Team Banana in Musandam - Part 1

It’s ten O-clock and Team Banana has retired to their banana hammocks in early preparation for their first excursion to Musandam. Packed full to the skin with potassium they can’t sleep… way to excited. The Bananas are already awake when the time comes to slip out of bed at four.

The journey is over three hundred kilometres to the destination of Khasab, the northern most “town” in Oman and home to nothing except goats, lots and lots of goats. At seven thirty we reach Ras Al Khaimah, the final Emirate before the Omani boarder. A curry for breakfast with the local fishermen preludes our inspection of their fish market. We walk around familiarising ourselves with different species and mentally cultivating a hit-list. This is good inspiration for a day in the water. Our pleasant affair is marred somewhat when we witness a struggling goat being muscled in to the neighbouring slaughter house. A screech from a goat, a screech from a band-saw then silence. Yellow and White endures a rollercoaster of emotions during this brief visit to Ras Al Khaimah.

Team Banana enters Oman. After paying some dizzles (for Allah knows what) at the border we emerge into a different landscape. Sand dunes are replaced by rocky mountains, palm trees by acacia trees and people by goats. After persistent nagging Yellow gives in and lets White drive the much anticipated costal section. With no idea of the speed limit we cruise along the smooth undulating tarmac; the Arabian Gulf to our left and mountains to our right. Drive fast and enjoy the road or drive slowly and enjoy the view? Drive fast. Khasab, the final point of civilization before the unknown campsite. Unfortunately the only visible life-form is goats, so we continue.

There are more goats than people in Oman. Goats, here there everywhere, goats with short hair goats with long hair. Goats that eat leaves, goats that climb trees and goats with humongous balls.

Ten minutes out of Khasab things get desolate, looking out the window, you can see spartan mountains, dried up wadis (water holes), and goats; everything looks dehydrated. White, the Good Samaritan, refreshes a goat by tipping a bottle of drinking water on its head. Yellow is annoyed. We stop to "plank". Planking involves lying motionless on obscure objects as a source of amusement to the simple minded. We mess around in an emaciated wadi which is a mosaic of terracotta shards, all cracked up like Whitney Huston in the mid-nineties. We found a skull.

The final obstacle between us and the Omani Ocean is a dramatic mountain pass. We put the 4WD into low gear and climb a snaking gravel path that tracks the edge of a sheer cliff. The anticipation as we ascend is making our tummies fizz. White and Yellow reach the summit and lose control of their sphincter dilation muscles…‘fart’.­­

Y&W