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.