Sur is not even that far, and I have been there before but still it feels like going on a holiday. I am going to stay with the Ruzaigi family. That is the family of Khalid, my host, manager and older brother all in one. So I leave at ten o clock and during my drive to Sur I stop a couple of times to take some pictures.
At twelve I arrive at Sur and have lunch with the family. I also meet some guys my own age with whom I will spend most of my time the next couple of days. Lunch of course is extensive and although there are about 15-20 people siting on the floor not many conversations are held. Mazin, Saleh and I leave after lunch to take a tour through Sur. Now Sur is traditionally closely related to the sea and has a long history of naval activity such as overseas trading, fishery and shipbuilding. Therefore we first visit a big old ship displayed at the old harbour, previously used for offloading ships but now turned into a marble paved boulevard. This ship is about 20 meters long and was use I believe for short journeys only. Before they used to build ships that were about 60 meters in length. After this short stop we head to the shipyard were they still built ships. Working on two ships the workers – mostly Indians – still built the ships mainly with simple basic tools. Visiting this smal yard doesn't make it hard to picture the social and economic life of older times in this town to have fully revolved around the fabrication of these ships. So much for culture and history. We continue walking around Sur and the neighbouring town of which I forgot the name but is connected to Sur by a recently opened bridge.
While walking and talking I am surprised about what I learn about the muslim country that I have lived in now for about two months now. I didn't expect to meet so many cultural muslims. Muslims who say they believe in Allah and meet all the religious expectations of going to the mosque and praying but in the end don't really care about it. Very interesting. I hope to investigate the opinions of the people of my age more here in Oman.
Any way, then a plan for the evening is forged. We will go to Ras Al Hadd and do some night snorkling, we'll catch some fish and lobster and then sleep under the bare sky. Good plan. Good plan. We make the necessary preparations and head to Ras Al Hadd, about 50km to the West of Sur.
A little before Ras Al Hadd we find a good location for snorkling, refered to as my Omani friends as diving, and get prepared. Fins, goggles, wetsuit, weights, torch and of course an underwater spear. The sea appears calm so we decide to give it a go. The water temperature is agreable and the visibility perfect. I had never done night diving before so this was a new experience to me. Although it seemed that many of the fish were sleeping there was an abundance of marine life to sea. There were for instance many small jellyfish that lit up in fluorescent colours when shone upon with the torch. And it was very noisy. Many creaking and sizzling noises made by I don't know what kind of creatures.
We started our hunt. Bahgwan, one of the guys demonstrated t me how to spear lobster and cuttlefish properly. Now the thing with cuttlefish is that, like octopuses, the excrete some cloud of ink when threatened and turning the water around you completely black. An interesting experience. When starting to hunt I felt kind of apprehensive and hestitant because it is not a daily thing for me to take the life of lobster and cuttlefish. It was not so much that I felt bad for the creatures, they were going to serve a good purpose in being our dinner, but more of the fact that it was not experienced in it. We spent about an hour in the water during which I saw a couple of rays, murene eals and a sleeping meter long turtle in a big crevice. The gain of the hunt was about twenty five cuttle fish and I guess about twenty lobsters.
The rest of the guys had aready started a fire that had turned into coals. Perfect for barbequeing the lobsters. We spend a couple of hours sitting under a beautiful clear sky, eating the fresh lobster from the sea and enjoying ourselves in random conversations.
Then our group of about ten guys broke up in two. With three other guys I went to one of the beaches where turtles lay there eggs. Testing our jeep to the max by driving over/through the sand dunes we reached the beach. No sight of big turtles laying their eggs but we did find some small hatchlings that were actually stuck in the nets that fishermen had carelessly had left behind. Filled with care for these small fin flapping sea creatures and as any responsible citizen would have done we freed them from the nets and set them free. I would have expected a little more intellegence from these 'wicked dudes' (you must have seen Nemo...) cause we had to correct them three times before they headed in the direction of the sea; a beautiful place of both freedom and danger. How small the chances that they might come back at exactly this beach in so many years to lay their own eggs here (provided that they were indeed of that gender)!
Then we continued to the final chapter of our day. Making our camp for the night at Ras Al Hadd to wait for the sunrise to come. Baghwan knew a place away from the crowded places where many Indians and Omani spend Eid holiday on the beach. In a small shelter, probably normally in use by fishermen we rolled out a mat and reposed ourselves for a couple of hours. The House of the Rising Sun... but not really. Now Ras Al Hadd means Head of the Edge and it is a place of specific significance. First of all because it is the place furthest in in the Middle East and thus the place where the sun can be seen first in this part of the world. Also it is important because it is the place in the sea where the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea converge. This contributes to climate that is very much more pleasant during the hot Omani summers.
Having slept about two hours I woke up by the sound of my alarm, set for the witnessing of the sunrise. I looked around and the light in the sky announced the birth of a new day. I waited halve an hour and then the sun made its shining appearance. Indeed a new day had come. The Father who by the power of his life giving Breath and the speaking of his Word had created the sun so long ago be praised for this daily miracle.
