December

For Eid Al Adha, nine of us took the opportunity to dive the wreck of the Wokan, an 80m vessel that went down 40 or so years ago not far from Sur in Oman. We all met up at the Omani border on Friday at 7.30am and formalities eventually sorted we set off towards Sohar, Muscat and eventally Sur – the most easterly town in the Arab world. It was supposed to be a convoy but divers are nothing if not individualists and the cars soon scattered. All the same, having picked up an inflatable boat and a compressor in Barka, we all arrived at the Sur Beach Hotel at about 4.30pm. Thanks to our local contacts, Han and Nick we were able to eat and drink at the nearby LNG club.

In the morning Han led us to the beach near the wreck where we put the boat together before heading out for some diving. And very good it was too. The viz wasn’t great in the morning but we still managed to see some enormous cuttle fishes (1m +) making baby cuttle fishes. They didn’t seem bothered by spectators. The viz improved in the afternoon and we got to see some sting rays, eagle rays, huge moray eels, various shoals and some very knackered looking cuttle fish. Diving over, rather than deflate the boat we roped it to Meryl’s car roof and set off to the Turtle Beach Resort for a sundowner.

Sunday morning unfortunately dawned bright but very windy and the sea state was too rough for diving. Instead we did a tour of the area before heading back to the hotel for a few beverages and some nibbles in Mike R’s room (being Eid the bar was shut).

Monday was home time via the Sur Plaza Hotel for a decent breakfast and a bit of archeological sightseeing along the coast road. Back to the club about 6.00pm. Was it worth it? – Absolutely.