DIMANIYAT Islands, Nov. 20, 2022
One of the highlights of my holiday. I used the agency Luluat Al Dimaniyat, email: [email protected], telephone +968 99199908, web site www.dimaniyattours.om.
Cost 30 OMR (75 Eu), departure at 8.30 from the Al Mouj marina pier, and back at around 14.00. Sandwiches, water and drinks are served on board. The snorkeling equipment is excellent, and in perfect hygienic conditions. Not a single drop of water entered my mask. The archipelago, where it is possible to camp, requiring special permits, can be reached in about 45 minutes.
Two snorkeling sessions are organised, and a stop at an awesome beach. The first snorkeling is exceptional. The anchor is dropped in a sheltered bay, there are corals with many colorful fishes, the typical tropical species; next to some rocks there are about ten turtles who are not at all intimidated by people. You float on the surface, while they nibble on algae and other debris, and when they come to the surface to breathe they aim directly at you, and you have to dodge. They come really close to you!! It has been so wonderful!. The second snorkeling session is in the open sea, deeper, where in theory you should spot some sharks. I would like to point out that the captain/skipper does not go into the water to guide people, he gives directions and indications from the boat. I don’t know if I misunderstood, in fact I saw him shouting and waving in my direction, but no sharks, so at a certain point I returned closer to the rocks attracted by the trajectories of some fishes, which led me to other beautiful corals . However, none of my adventure companions spotted any sharks. In the interval, stop at a beautiful beach on one of the islets, where you can swim, sunbathe, or climb onto the tip to observe the views. As for the dress code, some girls jumped into the water in bikinis, but on board they immediately put on something to cover themselves. I would like to point out that on board we were all Europeans and a couple of Indians. The Indian girl and I had the usual decathlon shirt and cycling shorts.
I found the agency simply by typing “DIMANIYAT” on Google, the prices were similar to the other agencies, I sent an email, they replied immediately. All excursions to the archipelago depart from Al Mouj marina. Being without a car in those days, I chose a hotel (the City Center) in a convenient position to reach Al Mouj, the airport, and close to the bus stops that go to these destinations. The kind owner of the agency, however, came to pick me up at the hotel in the morning, which in any case was not far from the pier, and I then used the bus only for the return trip, and to go to the airport the following day to pick up my car and friend.
Having returned from the excursion, with a belly full of the sandwiches offered on board, I took a stroll around the marina. Luckily I had already eaten because the bars and restaurants had terrible prices. It is a recently built area, with several construction sites still open, very “posh”, there are mainly shops, and very elegant condominiums.
There is no access to beaches, which are very distant, only to the port. Since I didn’t feel like wandering for miles under the hot sun, after a while I went back to my hotel. The buses don’t seem to work very well, I had to wait about 40 minutes for the nr. 8 to go to my destination