Adventure Time!

It was Algebraic!  So, Shamun (one of the teachers I work with) and I went on a trip last 'weekend'.  We drove over the mountains all the way to Najran.  If you get directions from Google maps from Jizan to Najran you can see about where we went.  Of course we went off the beaten path.  There are no road signs to speak of in KSA, no signs identifying which town you are going into or out of, road maps can't be had for love nor money, the Garmin gods weren't much help except to leave a trail of breadcrumbs.  However, the road less traveled has made all the difference.


We headed up into the first batch of mountains and stopped in this little, let's say 'town', for lack of a better word, to get something to eat.  Poked our heads into this little restaurant-like spot where other people were eating and were told that there was no more food (my ass!)  Instead we were directed a couple spots up where there was a place that had food and was cooking.  You can't begin to imagine the number of house flies in that place unless you've been brought up on a farm.  



Be that as it may, we chose to get something to eat there.  It was very helpful sharing this trip with Shamun as he speaks about 3-4 languages enough to get by.  Of course we were asked where we came from - America seems to be well liked by everyone I've met so far.  Anyway, the guys running the place were Afghans.  (Shamun has a knack for looking at a person around here and knowing what their ethnic background is, I don't know how he does it.)  We got some scrambled eggs with tomato & onion with some bread that was absolutely delicious and hot out of the oven.  It was similar to the local flat bread but much thicker.  (The flies didn't bother much, they must have already been full.)  I will stop in again if I get another chance to go through this area.  When we went to pay after eating (I was full too) the guy would not let us pay, he insisted that he couldn't take our money.  If you ever get to Adaz, give my best to Amir.

Those Saudi's like to pile rocks.

Down at the lake by the wadi,
clean water!

We headed down into the first (of many) valleys along our way and came to the wadi above.  Again, there were trucks headed into the place to load up on water.  The big difference being that this water looked quite clean, you could even see about a foot or so down.  We walked along the little 'stone-wall' above to get close to the water.  I have no idea what is expected of such a pitiful 'pile' of rocks except to possibly say "this side of sand and rocks is mine and you'd better keep out!"  There were two stray camels wandering about eating the leaves of the thorn trees.

Another wadi with its own canyon.

Did I mention that Saudi's like to stack rocks?

Driving on up and over the next mountain we briefly stopped near the canyon above.  On my next trip I've got to take some time to explore this region.  Above on the right we found a stone two-room hut with another (shown) on the ledge above it.  

Shamun testing the water flowing
down a wadi - odd to see so much
flowing water in KSA

I guess culverts wash out so we drove through
a few of these along the way

Yet another wadi, we happened upon about three or four of these that day.  The water was clear and cool.  Shamun tasted it (he has not suffered any ill effects from it as far as I can tell.)  Almost all of these crossings consist of a concrete slab where the water (when running or flooding) just goes across the roadbed.  There were a few tiny fish in one of the pools downstream.

Looking down 'river'

One of the first real trees I've seen in KSA

Shamun, the camel whisperer...

These kids (4 of them) were enthusiastic to
say the least (and this one had a BFN)

Traditional architecture style but
other than odd housing, couldn't figure
out why there were so many towers

The camels really didn't like Shamun too much.  One of them kind of growled at him when he was 'bothering' this one.  None of them wanted to have anything to do with him at all.

We saw a whole bunch of what I guess is the traditional architecture from this area.  The mud (I presume) bricks are laid up with them being higher in the corners.  All of them taper inwards and there's not much for windows.  I trust that they are cooler than tents and keep out the wind better than the piled stone huts we've seen before.  Some of them have a course of thin flat stones at the seam between layers of mud brick which stick out a ways.  This looks to be a good way of keeping rain from melting the 'brick'.

Flowers outside our hotel

We stayed overnight at a little "Hot L" which wasn't quite 5-star quality.  But I must say that it was much cleaner than some I've stayed in, particularly one I can think of in Detroit and another in Muskegeon.  It was cheap, only 100 SAR for the two of us for the night.  As is typical, they didn't have change for a 500 SAR note so I waited while the clerk went out shopping and brought back my change.  The bed wasn't much, just a foam pad on plywood, nor was it very comfortable but I slept OK if not well.  Poor Shamun, he can never sleep the first night in a new bed and this was apparently no exception.  The Holiday Inn down the road wanted ten times as much for a room.  We did check this room out though before taking it and since the toilet area was remarkably clean I decided to go for it.  Before you ask, of course there is a picture of the toilet below.  The shower was just a pipe attached to the wall opposite the sink, I waited to bathe until I got home as I neglected to bring a towel and none were provided.

