10 th jan
first big paddle
Having only done two or three hour sessions on the water since I arrived the chance arose, the weather was cooler not 50 c and a day off
for me to do some paddling, with little local knowledge and no maps we set of with wanting a proper day out ( similar to those with peter at the canoe club back home )
the red tide had seemed to have receded so I squeezed myself into a dancer and off we went !
Dibba rock first a wildlife sanctuary, only about 1 km off shore, as I paddled to the rock I must of passed three or four turtles, then a big fish below me, ( wish I had my fishing rod )
little bit of a swell, where next one ask himself, well there are some mountains on the other side of the bay no idea of there distance, tide coming in so I wont get pulled out to Iran which is only a days good paddle from here!
yep lets go for it, nice and steady pace about one kilometre into I pick up some swell may be three or four foot high, a few water taxis come and have a look at us and a patrol boat, keep ya head down here we don’t want any international incident ? few more K and we start passing in and out of thick red tide with a real pungent smell, like off caviar. One hour into mountains still look along way away!
About another forty minutes and sea snake black and yellow. Mountains still not getting any bigger ?
Finely after another fifty minutes the mountains start to get bigger, looking for a beach to rest up and have dinner( not lunch as the school dinner ladies ) I remember that we could be in Oman, and nether of us has our passports ? we will just wing it if we get stopped !
Found a beach 250 metres of unspoilt white sand. perfect spot!
After dinner we decided to paddle round to the town of Dibba, on our way we herd the call to prayer from the mosques that we could see quite a unusual noise to hear out in the ocean, few kilometres on and we are into the UAE, past the harbour wall where all the dhows are moored, then finale slog back round the breakwater and along the coast to royal beach, on the way seeing a load of fishing dhows returning.
As we pass the breakwater my muscle start to feel that they have had a work out, that warm glowing feeling that you get!
A good day that peter would be proud of I thought to myself !
