OMAN
Khasab
TELEGRAPH ISLAND Musandam Peninsula
OMAN Dubai EMIRATES
UNITED ARAB
YEMEN UAE SAUDI ARABIA OMAN
ARABIAN SEA
MUTTRAH FISH MARKET
WADI BANI AWF
MUSCAT
SULTAN QABOOS GRAND MOSQUE
50 miles
OMAN
Sultan Qaboos Mosque in Muscat is the largest in Oman and open to non-Muslims
GETTING THERE & AROUND Oman Air operates daily direct flights between Heathrow and Muscat.
omanair.com Average flight time: 7h. Oman doesn’t have a railway network, but there are comfortable, long- distance buses that run between major urban centres. The Musandam Peninsula is an exclave of Oman in the north — separated from the bulk of the country by the UAE — meaning that many people prefer to avoid the admin of crossing two borders by instead taking an hour-long flight from Muscat to Khasab with Oman Air. There are plans for an integrated bus and ferry route from Muscat to Khasab, avoiding the UAE, launching in August 2023.
omanair.com
mwasalat.om
of northern Europe have been formed by retreating glaciers, the khors of Musandam are the result of tectonic shifts — the Arabian plate being subducted by the Eurasian plate. The mountains are slowly submerging into the sea — shrinking a little more every year. “Perhaps it means one day there will be no
Musandam,” says Haneef. “Maybe now is a good time to come here.” Our dhow lays anchor beside the islet of
Jazirat al Maqlab, also known by the English name Telegraph Island, where a sea-urchin- encrusted flight of steps leads out of the shallows. I follow it to find foundations of old buildings baking in the midday sun. There is little to see; only a solitary tree casts a sliver of shade. Telegraph Island feels far from anywhere,
and yet this was once one of the most important locations in the British Empire. In the mid-19th century, it was home to a repeater station on the telegraph cable that ran from London to Karachi. Orders governing the world’s largest empire were relayed through this lonely plot on an Arabian ford. But things did not go to plan: molluscs chewed into the cables and locals menaced British interlopers from the mainland. The heat and boredom sent operators to insanity and worse. Two members of staff lost their lives. But the island, barely bigger than a football pitch, made its
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own contribution to our language — to make the circuitous trip down the khor and around the Strait of Hormuz was to go, in a literal sense, ‘round the bend’. Today Telegraph Island still might trigger
another kind of delirium — a mad infatuation with the surreal beauty of Musandam. I dive into the shallows as a silvery school of mackerel flashes past. Below me are angelfish, above are the dramatic heights of the mountains, themselves formed aeons ago from an oceanic crust, with fossils of fish bones found on the summits. Above and below the water, there is a sensation of wide-open space. The Arabian Peninsula is a region beset by conflict, obstructed by travel restrictions, fringed by futuristic cities and lavished with shopping malls. In this context, roaming Oman’s natural landscapes is an experience both precious and rare. At sunset, I drive the tracks up to the
highest point of Musandam. Down below there are countless vessels, including dhows and trawlers — the modern inheritors of an Omani seafaring tradition that dates back to legends of Sinbad the Sailor and Bronze Age boats sealed with bitumen. A blood-red sun lingers on the mountaintops, long after the land below becomes bathed in shadows and cools. It departs with a final flash: like the glint of a blade before it’s sheathed.
WHEN TO GO Peak season in Oman is between October and March, when temperatures dip to between 18C and 30C (though it’s often much cooler in the Hajar Mountains). Shoulder seasons in September and April can yield good deals but temperatures rise to an average of around 36C in September.
WHERE TO STAY Atana Musandam Resort. Doubles from 40 OMR (£85), B&B.
atanahotels.com Sama Hotel Jabal Akhdar. Doubles from 45 OMR (£93), B&B.
samahotel.net
MORE INFO
experienceoman.om Lonely Planet Oman, UAE & Arabian Peninsula. RRP: £19.99
HOW TO DO IT Wild Frontiers’ nine-day Northern Oman: Wadis, Mountains and Coasts group tour takes in Muscat, Wadi Bani Awf, castles and more, with possible extensions to Musandam. Prices start from £3,460 per person, including accommodation, most meals, guided excursions and transfers, but excluding international flights.
wildfrontierstravel.com
ARABIAN SEA
ILLUSTRATION: JOHN PLUMER
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