Matt: It was only a few weeks ago that I was out on a Joe's boat in Abu Dhabi, flitting around the islands and bar-b-queuing on the beach, but I was feeling it was still a little too hot to sleep outside after crashing on the deck for the night and melting for 5 hours. But this weekend saw the second sleep in the great outdoors, the season is starting and I'm stoked.
I met a guys, Mike, at the climbing wall a few months back, the type of guy you wanna hate but just can't, ya know, handsome, young, well travelled, speaks Arabic fluently, even though he's not from an Arabic background, fit, outdoor type that is into climbing... but nice with it. He said I should join him sometime on a climbing trip that a bunch of them often do. So the Eid break was fast approaching and I decided to see what his plans were, Perfect... Musandam, climbing, snorkeling and camping. So I stuck my hand up like and excited school kid, found a willing victim (Nice one Jenny) packed the car and headed off.
The Musadam pennisular is situated at the tip of Arabia, it's a governate of the Sultanate of Oman, separated from the main body of Oman by a strip of the UAE. Musandam is regarded as one of the most picturesque areas of the region, with it's rugged mountains raising to 1800 metres from the tranquil aquamarine seas and sporadically placed white sand beaches.
After crossing the boarder, Jenny and I enjoyed the pleasant coastal drive from Sha'm to Khassab, the road runs between the sea and steep cliffs for about 45 minutes. It's really scenic and quite stunning. From Khassab port we grabbed a local with a boat and asked him to take us 10 minutes up the coast to what is now fondly known as 'Climbing beach'. We seemed to have enough gear to be there for a week, thought we may overload the boat.
We were welcomed to the beach by a few of the team that we were joining, Mike had been delayed and was coming a day later. It was great to meet a bunch of new people, there was a good mix there. In the experienced hands of John Gregory and veteran climber I was soon forced into attempting a few of the climbing routes on the sheer face that jutted out of the sand at the back of the narrow stretch of beach. It was really good to attempt these climbs out in nature rather than on an artificial climbing wall. It still scares the hell out of me, but when you're 20 metres up a rock face hanging on by your own means, surrounded below by the amazing blue ocean, the impressive vista of the fjords of Musadam and have the warmth of the Arabian sun upon you, it sure makes you feel alive and it does a great job of reminding me why I live here.
We swam, snorkeled, played baseball, fished (15 of us around one rod) and then sat around the blazing fire, chatting, cooking, eating, singing and drinking. It was just cool enough to sleep but still a little too hot to venture inside a tent. But all is all a great weekend.
I met some like minded people that I plan to have many more adventures with, climbing and hiking in the region. I can't wait!
More pics click here
