Musandam

Narayanan's 30th a few weeks ago warranted another birthday trip to Oman - this time to Musandam, the most northerly point of the Arabian peninsula.  We set off from Dubai at 6am for a 3 hour drive to Khasab, and despite having a bit of trouble with getting the car legitimately over the border, we just about made it to the port for the 9am departure.  Our dhow was to spend the day leisurely sailing around the peninsula, amongst the amazing fjord scenery formed by movement of the earth's crust over thousands of years.  This bit of Oman is totally separated from the main part of the country, but is strategically important because of it's key location in the Strait of Hormuz.

We stopped off at Telegraph Island for a spot of snorkelling and a look at the impressively colourful fish that occupy the water.  The island was named after the British telegraph repeater station that was established in the 19th Century to boost telegraphic messages between London and Karachi, and has long since been abandoned.

We spotted some remote settlements on the water front in some of the inlets, each home to no more than 100 people or so.  Despite being extremely remote and accessible only by boat, the settlements have electricity that has somehow been installed via pylons across the mountains.

There are plenty of dolphins in the area and we had them chasing the dhow a few times during the trip - once they came close to the boat, the captain (not sure he exactly warranted that title but I'm not sure what else to call him) put his foot down and the doplhins ('pod' I believe is the correct term...) would follow us for about 5 or 10 minutes.  Pretty amazing, especially as they appear to do so little to propel themselves along.

All in all a great day chilling out on a boat in the sun, in a totally different though no less remote environment to the desert.