Of course Allah does inch

If last time I wrote we had to deal with some pratical issues preventing us to do our job, I really ment everything was just fine. I never experienced a month here without minor things like that happening all the time. So yes, we did find a boat in time, and yes, we did find a compressor in time. Concerning the boat, I went down to the fishing harbour again to see if I had better luck with perhaps someone else, and as a coincidence I met the brother (Mohammed) of the guy (Salim) who’d helped me out last time. I actually saw Salim too, as he noticed me around from a distance. He immediately came to me and greeted me with an enthusiastic “Hi Klaas! [I didn't even had to repeat my name after six months - was that in fact with you, Jan, or was it even a year ago with Jelle?] Nice to see you again, how are you? You should have called me right away, I’d have been glad to help you immediatel!” Well I certainly would have done just that, if I hadn’t lost my cell phone in June. Amazing, those people…

So in the end we were able to complete all nine planned dives in due time, and the conditions turned out to be the best we could imagine: clear visibility up to 15 meter or more, and 30C down to 18m depth! Murphy only showed up the last day, just as we were about to jump in the water for our second last dive, at 20m, when a police boat came by and forced us to stop, and arrested me at once. Our boat wasn’t equipped with a dive flag (true, my responsibility, but you have to have this made on order, they don’t sell this ready-made in a dive shop or so), and most of all the police wasn’t informed about our diving activities going on (which was the responsibility of the safety engineer at the fertilizer plant; consequently, the police called him and apparently they had a very excited discussion about that…). Anyway, my passive, agreeing and cooperative approach paid off in the end, and we were allowed to complete our last dives without any consequences, which was a lot better than their first suggestion to take me immediately to Sur (still in my wetsuit!) and put me behind bars at once… I’ve heard of people coming off worse

So just as we arrived at the bottom during the first dive, I realized the strong winds and swell had made us drift off in the small time gap between arriving at the waypoint and throwing out the anchor. We ended up at 25m depth instead of 18, leaving us far less time to be down, and the place was a desert of rough sand with no algae except for a few very scattered red algae – which luckily turned out to be special fertile ones, but of course this wasn’t our job…Besides, apparently the thermocline was at about 20m down, and at 25 the water was freezing cold (well, 23 degrees). The only compensation was a school of Yellow fin tuna circling very close around us, new to me, and very impressive (almost frightening)…

We treated ourselves with a day off to take the beautiful coastal road via Wadi Tiwi, the Dibab sinkhole and the Quriyat mangrove forest back to Muscat… I’m really sorry I don’t have the time to post some pictures now, but reliable sources told me that the pictures you can find with google image search give a nice idea about the impressive beauty of the scenery Besides, from right after Wadi Tiwi on we had a guide as picked up an Omani hitch-hiker, who turned out to be good company!

Well, last day in Muscat now before we leave to Dhofar. Last day to arrange the Qatar work; still nothing is decided. For a start, I called my boss and the guys at the uni, and they were all okay with me staying for one more week, mostly because of the fact that samples from Qatar would fit quite well in the framework of a paper recently published. That said, we still need to make sure it all fits in the schedule of Five Oceans (the environmental impact assessment office) and if there are some opportunities to change my home ticket… I hope to find out in a couple of hours!

Allah doesn’t always inch’

Seems that a previous post sent from my mobile phone got lost… Anyway, the news I had to tell wasn’t that good: when I checked the tyre pressure of the car as we were about to head off to Sur (like I always do before leaving for greater distances), I noticed one rear tyre was slowly leaking air while the other was completely worn off. I immediately went back to the rental office and they had both tyres replaced – but not until the next morning. We used our extra time in Muscat to find a new diving shop, owned by Omani twin brothers (a rare phenomenon, by the way), which turned out to be the nicest, most helpful guys, who filled our two empty dive tanks (we got 8 from the ministry of environment, of which 6 were full; but to our dismay we found that the Oman Dive Center doesn’t fill private diving tanks anymore, based on some lame excuse of unreliable air getting into their compressor – which could be easily avoided if they would empty all tanks prior to filling!). It also happened to be this new dive shop who actually sold the tanks to the ministry. People, don’t go the expensive, worthless, arrogant Oman Dive Center for diving anymore!! There are plenty of other smaller, cheaper and friendlier dive centers in Muscat nowadays!
That night, we had dinner and a couple of fresh juices in a new Turkish restaurant on a terrace with a view on the sea just above the entrance to the Muttrah souq, and were invited to sit over at the table of a Jordan guy as all other tables were occupied (a nice Arabian habit of never refusing guests). He entertained us with his adventures in Madrid where he practiced some kind of islam-approved polygamy with two Swedish girls he met in a bar I must say my frustration about the misfortune that day was gone at once.

