Saudi calling…

It’s taken a few years, but I finally got the opportunity to drive to Saudi Arabia and see some of the sights. And boy, it did not d……….

Well, it’s been a weird trip. Here we go.

the trip started off with a pretty huge change to the plan. Originally, there was a group of us who were planning to drive the empty Quarter to get to a remote lake in the middle of the desert. This was going to be quite an expedition as it would require an 800km drive off road, with no fuel stops. The main concern for all of us was going to be fuel and making it there and back.

As you can see from this map, we were aiming for the blue square. This would have meant a 4-5 hour drive from Dubai to the Saudi border (green square) and then following the line of the border back under Liwa to the last fuel station by Shaybah. This would be our last fuel for 800km of off road driving. 400 to the lake and 400 back. While we all drive fairly uneconomical cars, in the GCC it’s never been a problem as there are fuel stations everywhere. Most of us all have a fairly big fuel capacity as well. Some people having extended range tanks.

My Patrol has a main tank and a sub tank with a combined capacity of 135litres. Which is more than enough for most trips. But, as it’s old, heavy and basically an old truck engine, it consumes 20L per 100km. Which means I would need an extra 70-80 litres in fuel cans inside the car. So I bought enough to be able to carry me through the journey.

Initially, there were going to be at least 4 vehicles, meaning that we would have plenty of back up, food, water and recovery options. But sadly, the stars alligned to cause people to drop out. The first casualty was due to pet complications and then the main blow was Ed, who had originally planned the trip and got everyone on board. He had lost his passport. Turns out his cats had hidden it. Thi meant everyone was out and this was not a trip I was willing to do alone. I could have done it, but I was unsure about having enough fuel. That was something that, if I got wrong, could not be fixed on the track.

So, I decided to go and see some of the rest of Saudi instead.

My plan, which wasn’t really a plan, was to head to the border and aim towards Abha. Abha is a Mountain region at the south of Saudi, just above Yemen. In pictures it was mountainous and green and the temperatures were cool. It seemed perfect for camping. Getting there though. Well, that was going to take a while.

Getting over the Saudi border was fairly straight forward. I got straight on the road and started the longest straight road on the planet. Highway 10 with a dead straight section of 256km. It wasn’t long before it got dark, and while the road was fairly quiet, I was tired and I didn’t particularly want to drive in the dark. I used iOverlander to find a campsite by the side of the road, which just happened to be being a truck stop, where I found some flat land and pitched up for the night.

This is where I woke up on the first morning, somewhere on highway 10.

After a quick breakfast and packing up, I got on the road and headed to the first big town on the road called Al-Kharj. Here I did a quick shop at Lulu and got a local sim card before carrying on.

Now, if you are driving towards Abha from this side of Saudi, there are two main roads you can take. You can stay on the 10, or drive towards Riyad and take the 30. There’s not much difference in time between them, but I wasn’t to keen on driving towards the busy capital, so I stuck on the 10 as the route looked more straight forward. It turns out that this is more of a truck route, so, while it was quiet traffic wise, the road surface was pretty bad in places. The car took a bit of a beating on this route and it made the distance really tiring to cover.

Not only was the road pretty bad, the scenery was pretty bland as well and the phone signal was really spotty, meaning podcast respite was unreliable.

I think i drove for about 8 hours that day before getting to a town when it started to get dark. Finding somewhere to stay this time was a bit more difficult as the places listed on iOverlander were a bit further away. In the end I had to take a gamble and just go for the closest one, which was still an hour away.

Another quick and dirty camp by the side of the road and i woke up thinking that i was actually getting to where I wanted to be. This time the road was a twisty road through some dramatic scenery. Man, it was still a long way though! Maps and your sense of scale really take a twisting when you’re driving through this country.

But…..for now, the big part of the distance was complete and I could actually start to see the parts I had planned to see, and relax.

Sort of.

Finding photography neverland

It’s been a while since I really felt passionate about taking pictures. For the last couple of years I have been dragging cameras around with me just because it’s what I always do, and, because I’ve spent so much money on them, it seems a waste not to take them. For the last few weeks I have been travelling through Italy. Starting in the Dolomites and then working my way down to Rome. It isn’t a trip I really booked. I just sort of came here because I knew I needed to do something with my summer and I had always wanted to see the Dolomites. Or course, I came fully armed with cameras. Too many, as I didn’t really have a plan for the trip and I didn’t want to get caught out. Obviously, the latest weapon in the arsenal, the Fujifulm GFX 100S, the Fujifilm X100V, Sony A7R3 and a DJI Mavic mini pro 3. Far too many. I only really brought the Sony because I wanted a telephoto for the Dolomites. I find longer focal lengths are always best for landscapes.

While the Dolomites were beautiful, I was just going through the motions of taking pictures because I was there and had cameras. There was nothing that really made me stop and go WOW! Which shows how spoilt I have become having traveled a lot. Are the Dolomites really going to look that amazing if you have been to Everest?

