The beautiful country of Oman and how I nearly didn't get to see it...

Normally I prefer to make my own plans rather than go on group holidays, but an advert on Instagram from a professional travel photographer (Jord Hammond) who was arranging a photography workshop in Oman caught my eye.

And a couple of weeks later, I had booked. It seemed an interesting place to visit (which hadn’t featured on my list at all) plus there was an opportunity to do learn to use drones which I had been thinking about for a while.

After having duly acquired a drone, I have found that they are great fun for the owners, but very annoying/suspicious for everyone else, not least the Omani customs officials. Recreational flying is not only prohibited in Oman but you aren’t even allowed to bring one into the country without permission. But everything was taken care of by Jord Hammond's team, so I had a permit! Nonetheless it was going to involve a customs declaration and a fair amount of paperwork on arrival..

There was a frisson of excitement knowing I was carrying something generally prohibited, but strangely none of the scanners picked up either the drone or its batteries so in theory I could have left the airport with it.  That, however is against the rules (and could lead to serious complications later), so a declaration is needed.

My attempts to declare it to the customs officials hit a small snag that could have been avoided had I learnt the arabic for "drone". Instead, the official attempted to unpack my entire suitcase looking for anything that might resemble my charade-inspired depiction of one. I cannot describe the sense of panic as I mentally went through everything in my suitcase that might constitute an infringement...

Now, even with the correct paperwork, I don’t have a great track record of not falling foul of officialdom (or perhaps more correctly, officiousness) and so I was comforted that a representative from the workshop would soon be coming to assist me. He duly arrived and thereupon ensued just under an hour of consternation from many officials who, it might be assumed, would have had nothing to do all evening had it not been for my arrival. I left them to argue it out between them whilst I just stood there as everyone else went through “nothing to declare” looking at me as if I had been a very naughty boy.

But success ensued, and I left the airport, with drone, to begin my adventure in the beautiful country of Oman.