Our journey home begins on March 22, 2025, when we cross the border into Saudi Arabia. From now on, we tend to drive a little faster on the mostly four-lane or multi-lane roads and cover longer distances in one day than usual. Our visa allows us to stay in Saudi Arabia for another three weeks. We have to leave the country on April 10, 2025.
As Verena really wants to see the Nabataean city of Petra in Jordan, we choose the return route via Jordan and Iraq.
Riad
Farewell to MAN in Riyadh
As our chosen route takes us back to Riyadh anyway, we stop off at MAN to have our drivetrain lubricated again and the air filter blown out. We also appreciate the opportunity to say goodbye to the head of service and maintenance again.
Cafe Rolland
Kaled al Omari surprisingly invites us to the city’s most famous coffee house. Although we are dead tired, we agree. The coffee house was founded years ago by a European and pretty much meets our expectations of a coffee house. Both the coffee and the sweets are wonderful and the service from the Filipinas is cordial. Since Dubai, we have been meeting more and more Filipinas in the service department and every time we do, we have a nice chat. Some of them have children at home and they themselves work here, away from their home country. And yet they can still smile and be cheerful. Hats off to these hardworking people.
Ha’il
Salma Berge
The Salma Mountains are perfect for an overnight stay. We love these bizarre rock formations. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to have been much rain here so far and we miss the greenery and variety of flowers. Nevertheless, it is simply beautiful here.
Encounter while shopping
On the further stretch to the border, we will hardly have any good shopping opportunities, which is why we use the “Carrefour” hypermarket in Ha’il to stock up again. As I am interested in the origins of the many “foreign” people in the Arab world, I greet a middle-aged couple and a small talk about where we are from and where we are going begins. They are from the Philippines and she works as a clinic teacher in a hospital. We are spontaneously invited to eat and stay a while. However, as we want to move on, we reduce the visit to an invitation for coffee and are happy to get to know these people.
Al’Ula
Al Ula is one of the major tourist centers in Saudi Arabia. But despite the disadvantages that a tourist stronghold brings with it, Al Ula is so worth seeing that we simply want to go there again.
Elephant rock
Officially, overnight stays within Al Ula are no longer permitted for overlanders. However, as the high season is over, we take the liberty of spending the night at Elephant Rock anyway. We are also completely alone here. Opposite the Elephant Rock, there is another hole in the mountain that looks like a keyhole, which I climb up to take a photo of.
Old Al’Ula
The old oasis town of Al’Ula has been partially restored. A good mix of renovated buildings and ruined buildings provides a nice atmosphere. And since the aim is to earn money through tourism, there are also some good restaurants serving local dishes. The visit to Old Al’Ula in the evening light is atmospheric. We also encounter groups of tourists and you wouldn’t believe it – from the Philippines!
Visitor Center
All guided tours and visits must be booked either online or through the Visitor Center. You always have to create your own account. The Visiotr Center is very helpful here. For a guided tour of Dadan and Jabal Ikhmal, for example, there was no space available. However, I discovered that a private tour in a Land Rover could be booked for considerably more money. And as we didn’t want to miss out on the sights, we booked anyway.
Dadan
Dadan, or Dedan, is the name of the ancient city excavated in the oasis of Al’Ula. “Dedan” was a son of Abraham, whom he fathered with his third wife “Ketura”. Abraham gave gifts to Keturah’s six sons, then sent them away from himself and from Isaac, because only his son Isaac was the heir chosen by God and the heir to the divine promises.
Ancient Dadan was located on the Incense Route and is mentioned several times in the Bible, in the Old Testament. For example: In the book of Ezekiel (chapters 27 and 38). Chapter 27 contains a list of the trading partners of the city of Tyre (now Lebanon), in which Dedan is mentioned as a nation or kingdom that traded in saddle blankets.
Jabal Ikhmal
The same tour also includes a visit to the rock carvings at the foot of Mount Ikhmal. In those days, caravans were no longer allowed to enter the city after sunset, so they had to wait outside. At the foot of Jabal Ikhmal was such a waiting place and what do you do when you’re bored? We scribble on a notepad – this is where they carved into the rock.
The Hejaz Railway
The Hejaz Railway is a railroad company in the Middle East. Its 1322 km long main line ran from Damascus in Syria to Medina in present-day Saudi Arabia. It was supplemented by further lines to form a network of 1585 km in length. Today, only the northern section of the main line and some branch lines in Syria and Jordan are still operational, with only a few trains still running on schedule.
We visit the old train station of Mada’in Salih, which has now been renovated and converted into the luxury hotel “The Chedi Hegra”. The parking lot and reception are about 500m from the hotel. Although we only want to have a coffee in the restaurant, we are kindly served and taken by golf cart to the restaurant, which was built in the former locomotive shed.
The rocks of Buraykah
Out in the Gharameel desert lie the rocks of Buraykah. A beautiful place to come to rest amidst the gigantic rock towers, embedded in soft sand. The weather changes and the rocks appear in different lights, constantly drawing new figures and shapes.
