Wadi Shab and Ras Al Hadd

Big day today! We set off early to visit the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat before we really got on the road. The Grand Mosque is the largest mosque in Oman, has capacity for 20,000 worshippers and has the 2nd largest hand loomed carpet in the world (2nd after the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi).

After the mosque, we started our drive towards Ras Al Hadd. We stopped off at Bimmah Sinkhole for a short break. We didn't stop to swim as it was a bit crowded and we were soon stopping off at the most famous wadi in Oman - Wadi Shab. We drove another 20min to Wadi Shab, took a short boat ride and walked 45min to get to the swimming spot. The turquiose water was incredibly warm, and we spent a few hours swimming between the pools and caves in the canyon.

Afterwards, we set off for the last leg of the day - a 2hr drive to Ras Al Hadd, which is famous for turtle spotting. After settling into our guesthouse, we left around 8pm to go to a beach that was recommended by our host. After 20min of driving on a very bumpy road in our little Yaris, we found ourselves at a fishing beach which was very clearly the wrong location. We ended up driving back to a beach in town that was marked on Google Maps as 'Ras Al Hadd beach for turtles' to try our luck there. Within 5min of walking, we found our first little baby turtle! He was heading in the wrong direction, so Mike gave him an express ride to the ocean. No less than 2min later, Jamie spotted an entire nest of baby turtles hatching right behind us! We spent the next hour watching as baby turtles popped out of the sand, taking their first breaths and clambering towards the ocean. We were lucky enough to be the only ones on this beach to witness this moment. It was such an incredible day!Read more