Day 1, Trip to the mountain home of a Saudi friend

So here was the boring part of the drive south towards Jizan in going up into the mountains to visit a man I had the pleasure of working with one day. (He invited me up to his family's place over Eid and I couldn't say 'no'.) 

https://youtu.be/rMhRVCdOq1g

Then started I started heading up into the hills, way before the real mountain (ugh, mountains!). Notice the Bedouin camps with their goats, sheep, and camels. 

https://youtu.be/iR1hxy8w4hs (Please, no comments on taking movies while driving, etc. Yes, it's illegal, unsafe, etc., but I'm bad-to-the-bone.)

This section shows the mountain climb road,
just a narrow two-lane road. Kancamagus
isn't even a bunny slope compared to this.

His house is just outside Bligrashy about 2 hours south of Taif. Google maps gave me directions but it ended me up on the lane to the left in this pic and wanted me to walk up the remaining distance. I looked in the direction it was pointing and decided there must be a way up there.   There was. I drove around all the twisty-little-passages-all-different and stopped at this one place and decided to call the guy. I kind of described where I was, cars parked on the side, etc. and he came walking out of his gate after hearing me on the phone through the truck! I was just at his door. Let me know if you think you could have found it more easily! Guys don't need to ask for directions! 

This was his father's house, very elaborate if not quite finished. His family had moved to Jeddah when he was young and they came up here in the summer and on holidays. Of course much of his family still lives in the local area. This is quite the scenic area.

Look at that view, just look at it!

That is one huge house.

My host's family's original house that he lived in until he was about 2 years old and his family moved to Jeddah. Absolutely beautiful and sturdy stone work. It looks like the addition to the right was built by someone of a little lesser skill. 

Another section with an outdoors stairway built in. It's really too bad the roofs had collapsed from disuse and neglect since they were so well built. Notice the village guard tower in to the left. these are all over the place up here.

Unfortunately the door was locked from the inside.

Have I mentioned how it rarely rains in Saudi Arabia, especially in the summertime? I had driven by some wadis down by the coast that had water in them and I actually saw a small shallow pond, maybe half an acre in size, by the side of the road. Turns out it had rained a few days in the Jizan province area and there was even some flooding where people had to be rescued. Of course it was the usual 36°C and more so things were drying up. getting up in to the mountains the temperature dropped significantly. It was 21°C when I got up there. Beautiful weather and the sun was even out though it was partly cloudy. We were above cloud level for the most part, the elevation being above 6600 feet. Abdullah told me that it had rained four days straight. Here's a few videos of the rain that night. The temperature dropped to 18°C (61°F), quite the change from Jeddah heat. Weather said it was 100% relative humidity - no kidding.

https://youtu.be/ZEo62NQCigw - It was pouring.

https://youtu.be/c06gBNzN_J0 - Rain with thunder & lightning!

https://youtu.be/3ylXdXotooY - When the rain stopped the thunder and lightning continued.

But before that I was given the grand tour up the hill and we had Arabic coffee, fruit and dates, that two of his sons brought up, in a little park pavilion. 

Cactus fruit is really tasty!

Weaver bird, of some sort, nest.

Very neat door, unfortunately locked from the inside.

I was told that when my host was young there was a 'spring' in those rocks which produced a  little 'waterfall' all the time.

I would not want to be here when there was a lot of rain coming through.

I wasn't ready for a hike, just brought my sandals.

One tough tree.

Tiny nest in among the thorns.

My host really liked using my camera, at least it proves I was here.

If you zoom in you'll see a bunch of ants cleaning up after the rain (except for the big trash which they seem to ignore.)

Supposedly this plant produces a very nice flavor when added to the coals cooking meat.

Abdullah making a point.

Then we visited the flood control dam in the area.

That's one good sized lake there.

The boys went on ahead and we took our time heading down to the bottom of the dam.

Jack and Jenny - when vehicles took over, feeding donkeys became expensive so they are now roaming wild. Don't approach them.

Similar seed pod to the previous flora but this 'tree' is apparently very expensive if you buy it in the city.

Blue flower.

Yellow flower.

Some sort of mint.

I found a beetle.

Some sort of viney weedy thingy.

Tiny white flowers.

Most everything has spikes.

Not surprising there were quite a few birds.

Honest to goodness blackberries!

There is a lizard in this picture.

Omar, the 3rd youngest son, who is studying to become an engineer.

Saad, 2nd youngest, still in high school.

So, when we were having our coffee and fruit, after my host had told me about his five sons and two daughters, I had to ask him how old he was. He told me he was born in 1967. He thought he was older than I am, by a lot. He was very surprised to find that I was more than 10 years older than he is. That seemed (to me) to subtly change the tone a little since elders are treated with more respect over here. We still had a good time. After the coffee we went up the mountain some more and his sons drove up and we went to a spot where, if it weren't so darn cloudy, we could overlook the valley. Had some delicious bread and goat for 'lunch'.

Some of the fauna.

Bigger white flower.

We went from the dam and started to explore another area but it started to pour so we headed back. Along the way we stopped at a mosque so they could do salah. I stayed in the car and watched a westerner harvest & eat some of the cactus fruit growing nearby.

I'll follow up on the 'Day 2' trip back later.