Sensational Symbiosis

Out diving yesterday, I stumbled across a cool example of two species appearing to live together quite happily - a hole in the sand on the sea bed, with a shrimp inside busily excavating, and two small goby fish just by the entrance looking like they were guarding the hole. When I got nearer, all three dived into the hole, so I backed off a bit and watched them get back to work - the shrimp beavering away, the gobies keeping an eye out.

So, because I am officially a fish geek now, I came home to find out if this was a normal thing to see ... and it turns out that yes, the gobies and shrimp do indeed have a symbiotic relationship, with the shrimp bringing digging skills to the party while the gobies make up for the shrimp's poor eyesite. Cue Lord? Sir? Attenborough ...



But wait, it gets even cooler. I noticed that my little shrimp had one claw much bigger than the other, and again it turns out that this symbiotic relationship is particularly common between some types of goby and the snapping shrimp or pistol shrimp - a contender for 'loudest animal in the sea'. This is an animal that produces killer soundwaves - really! And the soundwaves are so powerful that the pressure of the collapsing bubble from the snapping claw produces heat of 4,700 degrees C (the sun's surface is about 5,500 degrees C) and a quick flash of sonoluminesence - invisible to the naked eye, but light nonetheless. A tiny shrimp that can kill small fish with a sound - you can't make this stuff up ...

Sometimes life's a beach ...

I've been busier than a one-armed bricklayer in Baghdad recently (to quote the great man Kenny), but life has also taken me to Salalah quite a bit, and on my last trip I FINALLY managed to get a full weekend in to head out of town properly and explore the coast. Diving season hasn't yet started, so I'll have to report on the sea life at a later date, but for now let me introduce you to the coastline itself ...


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First we headed west, towards the Yemen border. Not far out of Salalah, the mountains that ring Salalah meet the sea, with amazing cliffs, rocks tumbling into the sea and some beautiful little hidden coves ...

Cliffs overhead

A future camping spot, I think ...

Rocky coastline

At several points, the coast flattens out and leaves space for some really beautiful and blessedly quiet beaches ...

Vassia beach

Crab hills and a happy pooch looking for dinner ...

Colours and textures that dreams are made of ...

On a different day, we headed east out of Salalah, which has a completely different coast - the hills are further back, the sea is smoother and shallower, and at this time of year the kelp and seaweed brings a completely different ecosystem and palate.

A lonely landscape between the beach and hills...

... but the sea brings colour and life

A seashore resident

Shells encrusted on the rocks

But whichever kind of desolate stunning coastline you visit from Salalah, the end of the day brings the same rewards - a nice cold beer, sunset and smiles ...

Life is hard ...

Lazy days in Zanzibar

Well, as many of you will know, I've just got back from a short week's holiday in Zanzibar - just the name sounds exotic, and the reality is indeed truly delicious. Coming from dusty hot Oman, Zanzibar was a riot of colours, all to be enjoyed at a slow, gentle pace and at a comfortable temperature ...

Lush trees cover the island

Seaside shades of blue

The daily riot of colour at sundown

It was never going to be a hectic holiday - for my longest break since the beginning of the year, relaxation was always top of the agenda. Happily for me, Nungwi, on the northern tip of Zanzibar's main island, is still beautiful and relaxing despite apparently having been the site of massive development over the past few years. It may have changed beyond all recognition for the locals, and some parts are relatively built-up - and I dread to think what water and rubbish problems there might be lurking behind the scenes. Still, the people were almost universally friendly and pretty easy-going, and the buildings seem to use local materials and employ lots of local staff - still a holiday resort, but Benidorm it ain't ...

One of the more hectic bays -
and this was by far its busiest moment

Enjoying one of the newer bars after a hard days diving

The beach in front of our hotel -
no jostling to get your beach towel down here

Our hotel was a pretty typical example of the developments. The vast majority of the occupants were Italians on all-inclusive deals. However, after my Sharm Al Shaykh experience this year, this was pretty much the opposite - laid-back, comfortable, with individual touches and lots of smiles. We were only on a bed-and-breakfast deal and had plenty of decent food in other hotels and restaurants in nearby bays - although the seafood and salads on offer at the hotel were actually pretty delicious, and the barbecued tuna was truly memorable. Even the one day we came across one of those 'organised activities' - aqua aerobics in the bar pool - it was amusing rather than annoying, and certainly didn't stop us from enjoying our leisurely coffee (or was it already mojitos by then?)

