So now we are approaching the Saudi border. After being told by friends that it is absolutely forbidden to bring in magazines with indecent dressed people, pork or alcohol and that they ask you to offload the content of the complete car we get prepared. We started the evening before to censor with a black marker our German magazines, and there is a lot to cover, and Thomas even considered emptying his after shave. Like often things that seem complicated are much easier than anticipated; within 45 minutes we have cleared the UAE border and have our Saudi stamp and car insurance. Customs only had a brief look at our cooler. No searching the car. Nothing!!
So - here we come Saudi Arabia. It is cloudy, a flat desert and the first buildings we see, a gas station with some shops, look like from the fifties but not maintained since then. So not the golden streets we expected and fancy buildings. Traffic is little and the highways are well maintained. As we continue our journey the roads get worse, big potholes, and often 2 lanes are closed for rebuilding the street. When we approach Damman traffic increases and we see the industrial backyard of Saudi. Not really a nice sight. As we continue the desert transforms and looks more than a light green savannah with tents of bedouines and their camel and sheep flocks in the background. With the increasing wind and dropping temperature it reminds us of pictures of Mongolia. We find a spot for our tent off the highway before the wind increases even more and thunderstorms with light rain start. Now we understand why they sell woollen galabayyas with a fur inside in the shops we passed. The next morning when we get up after a stormy night the thermometer shows -2 degrees.
The second day around noon a sandstorm starts and the visibility goes down to 100 meter maximum and we have to decrease speed to 80km/h since the automatic goes constantly in kick down mode. Shortly before dawn the wind gets less and we go off the road and set up our tent. We prepare for a windy and cold night. After 10 minutes sand is everywhere in the car as well as in the tent. The temperature drops quickly and at 7 pm we are already in bed. Luckily a little later the wind stops and we have a nice but cold night.
The next morning, we wake up under a blue sky and -2 degrees. We enjoy a coffee without sand for the first time in days and the warm sun.
The last 600 km of our 2000 km journey are covered within 6 hours and we approach the Jordan Border at 4 pm. Procedures are similar to the ones entering Saudi but require a little bit more running around and paperwork on the Jordan side. Due to a lot of cars and the hassle to change money and not to get a bad deal it takes two hours and we are in Jordan. Finally Claudia can change back to the normal dress code.
In the three days in Saudi we drove 1946 km and have seen desert, gas station, desert, gas station …..
By the way, thanks to all of you for your nice comments in our blog and via e-mail. It's always nice to hear from you and it's a big motivation to continue as well. Writing the blog is not as easy as we thought, since during daytime it's too bright for the computer, at night it's too cold or windy. So working on the blog is limited to the few hours we spend in hotels...
The last 600 km of our 2000 km journey are covered within 6 hours and we approach the Jordan Border at 4 pm. Procedures are similar to the ones entering Saudi but require a little bit more running around and paperwork on the Jordan side. Due to a lot of cars and the hassle to change money and not to get a bad deal it takes two hours and we are in Jordan. Finally Claudia can change back to the normal dress code.
In the three days in Saudi we drove 1946 km and have seen desert, gas station, desert, gas station …..
By the way, thanks to all of you for your nice comments in our blog and via e-mail. It's always nice to hear from you and it's a big motivation to continue as well. Writing the blog is not as easy as we thought, since during daytime it's too bright for the computer, at night it's too cold or windy. So working on the blog is limited to the few hours we spend in hotels...