Ok, getting up at 5:45am after the Stones Gig yesterday in Abu Dhabi was a bit difficult (back at the hotel at 2am) – but it was worth it. My driver picked me up at 6:30 and we drove to Dibba (Oman). I have never seen such a slow driver – ok, there was a lot of fog but still. Also he nearly STOPPED before every speed bump and there are quite a few. On the freeway he drove like 65 (allowed 120)… so it took as a bit longer (2.5 hours) – but hey, I was sleeping all the time anyways so not a big deal! I shouldn’t think about German driving in UAE 🙂
The dive shop was small but really cool. Very relaxed and everything worked out smoothly. Nice staff! So we prepared everything and made our way to the boat. After about 1 hour boatride we were at the dive site – FINALLY!!! 🙂
The first dive was ok in the beginning. Visibility ok but not great, a few corals, many fish. All ok. But then it turned into an unforgettable dive: a Leopard Shark. Whoohoo!!! First I saw him in the blue but at the time I alerted my buddy he was gone. After a minute or two I turned around to my dive buddy and the shark was just behind her! How nice! So we followed him a bit and he took off again. After some more diving my buddy and I decided to turn around and look for the shark again. We found him laying in the sand and chilling 🙂
Some extensive picture session started now but he took off again… Now the rest of the group came along and guess what: we found the shark again! He was really calm and I’m not sure if I ever have been that close to a shark this size before (except maybe on the great barrier reef – when a white tip was head on to me and my camera – and I only realized afterwards that I turned the camera OFF instead of ON!)
Result: an unforgettable dive!!!
Second dive was not as good. Visibility was not as good and there wasn’t much to see. On top of this I accidentally came too close to sea urchin and felt the effects in my left hand for a couple of days 🙂 (and this while filming some Clownfish – where I have days of film material already! – if it would have been for something really special, but noooo – just for some more same video of clownfish……)
Going back two hours with the same driver showed some stunning views from the north of the UAE. Some of these mountains already screamed at me: climb me! climb me! climb me! 🙂
