Oman in Late April / Early May

[falloutphil]

Hi all,

I'm considering going to Oman Late April / Early May this year for a holiday and to do a bit of diving. I've read through some posts and websites and it looks all good, but there is one thing that seems to be contradicted between some dive sites and the Oman tourist board?

When is the best time to go to Oman for visibility? Some websites say November-Janurary, others say June-August? Can anyone clarify, or let me know what sort of visibility I can hope to expect on an average April/May dive? Also is this the right time for seeing the likes of dolphins, sharks, turtles, or any other big marine life, if not what can I expect to see at this time of year?

Also, not that I'm adverse to hot temperatures but at this time is it ridiculously hot in Muscat (i.e. consistantly 40C or above would be ridiculous IMHO, I'm fine with anything less than this!).

It looks like a lot of Oman diving is in relatively shallow waters, can anyone recommend any 25-35m dives there? I'm not interesting in going deep just for the sake of it, but if I can pick, I prefer diving a bit deeper than 18 or 20m if there is something worth seeing down there.

Finally the wreck dive near Muscat - can anyone gauge this against the Thistlegorm off Ras Mohammed in Egypt? Is it better, worse, not really comparable? I'm not a huge wreck fan, but I did enjoy the Thistlegorm.

Thanks for any hints and feel free to recommend anything I've missed,

Phil.

 

[kruz]

It looks like a lot of Oman diving is in relatively shallow waters, can anyone recommend any 25-35m dives there? I'm not interesting in going deep just for the sake of it, but if I can pick, I prefer diving a bit deeper than 18 or 20m if there is something worth seeing down there.

Why?? At shallow waters you can stay much longer with 12l tank, at shallow waters you can see a lot...where i dive most,Adriatic sea Croatia, we "have to go" much deeper to see some interesting stuff but in tropical sea you don't have to.

 

[Ian T]

howdy Phil,

let me see if I can help you out a bit here...

Viz; well...here I can't help you...two years ago, the viz was great in winter, this year - not so good...(even cancelled the 2nd dive some days cuz it was so crappy...)...For the northern part of Oman - Muscat and up - it's usually better in the summer time...say from May and onwards.... Down near Salalah, you can't dive during the monsoon...can't as in impossible...dive centers close...
You have to roll your dice and take your chance... Around Muscat, the viz is between 5-20m, normally about 7-10m, around the Dimaniyats 3-25, normally 10-15m
But no one can assure you of good viz...

Sea life...well...where are you going in Oman? You will most likely not see dolphins while diving, around Muscat and occassionally around the Dim's, you can see pods of spinner dolphins on the surface...(largest we saw were about 500 dolphins), as far as I know, you can't go snorkling with them - Oman has a fairly strict environmental policy and the marine policy is even stricter..
Turtles are here in abundance - to be honest, I don't even look at them anymore, nor take pictures, sharks...well, there are zebra sharks along all coasts, if you're lucky you'll see black- and whitetips.. April and May is usually too warm for whale sharks but who knows, they are irregular visitors, especially to the Dim's..
Rays you will see on just about every dive; sting-, torpedo-, eagle-, manta-, devil- (around Fahal island, there is usually a wing of devilrays circling for food - brilliant).
IF you are lucky, maybe you'll spot a whale or two...I had one on a safety stop - an 8m Bryde's whale and we've spotted them on the surface a couple of times as well...but it's rare...very rare...

In April / May, the temp starts going up...usually the temp hits 40+ sometime around mid-May, but again, you never know...we've had high temps end of March some years..

Depth...in Muscat dives range from shallow to, say 35m, what you see at 20 is probably what you'll see at 30m... around the Dim's, they range from shallow to 30...
In Muscat as well as the Dim's, there's very little wall diving and on all dives you can see the bottom. In both areas, the deeper dive sites are more exposed so if surface is rough, don't count on getting there.
Most diving is done from smaller boats and with large waves, picking up divers is chancy - have done it a few times, don't really want to do it again...

Al Munnassir Wreck - been there a couple of times...it's a good wreck! Unfortunately they forgot to scrape off the paint before they scuttled it so it hasn't really started to develop into a reef yet...you can penetrate it, make sure the dive center allows you to do that though...max depth 31m (prop), min depth 10m, length 84m, width ~16m
Compared to Thistlegorm? Well, there is no background, no myth, no legends, nothing in the cargo holds, no up-side down wellingtons above the flatbeds. It's a stripped coastguard frigate, but it's a good dive!! You won't have any of the currents you probably had on Thistlegorm, you don't have to get up at 4.30 in the morning to get there and you won't have 40 boats there...If in Muscat, don't miss it!!!!

As for recommendations, it's easier if you ask...either in this thread or with a pm. If you continue this thread, you will have answers from more people than me and I don't claim to know it all...

my fingers are tired now...
/Ian

 

[falloutphil]

Thanks very much for the information - a few more points below:

Viz; well...here I can't help you...two years ago, the viz was great in winter, this year - not so good...(even cancelled the 2nd dive some days cuz it was so crappy...)...For the northern part of Oman - Muscat and up - it's usually better in the summer time...say from May and onwards.... Down near Salalah, you can't dive during the monsoon...can't as in impossible...dive centers close...
You have to roll your dice and take your chance... Around Muscat, the viz is between 5-20m, normally about 7-10m, around the Dimaniyats 3-25, normally 10-15m
But no one can assure you of good viz...

Cheers - I appreicate there are never any certainties with this - my last diving in Thailand was totally marred by poor viz, but like you say no guarentees. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going at a time when viz was known to be typically terrible, for example.

I haven't got anything firm booked up yet but I would guess that my diving will be concentrated around Muscat, with a good chance of a visit up to the Daymaniyats, and perhaps a little further - depending on hotels and other stuff to do. However I won't be venturing as far as Salalah.

In April / May, the temp starts going up...usually the temp hits 40+ sometime around mid-May, but again, you never know...we've had high temps end of March some years..

Doesn't sound too bad - I can probably survive that!

Al Munnassir Wreck - been there a couple of times...it's a good wreck! Unfortunately they forgot to scrape off the paint before they scuttled it so it hasn't really started to develop into a reef yet...you can penetrate it, make sure the dive center allows you to do that though...max depth 31m (prop), min depth 10m, length 84m, width ~16m
Compared to Thistlegorm? Well, there is no background, no myth, no legends, nothing in the cargo holds, no up-side down wellingtons above the flatbeds. It's a stripped coastguard frigate, but it's a good dive!! You won't have any of the currents you probably had on Thistlegorm, you don't have to get up at 4.30 in the morning to get there and you won't have 40 boats there...If in Muscat, don't miss it!!!!

Ah yes - I won't miss getting up in the middle of the night to dive again! I was staying an hour from Sharm (Dahab) when I dived the Thistlegorm and it was a very, very long day! Worth it tho

From what you've said I think I'll have to give this wreck a blast too.

my fingers are tired now...
/Ian

Thanks again Ian, that's given me a much better idea of what diving should be like around Muscat and helped me out with information about the time of year - it's just a case of crossing my fingers now ,

Phil.

 

[Ian T]

If you need any help, let me know...

Cheers
Ian

(with rested fingers)