Full Moon over Strait of Hormuz

Greetings from a gorgeous corner of the world. A driver picked us up at 6:00 am at West Zone in Dubai.  He drove fast and aggressively.  We were the only ones in the van for the first part of the ride...from Dubai to Ras al Khaimah.  We did go through all of the Emirates I mentioned in yesterday's post.  In Ras al Khaimah we were introduced to four classy hotels where we picked up other couples on the tour to Oman.  Hotels like the Waldorf  Astoria, the Cove Rotana, the Hilton - all located on the beach of the Arabian Gulf.  As far as I could tell each couple was from a different country...Netherlands, Germany, England and others I didn't recognize.

 

The moon was setting as we started out...

We spent at least an hour getting through passport control to get out of Dubai and into Oman.  From there we were on a narrow twisting winding road to the docks for a dhow cruise through a beautiful section of the Strait of Hormuz.  We were on the boat from about 10:30 until about 4:30.  It was a very nice warm sunny day, probably in the high 70s.

 

Making our way to Khasab Oman...

 

A view from where we were sitting on the boat...colorful and comfortable!

 

A similar dhow along side our dhow...

 

The mountains surrounding us -magnificent!  And we had a fun time with a pod of dolphins!

 

 

After we watched the larger group for some time, two of them followed the dhow as we sped away, keeping up with us for quite a while.  Really fun to see then in the wild and so playful.

 

Getting ready to snorkel...weather was ideal, tho the jump in was actually a bit startling!

 

A fun German-English couple offered to take some pics...and did a great job.   I think the last time we snorked was years ago in Hawaii.

 

The first spot we only saw three kinds of fish - angel fish, zebra fish and a white/gray fish with 2 black spots.  There wasn't much interesting on the bottom either.  The second time we stopped was much more interesting and beautiful with lots more kinds of fish with coral and sea urchins on the bottom. 

 

 

 

Both times it felt really cold when we got out.  The staff on the dhow provided great large towels for us so I wrapped myself in the towel but  shivered for about 15 minutes until I got dry and warmed by the sun.  Still glad we were able to snorkel tho! 

 

A buffet lunch on the dhow was tasty.  Through the morning they served us fruit, offered sodas or water, and we must have had tea 4 times.  It was sweet and had great flavor - he said it was saffron that made it so good.  Very comforting after snorkeling.

 

 

 

The crew enjoying a quiet moment....they served us well.  The gentleman in white had a very funny sense of humor.  We enjoyed him.  The other guy was fairly new and not real confident yet about how things worked.

 

 

This was Telegraph Island.  In 1864 this island was the hub for a telegraph system that connected India and England for the first time.  It also connected several mid-eastern countries.  Interesting bit of history.

 

 

 

Andy with his feet over the side relaxing and enjoying the view which kept changing.  All in all it was a delightful afternoon!

 

 

 

So reminded us of the years we enjoyed the White Iris on Lake Michigan.

 

 

 

We were one of the last dhows back to the dock..

They tie the boats up next to one another so we walked across 9 dhows to get to the dock!  It's a bustling business for 9 months of the year.  June, July, and August, we were told, it's just too hot to be enjoyable.

The Arabian gulf is on one side of the Strait and the Oman Sea is on the other.  Iran is just across the strait.

Google it and look at a map to get the feel of where we were.