I had never been to the Middle East until December 2023, when I broke my journey to Australia with a week-long stopover. My brother has lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for over a decade, and it felt long overdue to visit his neck of the woods… or rather, his stretch of the desert. The impressions it made still persist. (More in this Blog)

One place in particular is currently in the forefront of my mind: the Musandam peninsula, perched at the northern tip of Oman, just two hours east of Dubai and 30 miles of sea from Iran. Cut off from the rest of the country, it is only accessible via the United Arab Emirates. 

My brother and I were heading there for two reasons. The first was pure thrill. The peninsula is home to the longest zip wire over water in the world. We flew across the 1770-metre stretch, delighting in the soft landscape and warm air once our initial screams and laughter had died down

The second reason was considerably quieter. Musandam’s coastline is carved into a pattern of beautiful fjords that have earned it the title ‘the Norway of Arabia’. These inlets – or khors – are so deep, they almost detach the limestone cliffs from the mainland, leaving them to float like islands into the Strait of Hormuz – a hotspot of current news, and the focus of one of the most irresponsible and avoidable conflicts in recent history. 

There is so much chatter and debate about this region across all media. It is heartbreaking and rage-inducing to imagine that life there is threatened, along with so much more. I don’t want to add to the noise, other than to invite you to join me on a dhow as I relive the peace, the people, the dolphins and fish, the light and gentle colours of what is, to me, one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to.

May this war, and all the others in the region, end soon.