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Wednesday, January 28th.
It was a beautiful sunny warm day in the mountains. It is often foggy up here so we were lucky. We were at 2000’ and going to descend to 700’. We drove back the route we came in last night. It was interesting to see it in the daylight as last night was dark and foggy. Then we turned onto another street and descended on an incredibly winding road through tunnels and over bridges. We stopped at a view point and our guide Ahmed told us that the mountain is part of the Sarawak range and takes up a third of the area of Saudi. There is no oil here but an abundance of minerals that they have yet to figure out how to mine. Then we continued driving down the mountain. We had two scenic stops. The first was at a lookout where we could see the winding switchbacks going down the mountain and the second was a lookout of the ancient heritage village we were going to visit, Thee Ain. When we got there we entered the museum/information centre which is only a couple of years old. It contained three video projections of the history and construction of the village, which is built on a hill of marble. We climbed hundreds of steps from the bottom up the layers to the top where we had a panoramic view of the valley and the small fields of crops in the oasis at the bottom of the hill. We were pretty hot and sweaty by the time we got up there. When we came down we were served a lunch of chicken, veggies, rice and salads in a lovely shaded spot by the running water that feeds the oasis and allowed people to survive in this area of the mountains. We can eat salads here because all the water is desalinated and therefore clean. When we returned to the visitor’s centre some of us were interviewed on camera by one of the guards about our opinion of the site and the new centre.
After lunch we took the bus to a parking lot where we hooked up with three Toyota four by fours. We divided up and we headed back up the mountain. I had the passenger seat and got some great videos of the very narrow and winding road and a herd of goats and sheep we came across. After a half hour of driving up we arrived at the Cave Resort. This is not a resort by any North American standard but, is a repurposing of houses built in and around caves in years gone by. Today most of the people who own them have relocated to more developed cities or towns to take advantage of services provided there. They have kept their places as summer homes where they can retreat to the cooler climes of the mountains and escape the 50 degree heat of summer. Others have fixed them up with plumbing and electricity and decided to rent them out to tourists in the off season when they are living elsewhere. The mountain is covered in huge boulders and some of them have provided sheltered space for people and their livestock to live. It was a fascinating glimpse at another way to life. We did a short hike scrambling over rocks to another vantage point where we could see some of the little towns built in this area. Then we returned to the resort where they served us another chicken and rice meal that was our dinner. The three Saudi drivers were very friendly and happy to be with us while practising their English and showing their area to us. One of them was actually born in one of the caves up here and is now a teacher, and another gave us an impromptu performance on a small flute. After a cup of tea we descended in the 4x4’s back down the mountain to our hotel where we arrived by 8 and headed to our rooms after another great day.
Wow...looks like it was a great day! Loved the boulders and the cave result. Wanna go for some chicken and rice when you get back??
ReplyDeleteLooks like an amazing site to visit! Love the boulder carved like skeleton face! Impressive!
ReplyDeleteThose stairs - very cool, but extremely intimidating! The skull is amazing and haunting. What an interesting day!
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