[arunu]

It was a long weekend + Eid holidays. Had recently relocated to Oman and had not been to any of the wonderful places in and around Muscat. These holidays presented the right opportunity to explore this wonderful place. And we did just that.

On a Saturday early morning, three of us started to Qantab Beach. Its about 40kms from the city and famous for its scenic beauty.

There is a private harbour, so to say, where all the rich and famous park their private boats / yachts / water jets etc and have fun during the weekends.



The harbour building has some wonderful facilities for snorkling, scuba diving, adventure fishing, speed boats and other water sports.

Our agenda was to go on a 3 hr boat trip to deep sea and watch dolphins, sharks and whales in the wild.

Massive engines, Honda has virtual monopoly in this segment. Almost all boats had the same engines.



Vintage Teak wood boats. Perfectly preserved and still in use







The old and new co-exist in perfect harmony.


Modern yachts.



The streak left behind by our boat.



Lone fisherman in the deep. Notice how he balances on one foot and controls the accelerator with the other... Neat


Our boat travelled for about an hour into deep sea and suddenly slowed down. Our captain had sighted something...Shhhhh shark fins.




No, actually these are bottle-nose dolphins












A Macro shot of the water bubble


The Shangrilla Spa and Restort Hotel. Beautiful..


Wall in the middle of nowhere.


Hole in the WALL



Close up of the wall. And yes, we went through the HOLE



and Emerged successfully from the other side,




Back to port, Private cruise of Royalty.


Some more classics





And last but not the least


It was an awesome experience since this was my first deep sea boat ride and to see hundreds of wild dolphins and other fish all around you was beautiful experience.

Many of you may feel, that there are no clear snaps of dolphins, but believe me its very very difficult to take pics of these animals since they dont jump out of water (as shown on NGC - Discovery or may be they need some training to pose for cameras) but just skim the surface for fresh air and dive back.

"Photo voto chodo dost, bhavanaonko samjho"

[abhinav.s]

Stunning pics of the dolphins though they are not jumping out of the water like you said.

Did you see any other animals in the sea apart from dolphins?

[Joy]

Great dolphin pics in the wild and also of the yachts. Please post some more pics.

Originally Posted by abhinav.s

.....
Did you see any other animals in the sea apart from dolphins?

+1 to that. Please do let us know asap.

[chethan.ram]

The pictures are very nice, especially the ones taken in the sea are brilliant.

[rjstyles69]

arun brilliant set of pictures there mate. First things 1st, looks like your camera/lens has company. I can see a spec of fungus on every image (blue skies) towards the top right of the image.

Many of you may feel, that there are no clear snaps of dolphins,

Definitely not these are some of the best shots of dolphins I have seen here, at-least on tbhp. Here's what we got after 4 hours of dolphin spotting. It has more to do with the timing and how quick you are with your camera.

but believe me its very very difficult to take pics of these animals since they dont jump out of water (as shown on NGC - Discovery or may be they need some training to pose for cameras)

Well its just that people from NGC and Discovery have all the time in the world and they would ideally end up spending days together to get one lovely shot.

[arunu]

Originally Posted by abhinav.s

Stunning pics of the dolphins though they are not jumping out of the water like you said.

Did you see any other animals in the sea apart from dolphins?

Originally Posted by Joy

Great dolphin pics in the wild and also of the yachts. Please post some more pics.



+1 to that. Please do let us know asap.

Originally Posted by chethan.ram

The pictures are very nice, especially the ones taken in the sea are brilliant.

Thanks Abhinav,Joy,Chetan. We saw a few coral reef sharks, not too big, about 3-4 feet. Also saw some wiered looking thing (later identified as jelly fish). Our guide informed us that if we ventured further deep into the sea, we could see large dolphins, sharks and whales if lucky.

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

arun brilliant set of pictures there mate. First things 1st, looks like your camera/lens has company. I can see a spec of fungus on every image (blue skies) towards the top right of the image.

Thanks RJ, I too noticed the fungus during processing the images. Lens is already at the service centre for cleaning.

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

these are some of the best shots of dolphins I have seen here, at-least on tbhp. Here's what we got after 4 hours of dolphin spotting. It has more to do with the timing and how quick you are with your camera..

Thanks for the kind words. Forgot to mention the camera details. NikonD80 DSLR, 18-155 and 50-200.

[Abes]

There is a place by name Hashek, some 200kms from Salalah in Oman, where you can see dolphins from the sea shore itself.

Watch the dolphins in the sea:

video

and some photos, from Hashek!

[TaureanBull]

Awesome pics.i am sure it must have been a wonderful experience. How about the cost? Was it expensive? Do they have the glass boats?

[anujmishra]

This thread helped me memorising starting phase of my career, when I was involved in development of VTMS (Vessel Traffic Management System) for NorControlIT. One of the largest VTMS provider having customer like Singapore Port, Most of the African ports, Suez Canal etc.

In India, I used to go to Haldia port near Kolkata and it was nice view of surroundings we used to get from there. I also have some film images in album but do not know where I have kept that album.

Keep posting.

[Fauji]

Thanks Anuj for sharing.

Oman is a beautiful country and the only country in the Arabian gulf - apart from Yemen - blessed with green expanse in Salalah area. Its beaches are pristine and water is crystal clear. Add to it the beauty of Dolphins. It brought back fond memories of our visit to the beautiful city of Muscat in 2000. We spent five days - was a business trip - there but could not go to Salalah area. A country worth exploring - beaches, souks, wadis etc....