motorway sign
pit stop on red sea
ditto
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Jeddah 7th February
This is Saudi Arabia. I walk off the ships gang plank a respectable 3 paces behind my husband, (I am not allowed to be seen without him). As a woman here I am not allowed to drive either. I decide to conform to local custom (also avoiding imprisonment!) and cover myself from head to toe in anything I can find-headscarf, shawl, trousers, socks and shoes- resembling something out of a charity shop! Outside my shroud the air temperature is 35 degrees, but inside I sweat it out at over 45! In considering the 2 options of brazenness and the disrespect of being scantily clad against contriteness and meekness, I chose the latter and milked the local female approach; doing nothing, just thrusting my upper torso and flattering eyelashes in masculine direction. Quite amazingly for my 52 years-it works. We were given priority seats on buses, restaurants etc, although poor Rog is heavily laden with sorting out problems and carrying everything!
Zebedee compounded!
Whilst I wrote this poor old Zebedee was driven off the ferry and locked into Customs. As passengers all was straight forward- we entered Saudi on a 3 day transit visa, and on asking about the bakkie, were told to wait. After 3 hours of waiting, exasperated, I seriously considered stripping off naked and shouting dementedly to get some action. Rog had a more sensible idea and headed off to try and find someone in authority who spoke English. A few officials looked at Zebedee in disbelief- they didnt seem to know what to do with her. The Saudis are also very religious and down their tools for ½ hr 5 times a day to pray. All very frustrating. Rog eventually returned with a senior supervisor who shouted as loud as I wanted to and within half an hour had got Zebedee through. He was an absolute gem- Id watched customs search other Sudanese cars with a fine tooth comb, but he ignored Zebedee- just focused on the paperwork. Finally at 4pm of day 1 (remember we are here on a 3 day visa only and Jordan is 1200 kms away!), he escorted us by car in the direction of a hotel area, giving us his English speaking cousins phone number. This guy Mohammed turned out to be a real gem. A Saudi pilot-trained in the USA for 6 years- he took us under his wing. He came to meet us on the roadside, led us to his friends hotel- yippee it had a bath, telly, kitchen, lounge and huge bed- then drove us in his vehicle for a sightseeing tour of Jeddah, took us to a bank to change money, bought us a takeaway and then it was back to the apartment for a chat. He left early to leave us to dwell on the day and enjoy the home comforts. 1st bath for 53 days, 1st bidet since leaving home, we also hadnt slept on a soft mattress for 19 nights. Although a bit extravagant for our budget-what the heck. Jeddah is just like that- glitzy and decadent, very 1st worldish. What a holiday this country will be.
,Saturday 11th Feb N 28, 58. E 35,8. In Saudi Desert
We are now on our 5th day in Saudi (remember we are supposed to be here on a 3 day visa!), and have awoken in a dry ravine, cocooned on all sides by rocky mountains which we discovered yesterday evening. A real high was climbing up the ladder in a full moon last night to the howling of a wolf, whose eerie cries echoed off the surrounding mountains. We would have thought that any wild life here had been hunted out. In daylight, the only vegetation to see are a couple of acacia trees with iridescent blue/green bee eaters flying around. Such colour where everything else is white and yellow. Eating breakfast we prepare ourselves for the pleasures (or otherwise) of the border crossing into Jordan just a few kms down the road. If only we spoke some Arabic.
Saudi has been an interesting place. The people have shown us friendliness and courteousness, despite the communication problem. Shopkeepers and café owners have been intrigued and flattered by our presence. The police however, are a different matter. We have been stopped on numerous occasions (and even been given chase twice with flashing headlights and a loudspeaker). Because our vehicle is a right hand drive- instead of their left- they think I am the driver which is not allowed in this country. A couple of times, the obvious was not seen for a while- one poor old chap summoned another car on his radio. This policeman was a bit quicker and realized the joke of it all and laughed- but the original guy didnt see the funny side and furiously drove us out of town. We of course have to see the humour in it all- particularly when they wont even let me get out of the bakkie. We had a similar situation in another town, where we were literally run out of the village by a policeman. It later transpired that Muslims are very anti any whites following the Danish cartoon story that has just erupted. Maybe that is why we have had such an extreme reaction to our presence. One lunchtime we decided to look for a cooked fish meal. We chose our fish from the fridge, and then were escorted up stairs to a windowless room with no furniture to wait for it to be cooked. A short time later it was bought to us with rice on a tray. We lay on the floor eating it with our fingers. Women are really not meant to be out in public it seems. Nevermind- the meal itself was delicious.
We have about 1200 kms to drive to the Jordan border. But driving here is such a delight. All roads (except rarely used desert tracks) are tarmaced and all toll free. Some have 3 lanes in each direction, others just 1. None have any traffic to speak of. The first 300 kms we travelled there was even a double fence on both sides to prevent camels walking out so causing accidents. They even have bridges across the roads for camels to use! All cars are gleaming and mostly new and large-some imported from USA. Oil refineries and water salination plants are dotted all over the coastline. Diesel is only 11 cents or 6p a litre- excellent. It made things a little less painful when we ended up with petrol in our diesel tank. ½ petrol and ½ diesel was caused by us not concentrating when an attendant answered yes to my questiondiesel. AAAAAAGH. Fortunately rog realized before we drove away, but even so---draining it out took 2 hrs.
Our drive took us up the coastline which was beautiful. Occasionally we would turn off and head for the turquoise sea for a cuppa. We slept in the wild each night- once peacefully in the sand dunes, and once overlooking a marsh reminiscent of the wash. Coastguards got nervous by our presence there though and visited us 4 times to go through papers, checking over again our nationality. Unbeknown to us, it was probably their fear of us being Danish that caused this. (We also learnt at a later stage that a ferry owned by the company that we sailed with,capsized losing 900 lives in this area only a week before. In fact we were the last passenegers to sail with the company, which was closed down. ) Tragic.
Landscape wise; the first 500kms had been flat, the remainder mountainous. Inevitably that means colder temperatures, and after crossing the tropic of cancer we are faced with very cold nights (an excuse to light a fire), though warmish days. It has all happened so quickly- only 3 days ago we needed air con- now its a jacket. Sad- want to go back! We also passed through an area that had flooded a week previously- bridges collapsed- difficult to imagine even now, as everything is dry with no vegetation at all.
Finally Rog has moved into his 57th year. We had a nice birthday in Jeddah. Happy birthday Rog, and goodbye to Saudi. I know we moan about the lifestyle of the different sexs, but I understand we were privileged to have both been given a visa. Have heard stories about women being forced to fly over Saudi whilst the men drive the vehicles through. So we have had a nice holiday here, but I do look forward to getting back to sorting out our paperwork, dealing with shopkeepers and driving.
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