All at sea in the Musandam

For all its aknowledged (and denied) problems of congestion, construction and contempt for road users, Dubai has many things to commend it. Not least of which is the proximity of some truly spectacular marine ecology. The gang recently escaped for a weekend afloat, and it proved to be refreshing, exhausting and reaffirming in turn.

It all started at unspeakable o'clock on Friday morning, when we had to drag ourselves bleary from the warmth and comfort of bed, drive through three countries and clear across a continent to catch a boat. Which was late, of course.

In fact, our journey was from Dubai on the shores of the Gulf to Dibba, in Oman, on the Indian Ocean side of the Arabian Peninsula. We took the familiar Sharjah/Dhaid/Masafi/Dibba route, despite the presence of newer and perhaps faster roads. Once clear of the west coast's urban sprawl, this is a starkly beautiful journey up into the mountains, and one of the most breathtaking views in the Emirates - as you decend towards the Dibba, the road twists through a cleft in the mountains, and then, perfectly framed between two butresses of rock, in the midst of a sweeping, fertile valley dating back millenia sits the Fujaiah National Cement Factory, belching its suphurous effluent into the pristine air.

Honestly, you have to laugh.

Once past this excresence, Dibba is a bustling, traditional village with an important fishing industry. Once we had found the harbour, and identified our Dhow (the yellow one, as it turned out) we set about loading all of the kit and clobber that seems to accompany any contemporary weekend. Those diving amongst us went to sign the many and mandatory disclaimers, absovling the operators of any and all responsiblitiy for our wellbeing, and we nosed gently out of harbour. Azure sea, clear skies, and the sort of gentle swell that seemed calculated to cause maximum pitching on our little hull. Clearly, serving coffee on boats causes turbulence as well...

Our route took us from Dibba north to the fjords of the Musandam, passing Liwa, Ziggy Beach and various tiny, deserted coves along the way. Onwards to our afternoon's destination, and the first of several dives, pausing only to admire the pair of Wright's whales half a mile off our port side. Beautiful sight.

The afternoon was spent in north of Liwa rock, the party split into expert divers, beginners and landlubbers like me. I just don't get it - why jump off a perfeclty comfortable boat into all that wet stuff if you're only going to swim around in circles and get back on board again later??? Still, they all seemed to enjoy it.

Later the same day we motored back to a small overnight anchorage, a cove surrounded on three sides by sheer cliffs, affording us calm water and the most spectacular view of the night sky, untrammeled by any form of artificial light. It is a humbling experience to contemplate the splendour above when it is revealed in such extraordinary detail. One of the gang claimed he could see twice as much as the rest of us, but we suspect he had been sampling the Glemorangie 12YO with a little too much dedication...Saturday dawned way too early and bright, but after the application of suitable quantities of Irn-Bru and coffee it started to look better. After breakfast, more diving and snorkelling and chilling out in the sun, we weighed anchor and started the journey back towards Dibba and sailed straight into the heart of a phenomenon. All around us were patches of turbulence in a calm sea, with furious flocks of diving seabirds and equally active fish leaping beneath. Turned out what we were watching was a feeding frenzy - tuna were there in countless numbers, chasing shoals of smaller fish. And all this activity caught the attention of rather larger predators too. During the day, almost every boat capable of reaching the sea was pressed into service in pursuit of this bounty. All day it went on, all over the ocean, and the harbour that night was crowded with locals haggling enthusiastically over the price of fish.All in all, an enthralling and exhausting weekend. It only remains to thank the people who booked our intended dhow ahead of us - the yelow one we ended up on was brand new and much nicer, thanks!