Hello everyone! It has been an eventful couple of weeks in Oman and we have been very busy with clients. I will start from the top and describe what living in the middle east has been like for me so far!
Dibba is a small fishing town on the east coast of the Arabian peninsula. It is technically part of Oman but we are constantly crossing the border into the UAE to go to the grocery store, get cash out, meet clients, etc. The region of Oman where we are located is called the Musandam and it is completely detached from mainland Oman to the south. Dibba is conveniently located right in between the mountains of the Hajar range and the gulf of Oman. It is an ideal location for an adventure outfitter!
As part of our opperation we have a number of buildings in the area and a camp for large groups. Our house is bright yellow and is two blocks from the beach. There is also a small mountain and a date plantation right across the street. Ours is one of the two guide houses, each of which are quite large and just steps from the shore. There is also an adventure center located between the two guide houses. This is a traditional style Arabian house which can be rented out by clients and acts as the base camp for all of our private client trips. All of the houses have a surrounding wall in the traditional style of the area. This makes for great useable outdoor space and provides privacy. The last house of ours is our boss Paul's, which is beach front. This acts as the guide hangout as Paul lives in Dubai most of the time. This is where we can access the Internet, watch tv, or play pool. Our camp is located within the date plantation and is where we host large school groups. The date palms provide pleasant shade and attract many exotic birds like parakeets. The camp has tents with bunk beds for up to 100 people, an outdoor kitchen where meals are catered, and two majulaces which are basically living room tents with cushions on the floor. All of this makes for a great client experience!
My first day here I became oriented with the area. We started by crossing the border to go to the local grocery store called Lulu. This is basically the middle eastern version of Walmart and you can buy anything from produce to flat screen tv's. After purchasing some food for meals we returned to the house to stock the fridge. We then wasted no time and went climbing in the nearby canyon. We stuck to bouldering for the day but I was blown away by the plethora of huge limestone walls. I felt like a kid in a candy store. There is more untouched rock here than I have ever seen! The boulder field where we climbed had many great problems, but I could not wait to rope up and climb some walls. More to come on that note...
Canyons here, and all drainages for that matter, are called wadis. From now on when I refer to a wadi, I am talking about a canyon of some sort. There is a huge wadi just a few miles from our house and this is where we guide all of our climbing trips. We also lead many treks and mountain biking trips from this wadi. There is a road that goes all the way through and leads to the northern reaches of the Musandam. The road is actually a dry river bed as it hardly ever rains here. Flash floods are extremely destructive and the wadi is not where you want to be when it rains here. The narrow sections of the wadi host the best rock quality for climbing and are just wide enough for one car to fit through. It is an amazing experience to drive through what would be a very narrow section of mountain river. There is a dam just above our town which protects from flooding when the wadi flashes up. The dam becomes a main attraction for locals during rain storms to wach the water come in. Flash floods have been known to move house sized boulders.
My second day here I got up early at 7am. I decided to get some exercise and trek to the top of the mountain across the street. I should mention that the mountains are called jebels here. The tallest mountain around is called jebel quiwi and it is a very popular summit trip among clients. At any rate, I made it to the summit of our small front yard jebel in about 45 minutes. Litterally at the summit I got to see my first scorpion. It was clearish yellow and about 3 inches long. I discovered it under the rock I picked up to put on the summit pile. The top has great views of the sea to the east and the mountains to the west. Not a bad way to start the second day. We spent the rest of the day on the beach and preparing bikes for the school group arriving the next day.
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Tuesday was my first day of work and we welcomed a school group of 65 students. This was an international school from Dubai and the children were 11 to 13. The students were from many countries all over the world including New Zealand, South Africa, Iran, Syria, Germany, Canada, the UK, and Oman just to name a few. We took the kids sea kayaking, rock climbing, trekking, and mountain biking over the course of 3 days. When they left on the last day the staff stored all of the group gear and went climbing in the wadi. This was my first time climbing with a rope on personal time and it was awesome! We sampled some of the steep limestone routes that have been established in narrows of the wadi. We climbed three routes before dark. Two 5.9's and one 5.11all very good quality, steep and juggy.
The next day I guided a smaller group of college students from Abu Dhabi. We went on a trek through a canyon called Wadi Warayah. This is an amazing place which has some of the only constant running water in the region. The trek begins in a gravely section of canyon with steep walls and then narrows out at the first pool of water. At this point the wadi turns into a slot canyon a you have to wade through certain sections.
It is an extremely beautiful hike which is hard to put into words. It reminded me of pictures I have seen of the slot canyons in Zion and Moab. We wandered through the maze of twists and turns to find waterfalls and deep pools with tall and solid canyon walls. We breaked for lunch at the turn around point where there is a swimming hole and a jump rock. The hike out was smooth and everyone had a great time. This wadi is known for its large viper population, but we did not see any that day. It is a bit cold for them this time of year. Wadi Warayah is also one of the most recent places where an Arabian leopard has been spotted (no pun intended). They are nearly extinct and there is a motion sensor camera high up in the wadi for them. Truly a majestic place, I can't wait to go back.
In the past week I ran a shuttle to the top of our wadi for a downhill mountain biking trip and then stopped by the Six Senses resort in Zighy Bay to drop off a vehicle with some fellow staff. We have recently taken over their life department and now run all of their adventure programs. One of the coolest offerings is night kayaking because of the bioluminescent plankton. They glow bright green at night and are a sight to see in our clear bottom kayaks. Anyways, I dropped one of our Tahoes off there and got a ride bag to Dibba. We have 2 Chevy Tahoes, one Silverado, a 15 passenger van, and a Hummer h2. We have access to the vehicles on our days off and they are great for playing in the Wadis. There are no paved roads and some are 4x4 only. 4wd is a must to get our clients around.
I guess I forgot to mention that there are goats absolutely everywhere here. You even see them up in the Acacia trees eating the leaves. While they sometimes eat natural foods like this, they more commonly eat shoes, aluminum foil, plastic cups, and anything else for that matter. They are all owned and return home at the end of the day. They are often in the roadways but it's a big deal if you hit one and you will most likely have to pay for it if you do. They are also excellent climbers and you will find them in unexpected places while rock climbing at times.
I went on a hike along the coast the other day and ended up hiking all the way to Zighy Bay from Dibba. The coast line is very rocky for the most part and has great deep water soloing in places. There are also thousands of crabs which live on the wet rocks. I have dubbed these areas crabitats. Between the steep rocky sections are secluded bays with sandy white beaches. Great kayaking destinations and snorkeling spots. Just as I came over a ridge to one of the bays I saw two sting rays flying side by side through the coral from high up on the cliff. They soon dissapeared into the deeper water. I will never forget that.
Made it over the last ridge and through a village ruin into Zighy Bay in just under 4 hours. There are village ruins here that date back 8000 years to the stone age. The fishing tribes of that time made homes out of pure rock and their foundations still stand today. The one near Zighy is one of the older ones. When I arrived to the resort I was delighted to hear that they needed one of the vehicles back in Dibba and I had gotten there just in time to deliver it. I'll save the 4 hour trek back for another day.
We have had another international school for the last three days and they have left as of this afternoon. They were ages 12 to 14 and were also from all over the world. We have the next couple of days off and we may go into Dubai to experience some artificial winter at Ski Dubai. I'll let you know what happens.
All for now...
