We headed for Dibba for the weekend for a dhow adventure with our friend Clint and some others. We had been up to Dibba in Oman a few times camping, but this was a first time sleeping on a dhow. Despite the dhow that we got ended up being much smaller then the one we reserved, we made the most of the weekend swimming, snorkeling, stand up paddling and climbing. We brought our inflatable C4 iSUPs with us and everyone enjoyed paddling in the coves and following the fish ,turtles and stingrayss around down below. We even found out they were perfect platforms for climbing the cliffs. Clint, Nick and I brought out rock climbing shoes and got a few chances to do some DWS, which was fantastic. In the morning we woke up at sea to a beautiful sunrise each mornings and moored in a bay off the Oman coast. It was beautiful, only thing I would change was time of year we did this cruise. The end of May is pushing it weather wise with no relief from the heat, even the breeze at night was extremely hot! Nonetheless we had a great time and definitely will do this again next year!

During Thanksgiving Nick had a couple days off so we drove up to the tip of Oman called the Mussamdam Peninsula for some camping and paddling. We had just bought ourselves a couple of inflatable SUPs from C4 waterman and were stoked at the chance to now roll these suckers up in a backpack and put them in the car. While we still have our hard boards, these are much easier to travel with and were excited to put them to the test.



We did a lot of driving the first day and we headed all the way north through Dubai and the other northern Emirates to Khasab in Oman. Once you head north, the glitz and modernity of the cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai quickly fade and once your cross the border into Oman, the scenery changes completely. Here you have the mountains that go in to the sea, where just off the road are small villages, where Omanis still lead pretty simple lives.




Once up there we drove to Khor Al Najd beach, which is this long winding road that takes you up and over a pass and then drive down to a gorgeous bay. We paddled for about 3 hours here uninterrupted except for a few boats, it was a amazing!

Not entirely sure where we were going to camp, we decided to drive along the coast for a bit and as we were going to end up in Dibba on Eastern side the next night we thought we'd just go there early, so we set off for another 3 hour drive before it go to dark. There used to be an easy way to get there with a check point, but that border has been closed so now you have to down and back into the UAE, around to the Eastern shore and then re enter Oman again.



We got to Dibba just after sunset and set up camp for the next two nights. The morning came we got up early and headed out for a gorgous sunrise paddle and in the afternoon headed to Wadi Bih driving up the mountain for a couple hours. While you don't necessarily need a 4 wheel drive as this is a graded track, it helps and we were thankful that we do have one. This a great drive up to the top, with some great views of the valleys and other peaks of the UAE close by.