Our original plan was to rent a tent for our overnight stay, go turtle watching, get back to our tent, watch the stars and have fun until the morning comes. But some unexpected things happened and we were instead taken on a roller-coaster kind of trip.
The Plan
The Nomads will take a turtle watching trip to Ras Al Jinz together with the Solanos: Donie, Glenda, Jacob and David, Dr. Saji, Art, Emil, Jude and Merce, and Miss Belle. We will rent a tent that can accommodate ten persons and attached to a comfort room. Donie will marinade chicken for our night barbecue. We will be in two cars. The Solanos will be in another trip in the morning and so, they will join us in the afternoon. ETD: 1:00pm, sharp.
The Night Before
We went to a Pinoy party to celebrate two birthdays. After enjoying the food and having some friendly chat with our fellow Pinoys, we left to prepare ourselves for the coming trip. However, the Mahjongers, where Art, Emil, and Sir Jude were co-founders had one session that has taken a bit long (they finished just after sunrise) and it has contributed to some of our fun later.
The Morning of the Trip
What a morning it is. I woke up with an early message on my phone: The Solanos will not be able to join us. It is a very sad news since Utoy is expecting to be able to play with David and Jacob and Bossing is hoping to have some motherly talk with Glenda. And of course, Donie will be missing from the fun that is about to unfold. As a consolation however, he left the chicken for our barbecue in the night. So their presence will still be felt by us.
Mam Belle also had some issues and she will not be able to join us. So in that fateful morning, our group was instantly diminished by five. One good news however, is that one nature-loving, free-spirited colleague will be joining us, Mam Marie.
One last downer is that from our 1:00pm ETD that was planned the night before was moved to 2:30pm to let the Mahjongers recover. Well anyway, the best news is that we will still go on with our trip.
Departure and the Looonnngggg Trip to Ras Al Jinz
Our departure time of 2:30 was moved a little bit more and then we still have to buy some stuff and to round them all up, we officially started our trip by about three in the afternoon. Along the way, we stopped for some karak, that was ginger-milk-tea, and ice cream for Utoy sponsored by Dr. Saji. We chatted and laughed along the way except for Art, who is busily enjoying his hobby which sounds like this: zzzzzzzzz.
Wilayat of Sur Embraced Us with a Warm Welcome
It is almost 5pm when we reached Sur and it is still literally warm, about 40 degrees Centigrade. We bought some stuff: additional food, charcoal, ice, etc…
On the other side of the street where we bought our stuff, we saw one stall that was selling dates. We bought some and this was our first taste of these delicious dates of the season.
Ras Al Jinz Turtle Reserve Center
By 6:00pm, we were able to reach the turtle reserve center. They were offering two turtle watching tours daily, one at 9:00pm and another at 4:00am. The 9:00pm schedule was fully booked so we made a reservation for the dawn trip. After making the reservation comes the task of finding the tents for our night stay.
Our Quest for the Tents and the Beach
It was now dark all around and our pathfinder, Doc Saji was navigating by memory. He saw one trail leading to the beach. There was one car with Omanis inside so he asked for some directions to make sure that the trail leads to the beach. There was however lots of crossroads and within no time, we have to ask for some directions again. Luckily the Omanis by the roadside were the typical Omanis, always concerned about others. They followed knowing that it will be tough for us to find the way so they came and led us on the way to the beach.
The beach that we found is not the one that we are expecting to find. It is dark all around and we are the only ones who were there on that time. To make matters more exciting, Sir Jude’s car got stuck in the sand. With the help of our new friends though, one of them was named Khalid, we were able to get the car out. Khalid advised us to build our tents near a place that he said will be very convenient and safe for us — a mosque.
Barbecue and Dinner in the Dark
The long trip made all of us hungry so we started to prepare our dinner. We laid a mat on the sand and we started the fire for our chicken barbecue and hotdogs. We enjoyed the food and the experience of being out of the comfort of our homes and being in the warmth of the company of our friends.
The Crabs
After dinner, we started our turtle watch. Like fireflies bearing our own little lamps we patrolled the shoreline. There were some flipper tracks by the sands which got us excited. We also found some egg shells and we were now so excited to see the reasons that brought us to this shore of Ras Al Jinz, the sea turtles.
But the night has been so long and we were not able to see a single turtle yet. On our patrol of the beach we suddenly found something that made Emil so mad, or excited, or I don’t know… See the picture below and guess what.
We chased and caught those crabs until we got tired of running and laughing. Then we got back to our camp site and prepared to go pitch our tents. The breeze by then was a little bit strong so we decided not to put up the tents and just lay our mats on the sand and sleep under the cover of the sky. With all the shimmering lights of the stars and the heavenly bodies above.
Turtle Watch
Art and I were really intent on seeing those nesting turtles so we made rounds on the shore every half hour or so but luck was not on our side. Maybe even the gods and goddesses of the sea were mad at us because of our rift with the crabs. Maybe those gods are leading us to go to the Ras Al Jinz Turtle Reserve center so we can see those lovely creatures in the proper manner.
At about three in the morning, we woke up everyone and we prepared for the early morning ride to the turtle reserve center.
The Turtle Watching Tour
The trip to the center started with a familiar scene. Sir Jude’s car got stuck in the sand. We had to push it out again and we were just lucky to do so quickly maybe due to our practice the night before.
We reached our destination at about four in the morning. There are lots of other tourists there also by that time and since we came a bit late, we are to join the third and the last group of tourists for the dawn trip.
A tour guide and a driver took us to the beach on a bus. On our first stop, the guide went down by himself and went to the beach to look for nesting turtles. He obviously was unable to find one so we had to go to another spot.
On our second stop, both the driver and the guide searched for the turtles. When the guide came back he gestured for all of us to get down from the bus and form a semi-circle in front of him. I thought this is bad news.
He said there were no nesting turtles on that morning but on his hands were four cute little sea turtles. He laid them down on the sand and so we watched them and took photos of them as they raced to the open sea. I was thinking: are these creatures really that excited to reach the sea or are they so afraid of seeing us they have to run for cover?
So is that the end of our turtle watching trip? Well, it’s not yet over. We looked around until we spotted one turtle by the beach. The children with us as well as the adults got so excited and they started yelling and running to the turtle and she immediately returned to the sea.
The guide told us that we can stay at the beach for a while so we took our time to appreciate its beauty even more. We saw lots of tracks on the shore which tells that it is true that lots of turtles come to nest in this place. On one end of the beach, we even found some egg shells and some footprints of foxes. It is somewhat odd that the fox is a turtle-egg hunter.
Our legs got tired of roaming around so we sat on the beach together. It is when the excitement is gone and when we started gazing at the sea that we found the turtles that we are looking for. They are just a few meters away from the sea. We are disappointed that we cannot see them as closely as we imagined them to be. Maybe they are disappointed too that they cannot come to the beach and go on with their lives because we are there.
It is true that beauty must be judged and appreciated from a distance. When we get too close to examine something, it is science.
When our bus came back, I felt this inner peace. I may not be able to take our Utoy to see the turtles up close and personal but I saw that these creatures are not in danger in this place. We could always come back and hope that one day the gods of the sea may favor us and let us see the beauty of these creatures up close and personal. As for this trip, Utoy have to be content with this.
To Sum It All Up
The trip is a success despite some setbacks. We were able to sea the turtles of Ras Al Jinz and we were able to enjoy the beauty of nature. Our happiness be like
That’s all for this trip fellow Nomads.
Thank you for reading.
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