, it seemed like a great day to go for a
boat ride – clear skies, warm breezes and what looked like smooth seas.
I should have guessed
that trouble lay ahead when they offered us seasickness pills before we got on
the boat. We all laughed – don’t they know we’ve been on a ship for the last 3
and a half months, the odd little wave won’t trouble us!
Wrong. We then
embarked on an incredibly bumpy ride on a small speedboat through what were
probably 2-metre high waves, getting smashed around like we were on an
out-of-control rollercoaster, while getting regular soakings from the waves.
The purpose of our boat ride was to try to see some dolphins, but the dolphins
had clearly been better briefed on the sea conditions than we’d been, so they
stayed below the surface.
After an hour of
fruitless dolphin hunting, I finally persuaded the boat driver to end the
torture and take us to the coast for some snorkelling. Fortunately, we found a
sheltered cove and dived in. The water was “refreshing” but not too cold to
stop us having about an hour’s snorkel over the coral. I don’t know if it was
the sea conditions that day or if it’s always like that, but there was a lot of
sediment in the water so visibility wasn’t the best, however there was
plentiful sealife down there – a couple of people even spotted a turtle emerging
out of the murk.
Then it was time to
get on the rollercoaster again, as we bounced our way past the spectacularly
stark coastline, passing plenty of luxury hotels along the way.
At the end of our
trip, I was feeling a little queasy, but I’d arranged to meet up for lunch with
some friends in town. We ate at a nice Omani restaurant called Bait Al Lubain,
which isn’t too far from the port gates (opposite the fish market), however the
morning’s stomach-churning activities had meant that my appetite had left me
somewhat. We had expected (I’m not sure why) that the food would be similar to
Lebanese food, but there wasn’t a hummus, falafel or moutabal in sight, and the
food seemed to have more of an influence from India than the Levant.
Nevertheless, the food was tasty and the company was good.
Today was a reminder
that sometimes, when you take to the water, it’s better to do it on a large
luxury cruise ship with stabilisers than on a small, bumpy speedboat.
Posts