Not exactly 5-stars but it was only 100 SAR
for the night for us, and yes, they left the light on

The air conditioner worked OK and since the room was away from the road, it was relatively quiet.  I went out front to see if I could get wifi and the two guys that were 'manning' the desk had to come out and look over my shoulder while I was browsing. One guy was from India & I showed him his home town on Google Earth and the other guy was from Yemen and I showed him his home city.  I also showed them my place in Michigan (glad that the peonies were in full bloom when the Google truck went by.)

The room looked nothing like the picture over
the door outside the hotel.

The water worked, the place was
clean and it didn't smell, close enough

This panorama was on the up-stream side
of the Najran Dam, Yemen is the left-most
third of the picture at the top of the hill

More pretty flowers outside the hotel

Unfortunately, this site was closed on Fridays,
I'll have to go back to see it up close

Not only did I 'get' a geocache, got a waymark
as well

Not only did I get to complete my first geocache which was near the hotel we stayed in (there were some awesome wind-eroded granite boulders in the area) but I also got to 'bag' a waymark at the Najran Dam.  Both were FTFs, my first.  Shamun went along with me and had heard of geocaching already but never 'done' it.  The dam is way up this gorge to the east of the city of Najran.  On the surface you might say that it's amazing.  However two things struck me as very odd.  Number one is that there is no way on Allah's brown earth that there would be enough water to justify the size of this dam; number two is that there is a much better spot for the dam downstream where the mountains are much closer and it would have cost less to construct.  Having said that, since the dam is almost on top of the Yemen border it just might be that this is more of a military site than the place further downstream which is much further from the border.  Hmmm, can you say 'excuse'?

The sign at left for the archaeological site is funny in it's English translation, or should I say 'engrish'.  On a more serious side, it's the site where apparently Jews killed 10-20 thousand Christians because they wouldn't become Jewish.  I'm led to believe that the action is mentioned (and condemned) in the Quran having taken place over 1400 years ago.  The more things change the more they stay the same.

The dam site would have been more impressive if it had been full of water.  But still it was nice weather and there were some nice views.  (I'm the handsome one in the picture below in case you were wondering.)  

Najran has a 'Hyper Panda' grocery store, or 'banda' as there is no 'p' sound in the Arabic language and most people ('beoble') can't pronounce ('bronounce') it.  (Would a hyper panda be an Asian bear with ADHD?  I wonder.)  We stopped in there so I could find a 'real' western toilet.  And much to my delight, the entire restroom was clean!  (Photo proof below.)  Happily, I brought my own toilet paper, seems it is never provided around these parts.  Which brings me to another point about the city of Najran - it is remarkably clean.  The streets, sidewalks, etc. aren't covered with litter.  The parking and road systems allow for parking and no one (that I saw) was double parked and everything looked to be orderly.  Traffic was much the same but no where near as bad as in Jizan.  

That's me by a dam site...

The weather here was just as hot as in Jizan (37-39 C) but being more central and up above 4400 feet above sea level, there was very little humidity.  Breezes came right on schedule after noon lasting through sundown.  There were some areas along the way where the sand was blasting with the wind but not so much as a great deal of the landscape is rocks, ledge and boulders.  There was one place along our drive where granite was being quarried by cutting the boulders, and I mean BIG boulders, on the surface/hill side.  The terrain changed colors from red to tan to brown to black and some hills had light green vegetation all up and down them.  Part way, in the middle of literally no-where, there were these picnic kiosks scattered about.  There was no sign nor seemingly any reason for them to be in the barren area they were.  Nothing else was nearby, not even villages.

Skeletor's cave, er, tunnel

You should be able to make out a dust-devil
just over the mirror if you zoom in a bit

More ancient architecture from the region

...and some more modern in the same style 

On our trip back we took the long way since the signs didn't get installed and we missed a turn somewhere.  Had to go all the way to Abha which added about 3 hours to the drive.  On the plus side, we stopped at one of the roadside fruit & vegetable stands and Shamun was able to find some 'green' dates still on the stem.  These aren't like the usual sweet dates but more like green almonds.  Very crunchy and slightly tart. 

We did get to see some more examples of the local (old) architecture and apparently some are still in use.

The surprisingly clean toilet at the
Hyper Panda

This is what might be termed a handyman's
special or maybe a fixer-upper

OK, well, I'll save the rest for later.Time to post this puppy.