Travelogue Oman 2019
Ras Al Jinz, Ras Al Hadd, Sur
In the desert we had told Caroline and JP that we wanted to go to the Turtle Reserve of Ras Al Jinz next. The two of them spontaneously joined us and so we drove north together.
If one wants to visit the Turtle Reserve, one has the choice between the hotel complex directly in the reserve or a hotel outside. There is a guided tour every evening and every morning to the beach where the turtles lay their eggs. We wanted to do both tours and if you stay at the Reserve, these tours are included. Together with the advantage of already being on site, the decision for us was clear: stay overnight directly in the reserve.
We were at the reserve at a time when there are rather few turtles to be seen. Still, there were many tourists, I guess there were at least fifty. We were split into smaller groups and then walked to the beach with a guide each.
In the Ras Al Jinz Reserve, great importance is attached to offering ecologically compatible tourism. As a result, the guides only use red glowing flashlights and always make sure that the tourists stand in such a way that the turtle does not see them. With my very amateurish experience, I do wonder if this is really necessary, because it always seems to me that these turtles have a set genetic program running when they lay eggs, and nothing can interfere with them. But what do I know.
Anyway, on our night tour, which started around eight o’clock, we saw turtles digging holes and laying eggs … plop, plop, plob. On our morning tour, which started at about five o’clock, we saw turtles filling up their holes again with sand and returning to the sea in the light of sunrise. We just didn’t see any turtles come right out of the water nor any baby turtles hatch. The following photos can only give a very vague impression of our experience here, with the morning tour photos being much better due to the lighting conditions. If you are also coming to the area, you should not miss a visit to the reserve.
Now a little walk on the beach, then breakfast and after check-out we went on to Ras Al Hadd, where we spent another two hours in the sea and on the beach. I did some snorkeling and saw a few turtles (insanely elegant and insanely fast underwater!) and maybe even a small manta ray (if not, it was a another kind of ray).
At this point Caroline and JP said goodbye to us, they headed back to the mountains, we made a flying visit to the town of Sur and then headed back to the capital for a night.
Our side trip to Sur was quite nice. We walked criss-cross through the town, saw modern palaces, old houses, a ship museum … Sur has a long seafaring and shipbuilding tradition. That was quite nice, but if you don’t have much time, I think you can leave Sur unvisited.
Between Ras Al Hadd and Sur we had an encounter with a swarm of locusts. It wasn’t biblical proportions with darkened skies, but impressive nonetheless.
