25 September 2025, Schiphol

After quite a strange day, my trip to Oman will finally start. In the early mornings I brought Colin to the train station for his trip to South Africa, afterwards my bunnies to the shelter.

In the afternoon I could finally leave myself. First with the bus and later the train, off to Schiphol Airport. Where I enjoyed a lovely noodle soup. My flight leaves at 20h25.

26 September 2025, Muscat

After a fine flight, with plenty empty chairs I landed in Muscat. Ammar from Sea & Dunes was waiting for me at the airport to bring me to my hotel. Time to rest and have some breakfast later on.

After a few hours of well needed sleep, breakfast, some more relaxing and a nice lunch it was time to do a briefing of my trip with Ammar. I already knew the headlines of what we were going to do this upcoming week, but still it is nice to get some more details.

After the briefing it was time to head to the harbor for a sunset show cruise. A dhow is a traditional wooden sailing boat, nowadays with an engine. We sail across the coastline of Muscat en see a lot of recognition points along the way. Besides all this the setting sun is creating a wonderful light show with the mountains in the background of Muscat. We sail a little over 2 hours, enjoying the view and all kinds of small snacks.

After the cruise it is time for some dinner. We drive to Rozna. This is a restaurant build as a castle. The venue on it’s own is a pretty cool place already. When we get our seats assigned it even gets more special. Today we eat on the floor in our own room with big carpets an cushions. For the atmosphere alone you should pay Rozna a visit. Ammar orders different dishes to share, among other things camel, which I find very tasty. After a lovely evening it is time to get back to the hotel for some sleep. Tomorrow will be an early one, because we will go diving!!

27 September 2025, Diving at Diminiyat Island

Today is an early day, as always when diving. At 7h15 I am being picked up by Ammar and we drive to the Al Mouj Marina. We are being expected by Roshan of Divers Planet.

On the boat there are other people as well, amongst who is a junior open water diver, heading out for his first dive in the ocean. After 45 minutes of sailing we arrive at Diminiyat Island. This is an Island group before the coast of Oman. There are multiple boats present with divers and snorkelers, so it seems to get busy under water. My fist dive will be a solo dive so that Roshan can focus fully on doing some exercises with the Junior Open Water. As my backup and navigation the captain of the boat snorkels along and descends every now and then to point me in another direction. Genius! It becomes a very lovely and relaxed dive, without seeing any other divers. During the dive I do spot 4 turtles, loads of big schools of different fish, Nemo, Sohal surgeonfish (Dory’s big cousin), Bride of the Sea an a lot of soft corals. Back on the boat I enjoy drinks and snacks that are handed out. The second dive will be on a different dive site around the islands and I will be making it with Roshan. This is also a very relaxing dive. We see a lot of batfish, giant angelfish and a huge honeycomb moray eel. Another group of divers let us know they saw three sharks and give underwater directions. But unfortunately we did not manage to see them. In this area you can find black tip reef sharks.

After diving we go for a late lunch, with falafel! Loved it! Back at the hotel it is time for a hot shower to rinse off all the salt an a little nap. I edit some of the photographs from the diving and than it is time to meet up with Osima, who works for Sea & Dunes and has been my main contact person up to this Famtrip. We end up having a lovely dinner at a Lebanese restaurant.

Something that I notice is that all the ordered dishes are served in the middle of the table and are shared. In the evening it is a custom to eat bread, but not as we in the Netherlands know is, more a kind of flat bread. Most is eaten with hands, of by tearing of a piece of bread, and eat with the bread. I am enjoying this to the fullest.

28 September 2025, city tour Muscat

Today’s program exists out of a city tour in Muscat. We start at the Sultan Qaboos Grans Mosque. And grand it is! What an impressive building! Big thanks to my neighbor at home who lent me a real Mosque dress. It is still quiet when we arrive and that is very nice for taking good and a lot of pictures. Here in the mosque you will find a lot of hand craft, a lot of mosaic, the largest carpet in the world (woven by hand), many chandeliers, hand painted stained glass and so on.

After the mosque we visit the Royal Opera House. This is also a very big and impressive building, a must see if you ask me. A lot of ingenious techniques are used, and also a lot of craftmanship.

Time to visit Muttrah Souq. A souq is basically a market. This one exists out of many small shops in different aligned alleys. Very cosy and a lot to see. We just look around and buy nothing.

Back outside we decide not to visit Muttrah Fort today, since the temperature has risen drastically, it is already 97 degrees Fahrenheit, or 36 degrees Celsius, and since the Fort is build on a mountain we leave it for what it is.

We do make a photo stop at the ceremonial palace of the sultan. This palace is only used to welcome other heads of state and very important guests. Yet again plenty of space to make my pictures, because there is no one around at the moment!

