With Jeddah, we had reached the coast of the Red Sea after crossing all of Saudi Arabia, which is 8 times as big as Germany. On the way down the mountains from Taif, we had passed Makkah (Mecca) which we had to circumnavigate as non-Muslims. We are not allowed to enter the city, not even …
When you approach Taif from the East, you don’t see any mountains coming, you don’t notice any rise, but if you watch the height, you are getting higher up and up until you are at 1,700 metres in Taif. The height is what makes this town so popular. We saw many holiday parks, uncountable playgrounds …
We wanted to visit the giant Al Wahbah crater, but first took an off-road track through an area full of volcanoes until we reached one we could enter with our camper. This volcano had another little one inside which we could climb. The bottom was of bright mud and green areas, which were a fascinating …
We were keen to explore a little bit of the vast Saudi Arabian desert on a tour which took us on simple tracks through endless desert landscape, to giant monoliths and through narrow valleys. It was a long drive along the R30 to the south-west, and we had to find a place for the night, …
North-west of Riyadh are 2 towns, which lie on a former pilgrim’s route to Mecca, where the old mud brick houses have been partly restored during the last years and are interesting to visit. On the way we stopped at a supermarket, but soon were friendly asked to leave, as it was praying hour and …
The border crossing from the Emirates to Saudi Arabia went smoothly. We had an e-Visa for Saudi Arabia, and paid car insurance at the border. The camper was scanned and we could go. Of course, in total, it took us about 3 hours. We chose the direct route to Riyadh, with a stop for the …
We drove inland, in the direction of the Rub’ al Khali, the desert called “The Empty Quarter” to enjoy a little bit of solitude in the sand after the busy cities at the coast. We were mesmerised by the colours of the sand and the shapes the wind creates. But we also came past the …
The collection of His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Hamdan Al Nahyan, also known as The Rainbow Sheikh because of his collection of Mercedes S Class in 7 different colours, is displayed in a huge pyramid shaped structure. A great place for car enthusiasts and an interesting collection, as it reflects the imagination of a sheikh …
After finishing the repairs at the Mercedes garage, we drove in the direction of Abu Dhabi, but it was getting late, and we were looking for a place for the night. Gabor, a German expat, saw us and recommended Al Qudra, an area of artificial lakes, which is very popular with the locals for camping. …
We had not been to Dubai before and after returning here from Austria, we did a little bit of sightseeing. We decided to use Uber to get to the places we wanted to visit, which worked very well, usually we were driven in a nice Lexus car. Our first destination was the creek, with old …