I ended up using the X100V most of the time. Really enjoying taking it out around cities such as Verona and Siena without needing a bag or any accessories. Especially when it’s bloody hot out. The images that come out of that camera are superb and it is a perfect travel camera.

The trip was mainly based on avoiding toursity locations apart from Verona and Siena. There was only really one touristy instagram thing on my list, and that was to go to the famous wheat field used in the film Gladiator. This was a combination of one of my favourite directors, composer and beautiful locations.

The location is actually quite easy to find on google maps. I planned to stay in one of the small towns just about 20 minutes from the spot and drive in, hoping that it wouldn’t be swamped by InstaMorons. Thankfully it wasn’t. There were a few of course, but as it’s quite a big area and we were all spread out. Some people literally just go to the top of the field took a quick snap and left right away, which tends to be the thing with Instatwats. It’s not about being there, understanding, appreciating or enjoying the place. It’s just saying you’ve been there.

This is what the view looks like as you descend from the church at the top of the hill. To most, it is recogniseable, but you need to get over to the right to get the angle seen in the film

But even here, I could feel a magic about this place. I don’t know if it was just because it was a beautiful landscape, and I had timed it well with the setting sun, or, if it was because I had seen it so many times on the big screen. But it absolutely did not disappoint.

Anyway, I spent a bit of time finding just the right angle, as close to the scene in the film as I could, and then I sat down and just absorbed it.

There were people inevitably pretending to walk through the wheat with their hand out. A few people walked right down to the trees to get a photo, completely missing the point of the location. But in general, considering the location, it was quite absent of idiots. I think this is mainly because the younger generation won’t have seen the film. You could tell that the people who had bothered to come, really appreciated it and clearly loved the film. It was nice.

I started to shoot with the GFX and the 80mm lens I had was just the perfect focal length for the scene. As the sun was setting, the light and colour changed a lot over the hour or so I spent there. I coninued to shoot through the time, sometimes waiting for people to move, or sometimes, making the most of them being there. If you look at the picture at the top of this post, you will see a woman in a brown dress walking slowly up the hill. This turned out to be perfect, adding some perspective, but also recreating the scene from the film.

GFX Pano

The point of this post though, is that from the moment of getting here, to the morning after when I looked at the images, I had a big smile on my face and was really enjoying photography again. I knew I had got some great images from this evening. The location and weather were perfect and I had the right camera and lens. All I had to do was make sure that I hadn’t made any mistakes in focus or camera settings. Which is why I took a lot variations of the shot.

There is something about being somewhere that really makes you stop and forget the world around you. This location in Tuscany really did and I will always remember it. I have been to some really beautiful places around the world, but there was something really amazing about this location. If you liked the film, you should go there. Maybe you’ll feel it too.

Borders and petrol stations.

It may be a long drive to get there, and you may get stuck in traffic at the border. But time after time Oman has always been worth it.

This trip wasn’t about going extreme or trying to cover as much ground as possible. This was all about getting outside and finding some peace. If that meant we had to drive through some amazing scenery on the way, then so be it.

After arranging to get on the road, two cars headed off to cross the border and aim for a wadi that I had stayed in before. It had fresh running water and some beautiful spots to swim in. It was quiet and it didn’t have any phone reception. How about that.

The first two cars met up after an uneventful border crossing and pushed on down the long expressway towards Muscat. Although this is a long straight drive, it is the fastest way to cover some serious distance and get to where you want to be. Once past Muscat we started to get to where we needed to head off road. So, we decided to stop at a small petrol station to top off the tanks before heading into isolation.

Drama.

My friend Ed has a Diesel Y60 patrol. These are very unusual in the Gulf states and he often gets funny looks when he pulls up to a diesel pump, as they are usually just for commercial vehicles. As Ed and I were having a quick catch up by the cars, I noticed the colour of the pump currently streaming fossil juice in to his car was the same colour as the pump attached to mine. I had barely got out the words “is that a petrol pump in your car?” out before the pump cliked to signal the tank was full. The whole tank. The whole, extended range 180 litre tank. When Ed had pulled up to the station he still had two thirds of diesel in his tank. That had now been topped up with Oman’s finest petrol. Shit.

After a brief shouting and screaming session, followed by a lot of arm waving, we came up with a plan.

Step 1

First we had to move Ed’s car without starting the engine. If we were lucky, the petrol wouldn’t have got to the pump and the rest of the fuel system, as we noticed before he started the car. We didn’t even switch on the ignition, just to make sure the pump didn’t prime and suck any fuel through.

So, I towed it away from the pump to the edge of the forecourt.

Step 2

There was a small workshop near the petrol station. I think actually it was a tyre shop. The attendants from Shell went over and summoned a man who looked like he had been out in the sun for the last 300 years. He had a face like an old wooden ship and a spectacular bald spot which looked like a radar dish on the top of his head.

The plan was hatched. By them. They gathered together any type of container they could find and opened the release nut on the fuel tank. Efficient, this process was not. Ship face got a good covering in a hybrid diesel/petrol mix while trying to get as much of it as possible in to the various containers to hand. Sadly, the ground also got a good soaking. A small environmental catastrophe which no one seemed to care about. Penguins be damned.

