On the first week of February, Twelve divers from Stratford-on-Avon dive club set off for a week on the Saman Explorer diving around the Hallaniyat islands. Two of us had been on this trip a couple of years ago and were impressed with the amount of life in the seas, hence the return trip with friends.

The travelling was effortless; we were picked up on time and arrived at the boat in the afternoon. The boat has had a recent refit and the quality is superb. We all thought it was the best liveaboard we had been on which includes several in the Red Sea and others in the Maldives and Indonesia. The refit had made it more like being in a hotel than a boat. All the cabins are a good size with separate showers rather than wet rooms so the loo rolls don’t get soaking wet. The deluxe cabin is fabulous with a huge bed, TV and lovely mood lighting (I was in two minds whether to stay there and forget the diving!).

The crew were all very helpful. Mustafa, who served the meals, was never without a big beaming smile and the food was of a high standard. It is worth noting that there was no-one who had any sort of stomach problems all week.

The first day we dived two wrecks near the coast. The visibility was poorer than we had expected but it had been – and still was – very windy, which perhaps stirred up the water. However, the fish life was phenomenal (perhaps due to the large number of plankton in the water).

The next day we went to the islands, where the water was clearer but still with huge numbers of fish. If we had seen them crammed  in an aquarium like that the RSPCA would have got involved! We also noticed that they were much larger than in the Egyptian Red Sea.

We saw many varieties of rays, huge shoals of fusiliers, all sorts of reef fish, huge groupers, and we were even treated to an afternoon of Humpback whales doing a display for us.

Karim is an excellent dive guide; in fact all of the staff on the boat were all very helpful and professional. The dive platform is huge and putting fins on is still easy, even when several people have gathered at the back ready to jump in.

The diving is different from the Egyptian Red Sea with very little hard and soft corals so therefore not so much colour, but the rock formations are lovely and being among so much life was magnificent. Although we didn’t see any sharks, the rays and whales more than made up for that and I found it better than liveaboard diving in the Maldives, mainly because of the sheer volume of life. For me, although it’s a bit more expensive than the Egyptian Red Sea, it’s well worth the extra to experience something totally different.

Hilary and her club booked their trip to Oman with UK-based tour operator Ultimate Diving. to find out more about the dive holidays Ultimate Diving offer visit www.ultimatediving.co.uk.