I only had a short time in Oman (4 full days), so I opted for staying at Al Mouj and enjoying 2 days of diving at the Daymaniyat Islands. I chose to dive with Mola Mola Divers, as they had good customer service/responses via WhatsApp, an informative website, and good reviews. All the boat trips to the Islands have an early start - for Mola Mola we met at the dive shop at 8am.

After leaving Al Mouj, the boat has to cross an open stretch of ocean. This is often when you can be lucky enough to spot whale sharks during whale shark season (July - late September)! If a whale shark is spotted, the boat crew will stop the boat and let the guests slip in to snorkel with the whale shark. It is fairly rare to see the whale sharks whilst diving at the Islands. Unfortunately, on the 2 days that I was diving there was a fair amount of chop and swell which meant that it would be impossible to spot a whale shark. The swell also meant the boat ride was a little… bumpy. So if you suffer from sea sickness, be sure to take some tablets with you.

The Islands are a striking barren rocky landscape, with bright white sand beaches nestled in little coves (reminding me a little of the Galapagos Islands). These numerous coves provide calm waters for the snorkel and novice dive experiences. My first dive was in one of these coves at a site called Black Tip in the Eastern Islands. It was actually my favourite dive of the 4 that I did. The dive starts off in the sheltered shallows, then heads a little deeper towards the outside of the cove. I was pleasantly surprised by the healthy live coral coverage, expansive soft coral gardens, and tons of fish including schooling snapper, and several octopus. The other dives I did over the 2 days were Noodles (Eastern Islands), and Sierra and Walid Junn (Western Islands). The boat entry and exit at the Western Island dive sites were a lot more exposed, and with the swell on those days it made getting back on the boat a bit more difficult. Although not as much live coral cover at these other 3 sites, there was still plenty of fish life to see including schooling catfish, some large pufferfish, lionfish, scorpionfish, morays and plenty of reef fish. There was even a few cheeky appearances by sea turtles at Walid Junn, and surprisingly many octopus sightings at all the sites - including one walking out in the open, fending off attacking damselfish! I had hoped to see whale sharks and leopard sharks on this trip. With the swell crushing my chances with the whale sharks, I was holding out hope for a leopard shark and dutifully checked under rocky overhangs and behind boulders as I cruised over the seabed. But, it seems the leopard sharks are a bit more elusive than you’d hope. Our dive boat was split in to 3 groups of divers (~4 divers per group with 1 divemaster) and the group in front of mine spotted a leopard! But sadly, it had scarpered before we reached that point. Here’s your friendly reminder to please respect the wildlife and resist the urge to stick your GoPro in their face! This way, they may stick around for other divers to enjoy them (from a distance).

The dive boat provided lunch between the first and second dive. Usually the lunch will be a beach picnic, but during the turtle nesting season (May 1 - November 1) the islands are closed to people and lunch is served on the boat. As a turtle nesting site, turtles are frequently seen in the water, especially by the snorkellers. If you have non-diving friends or family with you, they can opt for a snorkel trip to the islands. There are plenty of snorkel tour operators at Al Mouj. I was visiting Oman with my Mum who was keen to join a snorkel trip. This was another pro for Mola Mola as they also offer snorkel tours, so we were able to head to their dive centre together in the morning, and venture out on our respective dive and snorkel boats. We both found the Mola Mola dive and snorkel guides and boat captains to be really friendly and welcoming. I particularly liked that the dive guides on my boat Juan and Morgan were respectful to marine life and championed good dive practices (discouraging dive guests who were annoyingly and unnecessarily reef hooking directly on to live coral). They also told me about Mola Mola’s clean up practices, where they close up shop for a day and clean up some of the dive sites at the Islands - unfortunately, even though the Islands are protected, ghost nets and monofilament fishing line frequently appear. On just my 2 dives at the Western Islands I saw at least 5 ghost nets entangles in the coral and stretching between coral outcrops. It was really sad to see, and quite concerning to see a sea turtle resting in between two of these ghost nets. So, kudos to Mola Mola for making the effort to remove as many of these nets as they can!