First Omani Post...

As-Salam Alaikum!

After weeks and weeks of planning and preparing, I am finally in Oman. Not going lie, as I was getting on the plane this thought flew through my head, “Well you’re on the plane so there’s no going back now…” Kind of freaked me out a bit, but I am so glad I got on that plane! This is such an incredible and unique place, surrounded by desert, mountains, ocean, amazing culture and history.

Dibba is unique in the sense that it is in the Sultanate of Oman, but separated from the rest of the country. It is totally surrounded by the United Arab Emirates. Therefore, the border is pretty relaxed. You just drive through and show them your passport. So we do most of our grocery shopping, etc. in the UAE, but we live in Oman. I'm on the northern tip of Oman on the Musandam Peninsula...

On one side we have ocean and the other side is mountains. Between the mountains are wadis, which are dry riverbeds. So when we drive into the wadis, we’re surrounded on both sides by mountains (some of them are up to over 2000 meters) and cliffs. Basically the mountains are broken up by huge systems of valleys. It’s a pretty incredible drive in the wadis.

That is where most of the climbing and trekking is. Whenever we drive through there we’re just drooling over all the climbing! Also in the wadis are lots of ruins from indigenous and ancient villages. 

We have been doing lots of treks in the various wadis surrounding Dibba. There are still many small villages at the tops of the mountains where Omanis keep their goats. Many of the Omanis live down in Dibba and pay a Pakistani or Bangladeshi caretaker to live up in the mountain and tend to their goatherds. Yesterday, we did a trek to the top and came upon an ancient village with ruins and old graveyards. The headstones had ancient drawings and writings on them.

A Pakistani caretaker was living up there and he invited us in for some tea. It was pretty amazing to get a glimpse of such a different lifestyle and enjoy some local flavor.

So where we live is a very small and conservative village/area. It’s basically a desert with random houses everywhere and then the fishing harbor, small grocery store and restaurant down by the water. Further down the road and towards inland Dibba are more stores/businesses. But basically it’s tons of desert and goats. We live in a traditional Arab/Omani house. I share a bedroom with another female guide. It’s a pretty badass house and if already feels like home…

It’s been very hot and we have been spending a lot of time hiking, biking and kayaking around to get familiar with many trips that we offer clients and school groups. We have a great group of staff and have been having fun bumming around, being outside and getting to know each other. We’ve been pretty busy and the Internet is spotty, so keeping in touch can be hard. But enjoy my first Omani post and look forward to the many to come… Ma-shallah!