The bed on arrival - we hardly dared sleep on it!

Our little cottage

View from the cottage down to the sea ...

There is lots to do and visit on Zanzibar - Stonetown is a World Heritage site, spice plantations, rural village tours, and remote islands to visit. I am both proud and disappointed to say that we did NONE of these things. In fact, I think our laziest day involved slowly getting up, eventually walking 100m down the beach to a cafe, and at some point later walking the 100m back ... however, we did manage to go diving for the first three days, which I guess some people would call being active, and at least involved seeing some of the rest of the island from our happy little boat.

Chicateen, Idi and Usman provide music and smiles galore

Coping with the pace

The diving itself was awesome - although the visibility wasn't always great, and the currents were sometimes against us, I went deeper than I've ever been and we saw some truly amazing stuff. No photos of my own I'm afraid, but here are a couple of the amazing animals we got to play with.

Leaf scorpionfish

Several sites had forests of coral plates

A Helmet Gurnard - they spread their 'wings' when startled
and 'run' off across the sand

Linda's flatworm - one of many weird and wonderful nudibranches

A Seagrass Pipefish - amazing camouflage,
and really hard to spot!

Thornyback Cowfish - a cute little thing
who seemed to want to play!

So, all in all, Zanzibar is a place I will definitely be going back to - to do more relaxing, more of the diving, and I might even stir myself into some tourism. For this trip though it was the good company, the culinary experiences, and the beauty above and below the water that made this, for me, a true paradise island ...

punting Zanzibar style - slow but sure ...

The end of another perfect day ...

There's always a reason to smile ...

I may have had to take out my first mortgage to pay for car repairs this week (grrr), but this sign at the garage did sweeten the pill a little ...

Five a day in Salalah

Salalah is famous for its green hills during monsoon and for being the centre of the old frankincense trade. But it is also the fruit garden of Oman, and there are huge forests of fruit trees throughout the city.

Trees groaning with papaya

Soon to be a lovely bunch of bananas

It is pretty much obligatory to stop at the side of the road at one the many many fruit stalls, and walk away with mountains of weird and wonderful fruit ...

Wares in front, plantations behind ...

Fresh tamarind

Colours to delight the eye as well as the palate

And after all that hard fruit sampling and bargaining, there's nothing like a nice fresh coconut to rehydrate - yummy AND virtuous tourism, what bliss!

Bring it on ...

The green green grass of ...

Oman? Really? By now you faithful followers will have seen plenty of pictures like the one below - although I do love it for oh so many reasons, Oman can generally best be described as desolately beautiful ...

But there is a little corner that bucks the trend - Salalah, down in the south of the Oman, gets the tail end of the monsoon. Most of the time it's as dry and barren as the rest of the country, but for three months of the year a strip of hills about ten kilometres wide around the city of Salalah is transformed from another desert dustbowl into something completely different ...

On the hilltops, a layer of cloud slowly rises and then falls throughout the day, so that Salalah itself is shrouded in fog in the mornings and evenings.

Redundant sun loungers at the Crowne Plaza

The hills themselves are almost permanently foggy, and after months of sunshine and blues skies (apologies to all those in the UK!), it's actually surprisingly pleasant to sit on wet grass and peer through the mist at trees and rolling hills - more south Wales than the Middle East ...

OK, so it's still 23 degrees, but still so refreshing!

Just needs some sheep, and maybe a hippy looking for those mushrooms 

The valleys down near Salalah have an altogether different feel to them - less British-summertime and more Asian-jungle. No waterfalls when I visited, but they do apparently come crashing down in June and July when the rain really kicks off, and we can certainly see the verdant bounty that all the rain brings ...

Another world ...

The waterfall has run dry, but its work is done 

Sussex or the Gulf?

Happy goats munching

A strange form of lichen ...

The rainbow colours of Oman's rare lushness

It's a rock and roll country

Oman has a bit of a reputation as the quiet, traditional corner of the Gulf - although compared to the 'buzzing metropolis' (= ugly consumerism and concrete jungle) of Dubai, this is definitely a good thing!

Still, even I thought that this story on page 3 of a national newspaper made Oman sound pretty dull - it certainly won't be dragging me away from my crocheting ...