Next stop is the Bait al Zubair museum, a family owned museum. Here we see a very extensive collection that tells a lot about the history and culture in Oman.

We close off with a late lunch at Ramssa where we eat some traditional dishes. One of the dishes is Oursieh, it describes best as a mixture of chicken with very boiled rice served with a sweet sirup.

Tired but satisfied I return to my hotel. I do some work at my laptop and find time to relax a bit. Because of all the heavy meals, I am not used to, I decide to keep it with Pringles an tea this evening in my hotel room.

Tomorrow we’ll leave Muscat for some nature!

29 September 2025, Birkat al Mouz, Jebel Akhdar and Nizwa

Today we leave Muscat. We trade the more busy roads of the city for a more quite one, which takes us closer to the mountains. Our first stop today is Birkat al Mouz, city of bananas. We drink some coffee and tea at the Banana Café, with a view over the palm trees (date trees).

Afterwards we stroll through the old city, as it was back in the old days. Even though it in in decay you can still get a picture of what the constructions looked like back then. Today is a very warm day, so we are glad to get back into the car where we can drink water!

We drive onwards to Jebel al Akhdar, the green mountains. Although they are not as green as when they got there name. the green and the terraces you see here are all man made, the green belongs to the farmers. They grow walnuts and pomegranate here.

There are a lot of different villages spread out in these mountains, all connected to each other with small pathways. We visit some of them and stroll around. A lot of stairs, but the views are more than worth it with all the terraces and villages you see.

Enjoying it to the fullest here in the mountains. To stay here would be lovely! But unfortunately we have to move on to get off the mountain in time.

At the end of the afternoon we arrive in Nizwa. This is one of the oldest cities in Oman. It looks stunning. We check-in at the hotel which also is very pretty. A little moment for myself, before we go out for dinner, love it!

At 19h00 we leave on foot through lovely little streets on our way to the city wall. This is a newly built city wall, only some segments of the old wall have been conserved. Loads of lights make it look very nice and all around are people. You see a lot of coffee and eating venues here. Love the atmosphere. We eat outside next to a rather large ventilator. Afterwards we walk back. Time to sleep!

30 September 2025, Nizwa Souq, Museum, Jabreen Castle, Grand Canyon and Al Hamra

The day starts at 6h30 with breakfast. After this we will visit the Souq here in Nizwa. Nizwa is well known for it’s silver and pottery. You buy silver jewelry by weight here.

There are many different types of Souq. On one you can find meat, the next is for pottery, clothing, silver, fruits and vegetables. It makes it organized for when you are looking for specific products because all the “shops” selling this product are in the same area.

Time for a gigantic museum. The Oman Across Ages Museum, you can probably guess what there is to see. The museum is set up to have a lot of interaction with the visitors. Which makes entering a new room worth your while every time.  You can do short quizzes, scroll through information yourself and even touch objects. This makes going to a museum slightly different.

You walk through the whole history of Oman, from the day it started existing to the present. Very interesting, and mostly an entertaining museum setup.

Jabreen Castle is an ingenious designed castle. On the ground floor there were kitchens and food storage, but also jails and the weapons. There is a whole floor with meeting rooms and dining rooms, as well as a court. On the second floor you will find the private rooms of the Imam that ruled the land at that time. On the roof you can find a room that was used as a school, because education was a very important thing.

In total you can find 55 rooms with an own story each. Also you see a lot of beautifully decorated ceilings.

On our way to the next stop, we have lunch at a Yemeni restaurant. Was a wonderful meal!

Jabral Shams, mountain of the Sun, is also known as the Grand Canyon of the Arabic countries. The road that leads you there is magnificent already, but when you reach the top you can enjoy the view of the Canyon. You also find some souvenirs that are only found at this location in Oman. They make bracelets and keyrings of sheep hair and cotton.

And last but not least we visit the beautiful mountain city Al Hamra. Made a lovely stroll through the small alley ways end past the edge of the city where you walk in between the palm trees. We stayed until sunset, which caused a stunning light show.

After this we had to drive 2,5 hours back to Muscat. We had a very late dinner at the Lebanese restaurant and a little after 22h00 I arrive at my hotel.

Today we had temperatures of 43 degrees Celsius.

1 October 2025, Dam and Wadi’s

We start the day at a supermarket, an excursion on it’s own for me, haha! Onwards ro the biggest dam of Oman. The water is quite low, but you can still see the enormity of the Dam. It is very quiet so I can also spot some birds here.

After this we drive to Wadi al Abriyeen. It seems possible to walk here and I heard it is very beautiful, but unfortunately we do not have the time to experience it for ourselves.

The ducks here are very used to people and come asking for food. This made sure I could take some very nice clos-ups and a funny video, even without food.