So one day later than hoped, we arrived in Sur. As the environmental and safety engineer was still out of office, we were allowed to do only intertidal field work and weren’t allowed to dive until we’d seen him (concerning the safety with incoming and outgoing ships). The thing was, low tide was in the late afternoon, and processing the samples of one site takes about 8 hours… Hence, nothing else left than to shift our biorhythm (again) and work for three days from 2 p.m. until 5 a.m. Not a problem really, except for the first day when we were already up from 8 a.m., and yesterday, when we finished work at 3 p.m. and had to get up at 7 this morning for a meeting with the engineer to start the diving work. So now, we’ve completed our first dive (finally!), and although it was only at 8m depth, it felt really incredibly good to be in very clear 32°C water with no need for a wetsuit at all and with aquarium-style coral and fish (and a little bit of algae) again after six months!
However… Allah wouldn’t be Allah if he wouldn’t put some issues to overcome in our way. For instance, the only diving club with a (portable) air compressor within 350km was a group of expat leisure divers at the nearby natural gas plant, and as it so happens they all retired or quit their job in the last year – and took their compressor with them. I now managed to get in contact with the safety engineer at the gas plant, as I know they still have an air compressor for various purposes, but I’m not sure the connection would fit and indeed, the closest option to find an adaptor is at… 350km. I actually tried to get hold of one while still in the capital before heading off to Sur as I knew this could be a bit of a hassle, but guess what, the only shop where people knew I could find one was closed for an indefinite period of time. That said, we still have enough air to dive at over half of the originally planned sites, so that would be okay by me. The other thing is that I just went to the fishermen to see if I could rent a boat for the next days (in my best Arabic, since they don’t speak a word English, ahum), and they too couldn’t help me before tomorrow in the late afternoon, too close to sunset… another day lost, obliging me to call the ministry of environment to ask if we can borrow their tanks for one day more than originally planned…

Another thing to think about: when I met the guys at Five Oceans, the first thing they asked me was to stay here for a week longer and help them out with an environmental impact assessment in Qatar… a job I’d love to accept if it wasn’t for the practical issues… I was already informed the elections could be avoided with a simple form proving I had to stay for work longer than expected. The biggest problem is the work at home, where I was told a million times in the past I could always take a few days off as it pleases me (just as I am entitled to), but NEVER when practical or training courses I’m supposed to supervise are going on… and guess what, there are at least two going on the first week after my originally planned return… So as I’m still craving to accept the job, I still haven’t found the guts to call my boss and ask for a few days off anyway… and I don’t think I will…

One amusing story to close with: apparently a bloc of ice falling from an airplane hit a pick-nick table in Belgium and injured several people, but no-one was killed, according to a newspaper. Okay, the story itself might not be amusing for these people, but what is: I happened to discuss this unknown and underestimated risk of death by falling ice only six months ago while on the airplane to Oman with Koen. I feel people should be more informed about this, as again the newspaper failed to do so, so here comes: the chemic latrines onboard an airplane have an exterior valve for emptying, but this valve often leaks during flight. As temperatures are about -50°C on cruising altitude, small leaks cause major icy stalagmites to form, and when they get big enough they break and fall. So for once and for all: beware of icy substances of dubious origin coming down after an airplane crossed your path!

Getting started

The last row in an airplane might be the safest place, it is definitely not the most comfortable. The engine noise is worst in the back, there is constant light and noise from the kitchen, and you get served for dinner as the very last on board after suffering a terrible hunger from the intense smell of food over an hour or so (so you’re the last to go sleeping and the first to wake up by the kitchen noise too). And by the time you get served, there’s only one item left on the menu…

Just as I came at the desk in the internet cafe, an Omani high school student was standing next to me with a few printed pages, apparently a school work they had to make. I managed to get a sneak at it, and apparently it was a treaty on equality between men and women in Islam, written in impeccable English. It started with the statement that he personally, as Islam in general, strongly supported the equal treatment of men and women, but that “an equal treatment has got nothing to do with an identical treatment, very much the same as women and men are, although definitely not physically identical, both equally human” I was very sorry not getting to read the rest of the treaty!
We’ve been up with talking to people and arranging our permits and stuff for two days now, and it looks like we’ll be able to head off to Sur tomorrow afternoon, and start our field work the day after tomorrow. Finally, some action!

	Final approach over (part of) the huge Sultan Qaboos University, with the marine laboratory in the red circle.
	According to the legend (together with the mosque created merely in the 1980’s!), if the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque is finished, so is the Sultan himself. So they always find some spot that needs additional (re)construction. Allah bless the Sultan!
	Disadvantage of being able to read some Arabic: jam indicated in English as “raspberry jam” while translated above in Arabic as “murabat al-karaz” or “cherry jam” is quite confusing…