I awoke at 5:45 AM to the Call to Prayer coming from Sharbithat. I sat up in my dew covered sleeping bag just in time to catch the sun popping up behind a distant mosque. The sights and sounds were almighty. We really are on the other side of the world. Then I turned to the crashes of waves and they were calling me. I jumped up and grabbed my Winston and went for a hike.
The beach is a spectacle but the waves were big and hard to handle. It was already in the 80°s but I didn’t feel like getting wet to make some decent casts. There were some bait balls that looked quite relaxed telling me to save my efforts. I decided to return to camp and make some instant coffee.
After coffee we broke camp and ventured into Sharbithat. It’s a big time fishing village right on yet another gorgeous beach. The people are curious but friendly and almost everyone gives us a wave.
Out the other side of town the road ends (even though it continues on my map). Here the beach finishes abruptly and a jagged rocky outcrop stretches out to the ocean blue. I studied hard from shore to see if it looked fishable. From our point of view it looked impossible.
I don’t give up too quick and talked Granny into putting on the OceanTeks and joining me for a hike out on the rocks. She’s a trooper. With the rocks and hiking above the water it was probably around 110° F.
My first peek over the edge proved there were fish. Far from my reach two massive fish, I suspect giant trevally, patrolled several bait balls. We watched them for five minutes before they disappeared. There were lots of other fish as well, mostly parrots and other reef fish, not normal fly rod quarry. I needed to climb down to a place to cast. Soon I was in an extremely precarious position.
I’m not sure what I’d of done if I hooked up to anything. The closest I got to the water still had me fifteen feet up and the tide was dropping. The rocks were jagged and chunks rolled under my feet. I slipped several times. No doubt I was gambling with my safety. A false move and the trip was over and possibly more. I cast blind for an hour or so and had some looks from several largespot pompano but that was it.
When I got back up top Granny was ready to bolt. It may have very well been 120° F and this is no lie or exaggeration. 120°s are common inland temps in Oman in April. We had only coffee in us and she was hungry and hot. We opted to hike back and organize some food.
Near where we parked were some abandoned buildings. I pulled the RAV4 up next to one and we moved in. There was a cement porch and plenty of shade. Even I was hot and after breakfast I got comfy and pulled out my computer and wrote yesterday’s blog.
We didn’t leave our shaded haven until about 4 PM. We decided to keep exploring south so we hopped in the rental and continued our journey. We drove along the water for more than 100 km. There are no people and hardly any signs of humans for that matter. We stopped and briefly fished several places and picked up two more potato groupers. They were smaller than the ones yesterday so we released both.
Eventually the road left the ocean and we meandered up some mountains and into the desert. The terrain has changed impressively as we move south. Naturally the map didn’t match our drive and we felt lost again. The nice thing about our schedule however is that we didn’t care. We have food water and a little ice left and ability to camp anywhere. This place looked like Mars!
We’ve ended up camped on a beach on the outskirts of Shuwaymiya. It’s a trippy place to say the least. There’s more camels walking around chewing on cardboard than people. The beach was extremely soft here so we didn’t drive up to the edge of the water like usual. Being we didn’t catch us a fish for dinner, tonight was back to the pasta.
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