The highlight of today is Wadi Shab. The word Wadi means valley with water. We eat a simple lunch before our hike starts. First we need to cross the river with a little boat and than we walk. It is a walk of approximately 45 minutes through the Wadi to reach the water. We mostly walk fully in the sun, with 40 degrees Celsius. You can imagine that the splash and swim are more than welcome!

While Ammar stays with our backpacks I take a swim. In total I am gone for one hour. Parts swimming, sometimes a small walk, not so nice on bare feet, but manageable. At the end of the Wadi there is a cave with a very narrow entrance, in the cave there is a small waterfall. Amazing to find al these hidden gems in between the mountains.

The walk on itself is stunning and also the swimming part was worth it! Nice to be cooled down before putting back on my clothes, time to walk back.

Exhausted, but happy we drive to a cool location where we plant our chairs and enjoy the sea in front of us and the sun setting behind the mountains on the other side, very enjoyable moment with some fresh dates!

In Sur we eat a sort of shrimp curry and a wrap before checking in at the hotel and do absolutely nothing.

2 October 2025, Dhow Factory, Biddiyah, Dune Bashing

With some fresh coffee we start at the Dhow Factory in Sur. Everything you see here is handmade and without drawings. Very cool to walk around the shipyard and see the Dhows get build.

In Oman they use the word Baghla, this is a contraction of the words for donkey and horse. The donkey can carry the load and the horse has the power and endurance to make the miles.

After this we visit Wadi Bani Khalid. The walk is short and easygoing before reaching the water. Here you can also swim to a cave, we skip this swim today.

We drink some Omani tea and eat Omani’s famous chili chips in the car. Off to our meeting with Rashid.

We lunch together with Rashid. He is the one that is going to drive/bash us through the dunes. On our way into the desert we stop at a Bedouin house. Here you can buy souvenirs and enjoy some Omani hospitality with coffee and fresh dates. When we arrive we are alone, except for the vendor, which creates time for making photos. Afterwards a large group of French tourists come in. this also makes nice pictures and gives a more realistic look into this place. Outside we find some camels, or Omani Dinosaurs.

We visit some accommodations here in the dunes and than it is time to go dune bashing. We end with a stunning sunset in the desert, completed with some tea and dates. Everywhere around you see red sand. Fascinating environment! The man take time to say their prays and then we head back to the car. In 2 hours we drive back to Muscat. We have a (very) late dinner with falafel before I check in to my hotel. A quick shower to rinse off all the sand and a call with Colin before heading to bed.

3 October 2025, Day off or not

To recover from the high speed traveling I am having a day without any plans and I love it! After breakfast I take myself walking to the Muscat Flagpole. A gigantic flagpole with an enormous Omani Flag. Every day I stayed in Muscat I have seen this flagpole, but not from up close. It takes me a little while to find my way over the big busy road between me and the flagpole, but eventually I find a way underneath the road. Around the flagpole there is a park and I found a café. Time to cool down with tea and cake.

On the way back I make a quick stop at a small supermarket for airplane snacks and some sparkling water at my hotel room. I pick up on some work, lunch at the hotel and take a dip in the swimming pool. A lovely lazy day so far.

At the end of the afternoon Ammar will pick me up so we can visit Muttrah Fort. Deliberately at this time so we can see the sunset from the Fort, with a whole bus of Chinese people.

This Fort used to be a jail/ you can see the Fort from a lot of places in Muscat because it is build upon a hill.

After the fort we drive to the beach for some coffee and tea. Whan Ammar all of a sudden thinks about some more places to visit which he wants to show me so I also know about some 5* gems. And so we visit two different hotels at which we walk around the premises and take a look at the  lobbies. Very lovely to take a look around these luxury hotels. Indeed very nice places for a high tea or a meal to treat yourself.

We end with one last late dinner.

Time to sleep and tomorrow fly back home. The days have gone by way too quick.

4 October 2025, Muscat airport

This morning was one without an alarm. After breakfast it is time to pack my suitcase one last time.

Ammar picks me up and while driving to the airport I enjoy alle the lovely places we visited this trip. When we say goodbye at the airport we say goodbye and Ammar hands me a little bag with some souvenirs to remember Oman.

I check in my suitcase and have my passport stamped before I go through security. The sign with flight details says I can go shopping and eating. Now time to wait before I can go boarding, back to the Netherlands.

After a good flight with plenty of open spaces I land in the Netherlands.

Thankfully my suitcase also arrived. I took a very busy train back to Breda and a bus home. Now time for a very good night in my own bed!

Oman was incredible. The diversity in landscapes, the friendliness of the people and the lovely food. I enjoyed it to the last bit and everything was arranged very well by Ammar of Sea & Dunes. Looking forward to a good collaboration!