Mountains
Finally Curvy Roads!
22nd October - 26th October | 2023
The next morning I checked out again and by 9h30 I was on the road towards Taif. The next few days I should spend in the mountains, which also means a bit more curvy roads. Unfortunately, it is also inhabited by baboons - and we do not have a good relationship - so that means no camping in the mountains for me!
Shortly after Jeddah I was first on the road to Makkah and coming closer there was a huge police checkpoint. It took them a while to understand that I did not want to go to Makkah, only to Taif.
It was really nice to get into the mountains as it was getting cooler and the scenery more panoramic!
In Taif, I searched via booking for a hotel and went there without booking it. When I arrived there, they said they had no free room. The only available one has no locker. It was all a bit weird as that available room still appeared on booking.com. So off to the next one and that was no problem, except they insisted on booking via booking due to the charge. I did as I was asked, but like that, they would have to pay a commission to booking! All had no logic to me, but I got a room and not long after that I was lying under the aircondition! Later in the evening, I found a nice restaurant, where I, of course, had to sit in the family section. However, that family section had windows to the street! That was really nice for a change! But back to eating with my fingers and plastic spoon ;-)
The next morning, I headed towards Al-Bahah and I picked some back roads between the main mountain road and the coastal area. It was so nice to ride twisty roads and be surrounded by such a stunning panorama. In that area, it also starts with old heritage villages, old traditional clay houses. Also now you see baboons along the roads or sometimes even “hanging” around in the parks of the towns. It was great to see these animals as it always makes you smile, but surely I do not want to spend the night in a tent surrounded by them.
I found a nice hotel on the outskirts of Al-Bahah, a nice hotel and they gave me (off-season) a really good rate. And it was a very luxurious room, compared to some rooms I had before! Pity I couldn't stay longer! As I didn't sleep very well the night before I was early in bed and slept pretty well!
The next morning, after check-out, I first went into town to find an ATM and something for breakfast. A good source is normally the fuel stations as most of the time there are drive-through cafe shops. Once all sorted and filled up with fuel I went by back roads to Sabt Al Alayah, which I picked as the area of the destination for today.
The road I picked was again through stunning landscape. This area is so versatile with the mountains! And the roads are in very good condition! The only thing, actually already since Jordan, are the speed bumps! Here in Saudi Arabia, they are even worse as sometimes on a good two-lane road they appear out of a sudden, shortly after the signpost for the max speed of 80kmh! So you can imagine how you suddenly have to break hard to not fly over these speedbumps! And in all the villages along the back roads, they are not even signposted, so if possible, I tried to stay behind local cars as an early alarm!
The most famous heritage village I visited today was “Thee Ain” which was really beautifully restored. The only visitors were a herd of baboons that observed me all the time. Now I know how animals in the zoo are feeling ;-) This area with these heritage villages or even the ones just starting to fall apart, reminds me to areas we passed in Georgia earlier this year.
Around 14h00 I was lucky to find a restaurant open in Al Alyah. The staff was super nice and I could sit downstairs; they didn't ask me to stay in the family section. That was really nice as they were really curious about me and my travel and sitting downstairs made conversation much easier. One of the workers even came from Morocco, so we had a lot to talk about.
As there was no point in heading on, also as I was not planning to camp - remember the baboons - I searched for a hotel in the town. I was very lucky. So I had time to catch up on my emails and this time I tried to arrange some Couch-surfing for Abha. A bit of short notice as already for tomorrow night, but worse a try.
The next morning I had a positive answer so we arranged a meeting time and point for later today in Abha. When leaving my room for check-out, I had a bunch of flowers in front of my door. What?! That must be a mistake! So I just placed them at the door of my neighbour as I saw it was a woman (family?). However, it still makes me wonder …
I went to fuel up my bike and had my breakfast at the drive-through cafe at the fuel station. Then it was again hitting the road, today passing the so-called hairpin road. That sounds promising and it is! Wow, so many switchbacks downhill and some had some serious inclination! Lorries were already not allowed - so also some of the Overlander trucks I found out from other Overlanders.
In the valley, I followed for a while a main road there and then I found another hairpin road going up into the mountains. Another steep road going up - occasionally inclination of 16-18%! It was downhill, suffering the breaks and uphill the first gear ;-) The view all the time is just stunning! I didn't get bored at all! And the riding in the last days is so much fun with all these winding roads, full of switchbacks and curves!
Once back up in the hills, unfortunately, it started to rain and get pretty cold - down to 11ºC!! Earlier down in the valley, I had 38ºC! What a climate change! However, that area is very popular with the local tourists due to the climate! It is also a very green area due to the humidity and the rain.
In Abha, I met with my host Bader. Unfortunately, he couldn't host me as his house is full of visiting family but he arranged for me to stay with his friend Shaker. How nice is that! Bader speaks very good English, unfortunately not Shaker, but we managed thanks to Google Translate! We went out to a local restaurant for dinner - again far too much food as he wanted me to try so many different dishes.
Later, back to the house, where he seems to live on his own, Bader and another friend come around to talk and they have their Shisha (and later the giggles!). We had a really interesting conversation about Islam and Makkah as I was really curious about the Kaaba and Umrah or Hajj. There was a lot I learned, very interesting!
I hope you enjoyed too being in the mountains and seeing Saudi Arabia we all wouldn’t have thought that the landscape is like that. While you are waiting for the next blog, please help yourself to a hot, yummie Karak Chai.
Places | Cities:
Al-Bahah, Thee Ain Heritage Village, Al Alzah, Abha.
Driven km | Trip:
Total | Steffi: 26510 km
Information Border Crossings:
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Maintenance | Breakdown:
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Health issues:
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Special thanks to:
Shaker and Bader (Couchsurfing) to host me short notice - "No problem".