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In Oman, there is a set of islands not far off Barka called the Damanyites. They were hard to get to when we lived there because the islands were protected as a nature preserve by the Omani coast guard. Only people who owned boats could go there, and they were forbidden to beach, but one time, Bobbi and I and Dusty got a fisherman to take us out from Barka (c.1994). We took scuba tanks of course and did some excellent diving. While looking for a place for our second dive, a whale shark came up right underneath our boat. Dusty and I jumped in the water with snorkels and watched him swim away. At the same time moment, we saw a couple of reef sharks below, so we decided that that spot would do for our second dive. Bobbi and I got back in the water with our gear on at about the time the whale shark decided to cruise back for another pass, so we got to see him from a diving perspective as well, but the reef sharks had buggered off, as they tend to do in Oman when divers enter the water.
You can sit on the rocks in some places in Oman and watch the sharks move just out of sight of the divers in the water. We used to see a lot of sharks snorkeling, but rarely ever diving, though Bobbi and I saw one cruise by off the wall that extends into the sea out from Tiwi's sandy beach. The shark was taken aback by our presence and moved quickly to exit the area. That "sea wall" was a good place to observe underwater wildlife in Oman. I saw a manta ray there once in deeper water off the point, along with the usual rays and moray eels.
Now, in 1998, there is a beach resort on Sawadi Beach just north of Barka and only half an hour by boat from the Damanyites. The diving from this resort is superb. Here is an excerpt from my e-logbook, April 10, 1998
Damanyites, Oman, Dives 23/24 for the yeardive entity: Blu Zone buddies: Afrikaans dive pro joined me first, and I dived with Jim 2nd dive depth/time: 22 meters first dive, 45 min; down to 4/5 meters the second, 50 min vis: quite good, Edmund said 15 meters yesterday, about same and less in planktony spots today. |
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place: Fab Rock/Island (exposed rock), for the first dive, second at the southernmost Damanyite, from n. tip to next island over, the one off which Bobbi and I saw a few sharks (snorkeling) and a whale shark, on the other side of the same island a couple years back
Our first dive was absolutely superb, best in years, and best available this side of Borneo and south of Hormuz. Here's the synopsis: we angle down to 20 m. over a picturesque reef leading to a wall at the base of which is a sandy patch. We swim along this with maximum vis for the day, spotting a barracuda or 3 oceanside, some other big commercial fish, and a honeycomb moray where the wall meets the sand, which we go over to investigate.
Then along comes a leopard shark swimming happily just off the wall in open water. He comes quite near and I swim
