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Catching up

Apologies for the long absence.  Can't even claim that we were too busy, but around here time has a strange way of passing both quickly and slowly at the same time. You find yourself at the end of the day wondering where has the time gone and what have we done today to make this day count. To our regret we must admit that a lot is simply wasted on thinking about how bloody hot it has become all of a sudden. Summer attacks suddenly here in Saudi.  One day you drive across the Country with the wind in your hair and sleep under down duvets quite happily and the very next you want to climb out of your skin in 42 degrees which then relentlessly stays for at least the next 3 months. As I am sitting here in my kitchen with all the windows open to let the air just stir a bit around me, I am dripping with sweat. I can see my fingerprints making little damp puddles on my tablet screen. Hot is one thing...hot and humid quite another. Enough of this! Mind over matter should bring us back ...
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The roses of Taif

The weekend gone by was possibly the last one we had to squeeze an extra few hours out of before work would demand that Robert would have to spend at least some weekends...Well...Working.  We both came down with a mysterious bug that floored us totally for 36hrs on the Wednesday night before our Thursday (Saudi Friday) weekend kicks off. The worst fever, headache, lungs shutting down and muscle spasms you could imagine. Just when we thought it might be a good idea to see a doctor before we croak, it disappeared just as miraculously as it arrived. It left us battered and bruised.  Mind over matter, pack the Cruiser and let's just keep moving, we decided.   As usual, it is up to me to select a route and get all our stuff ready while Robert does a bit of work. When he gets home, we can just pop everything into the car and off we go. Without fail, I remember everything and always study the history, facts, sites to see, best route options for us and pitfalls along the way tha...
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Empty quarter

Brave or stupid, call us what you want, but we set off and found the road that we wanted to the Empty Quarter.  You can take an easy option and go on the tar roads all the way down the side of the UAE border, or you can do it the hard way - like us - and go off road. As we all know very well, the desert is not something to be taken lightly. Precautions were taken... We bought new fashion flat plastic jerry cans for extra fuel, we took extra water and we took a bit of extra food just in case of a breakdown. Our normal gear always includes some recovery stuff, a multi purpose little spade and our camping must-haves.  We try to keep it as light as possible simply because when it comes to off-roading you don't need a lot of stuff making noise and hopping around behind you and it is much easier to set up camp every night when you have less to unload after a hard day's travel. Going to the Empty Quarter is hard travelling and to boot, Summer all of a sudden showed up and it was a wh...
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The dog

Lonelyness is something the expat wife has a constant battle with. If you are not careful you can quickly fall into the various bad habits that we see plenty of around us. From becoming more and more reclusive and self-absorbed to drinking all day long, to staying in bed all day long, to getting fat and bitchy...We have seen it all. Since i could feel myself slipping into the reclusive catagory, i started to nag about getting a dog.  There are a few problems with having dogs in Saudi Arabia. If you want a 'Western' dog (any known breed from another Country), you will have to write a cheque for up to 10 000riyal (roughly 2 500 USD) and it needs a passport, a microchip, all the vaccinations and to be neutered/spayed. So a rather costly little bit of company.  Your other option is to go 'local' and get a street dog...Well...From the streets, as the name implies.  These all look the same: multi-coloured, slightly like a Whippet, slightly like a Border Collie, slightly like ...
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Here we go again

As you can see, during the week nothing worth writing about happens to often. The week days are merely there to provide us with time to prepare for the next trip. We clean our equipment, check the vehicle for any possible damages or much needed services and so forth. Mostly we give our behinds a break from sitting for long hours. I am fortunate enough to do a few yoga sessions during those recouperation days, go for long walks with friends and meet new people (wether they like it or not). I'm one of those busy bodies that want to know everything about anything that happens around me, which means anybody who happens to cross my path ends up having to answer one of (or quite probably many of) my 'why' questions. Robert has work and meetings. Meanwhile all our discussions and planning during the week comes back to which new destination we will try to reach and which new road we should take to get there. This weekend is going to be a 'low impact' one. We have plans to g...
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A loooong drive

I wish it was possible to do a detailed route discription of the places we go to. Mostly we can track our route on the Garmin, but sometimes we even complicate this poor device. The past weekend is one of those where we just had so many things interfering with our well made plans. It all started off with our new neighbours who came over to introduce themselves. Being the polite people we are, we made small talk while our arses were burning to load the car and be off. The visit delayed us with a good 30 minutes - very important if you want to reach the edge of the desert before nightfall. The second interference was the weather conditions. The wind was pumping, light rain was no issue but the sand...Boy oh boy, the sand... But off we went on our merry way. Our first desert crossing via the power line is usually also on our shortcut route to Riyadh and it's quick and it's low traffic and it's much more fun than the tar version. Sometimes there is a bit of corrugation which i...
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It's the weekend baby (well at least in Saudi)our quest​ to pack up and hit the road. This weekend we are going to try and reach a crater on the western side of Riyadh. As usual we hit the desert road just outside Jubail and follow the power line straight across towards Riyadh. It doesn't necessarily take less time, but who can resist the magic of the desert on a late Thursday afternoon as opposed to heavy traffic on the main roads? If we are lucky, we will manage to get away at about 4p.m which gives us a good 2 hours of light and our first stretch of dune roads over with. By nightfall we should be back on a tar road and being all grown up and wise, we will stay on this road untill we get tired, but as close as we can get to a small village called Rumah. Our camp site will be about 2 km off the road behind a high dune ....No fixed address😋. Normally we get up when the sun comes out, which is around 5.30a.m nowadays and by 7a.m we are back on the road. During the daylight...
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