Day 25 Salalah

Day 25 – Salalah, Oman. Saturday 9/6/12

Weather – Fine and Sunny/Dust Haze 29C - 34C

Sunrise – 5.49am

Sunset – 6.56 pm

Time difference - minus 6 hours ex Sydney.

At 5,45am this morning, 5 miles from the berth, the pilot boarded Sun Princess and we started our approach through the buoyed channel to the Port of Salalah. The port is the main commercial terminal in the region of Dhofar, and can accommodate vessels with a draft of up to 16 metres, almost twice the size of ours.

We had no plans for today's port call at Salalah. As the port where the ship is berthed is a working port, you not allowed to venture anywhere on foot, not that there is anywhere to venture to:) There was a free shuttle, but only as far as the port gates. We were told that Princess were forbidden by the local Taxi industry to run the shuttles into town. At the port gates there is an armada of taxi drivers very keen to have your business. Given there is no other way into town, it was either haggle with a taxi driver, or stay on the shuttle bus and go back to the ship.

The port lecturer advised that the general rate for the 10km trip into town is about $50, captive market huh. She had received an email from a port lecture colleague on another ship that had visited Salalah recently, that the rate had increased up to $80 !

There were not any city highlights that really appealed to us enough to book a tour, but when I reviewed the narrative on Salalah on the Triposo app that I had downloaded onto the iPad, it mentioned that Salalah was blessed with miles of coastline with beautiful beaches, although word has it that they are too dangerous to swim in as the beach line falls away to quite a depth all of a sudden, and that the currents are very strong. We did have a strong desire to find a beach and have a stand up paddle, but not a swim. So we had a few plans:-

(a) See if we could find a beach within walking distance of the Port Gates

(b) Negotiate a reasonable rate for a trip to the city where we knew there was a popular

beach, and hope to negotiate a reasonable rate for our return

(c) Negotiate a rate for a one tour of the city and return to the ship.

So whilst boarding shuttle, Donna ducked over and asked one of the tour guides (who she figured could speak English), if he knew of a beach close by. Bingo – he told her that just a 500 metre walk left of the port gates we will find a beach. A short shuttle ride to the gates, cleared a path through a wall of taxi drivers, and strolled along the road. It was surprisingly comfortable, if not a little humid. The haze/fog was incredible, I do not recall seeing it so thick and heavy. We picked up another couple who asked us what we were doing, and liked the idea.

After just a few minutes we could hear the loud roar of the ocean, but we could not see it. It was an amazingly eerie feeling. So we walked towards where the noise was coming from, and sure enough we came across a beautiful little cove, sandy beach and roaring surf. It was soooooooo nice, just standing there knee deep in the Arabian Sea. We now understood what the warnings were about, as the strength of the drag pulling you into the water was incredible. Despite the water being so inviting, we resisted the urge, and just stayed where we were on the waters edge.

We were pretty well soaked from the waist down, by the splashing of the waves, but given it was such a short walk back to the shuttle bus, it was not uncomfortable for long, a quick ride back to ship and it was into the shower.

In speaking with friends who did private and Princess tours, the general concensus was that it was an OK port stop, with a few interesting things to see, but wont make it into the top 20. There was a lot of folk who took the shuttle to the gate, were not happy to pay the rates demanded by the taxi drivers, and got back on the shuttle and returned to the ship. When I say a lot, I mean a lot. I reckon the traders in town would be ruing lost opportunity for tourist dollars if they saw the number of potential customers that did not make it past the gates.

Just after 1pm we left our berth, and retraced our tracks out of the port. Once outside we turned south west and transited the Gulf of Aden, with Yemen starboard side, and Somalia port side. Heading towards the Red Sea and our next port, Safaga, Egypt.

The rest of the afternoon, was the usual sea day relax, swimming, reading socialising.