Once the tank was emptied, I towed the poor Y60 over to the car wash so we could get the undercarriage cleaned off. There wasn’t too much on the car, but it needed a good going over.

Then we had to tow it back to the pump to fill the whole 180L tank back up with pure diesel. Which Ed had to pay for.

With that drama over, the trip was back on and we were heading to the wadi for dinner and an early night.

Once off road, this wadi is pretty spectacular to drive through as there is a constant flow of fresh water. This snakes its way down the wadi, creating multiple water crossings to the camp site. It’s a bit like jumping in puddles as kid when you have a pair of wellies. Every 4X4 owner loves to drive through water and they always have the biggest grin on their face when they do. Unless they are a moron and try to drive through the sea or a raging torrent. Then they just have pure fear and disappointment on their face.

Oman hits the spot.

It was a good sleep.

After a long drive and a quick dinner we had gone to bed fairly early. Luckily, the spot where we chose to camp had the added bonus of shade from the wadi cliff face until late in the morning. This meant that we weren’t woken up by hot tents as soon as the sun came up. The water in the wadi was flowing and very fresh, so it was perfect for a morning dip. Morning coffee and breakfast were casually prepared and we settled in for a nice long day of doing a lot of not much. Some tinkering with the cars, reading a book, broken up by regular swims and coffee top ups. The solar panels were making the most of the sun and we had both awnings out to create a nice big shady patch. Life was good.

You’re never really alone……

Just after midday we heard the far off crunching of tyres on rocks. An old Patrol slowly came into view and parked up not far from us, a small family setting up for lunch and a swim. Thankfully, they weren’t noisy and kept to themselves. We had a quick chat with them as they passed to go for a hike further down the wadi. The owner of the car was French and has been in Oman for the last 20 years, this spot being one of his favourites. 

They left after a few hours and we had the place to ourselves once again.

Later that evening we drove back down to the main road to meet up with some friends who were coming up from Abu Dhabi. It was dark by the time they got to us so they didn’t get to see the beauty of the Wadi as we led them back to camp.

But they got a pretty nice place to wake up in.

As had happened the day before, while we were making the most of a quiet wadi to ourselves, another car ventured up the wadi to our spot around late morning.

It didn’t get very far though. With some driver error, the small pickup got stuck in a shallow water crossing. They can be deceptive as although the water is shallow, the stones underneath are very soft. The group of men tried to push the car out but they weren’t thinking about it properly and only made it worse. In the end, one of our group went to go and give them a snatch and it was out pretty quickly.

After that, we finished off packing and headed off to our next spot.

Camping at the Beehives

After leaving the wadi we aimed for a historical site up in the mountains. We had stayed there before on a previous trip and you can get some spectacular views, so we decided to go again.

The drive there was quite a bit longer than I thought it would be. Including a lot of track driving which can get a bit tedious when the car is being shaken to bits on corrugated roads. We did see some spectacular views and there were some amazing tracks at points, including one that had been washed away, leaving half the track and a huge gap to fall through. After a good inspection we all decided it was safer to turn around and find another route.

As we got later in the day I lost the convoy. I had got stuck behind a mother camel and her calf on the road and in all the dust of the convoy, there other vehicles hadn’t noticed. There wasn’t any phone reception so the only thing I could do was to carry on the track and try and catch up with them. Unitl I got to a fork in the road. I looked at the map, knowing roughly where we were heading and I also got out and tried to look for tyre tracks on the dusty junction. Most of the cars all had BFG tyres which have a distinctive tread so I thought I could see which way they had gone. I picked a track but after about 10 minutes I doubted my decision and drove back to the junction to re-assess. I’m glad I did.

After driving for another 20 minutes, I finally got a message through saying that the group were heading to a petrol station. Some of the group had pretty thirsty vehicles and didn’t get much range. This gave me a chance to head straight to camp and beat them all there. The track to the top of the Beehives is quite steep and twisty, meaning you have to concentrate quite a lot and use all of your lights. It worked out quite well that I was doing this part by myself as when you’re following people on a dusty track, your lights reflect of the dust and make it really hard to see.

By the time I had got to our camp spot, Ed was about 30 minutes behind me so I had a bit of time to chill out and enjoy the silence. There’s no light pollution up there so you get a really good view of the stars.

I could see Ed arrive about 10 minutes before he got to me, due to his insanely bright KC light bar. He can probably be seen from the moon. If anyone needs any cheap laser eye surgery, you could go and stand in front of it. But don’t.

After pulling up at the camp site, Ed decided to make use of his new air blower. Combined with the lights it turned the mountain top in to a scene from Thriller.

We had a good dinner that night. A mix of lamb, hot dogs, and potato Rosti’s. It was good feed. I was shattered and went to bed fairly early. The next morning we got coffee on the go and made a plan for the day. One car decided to head towards the coast for some beach camping, while the rest of us headed to Snake canyon and the mountains