Part 1 Words By: Mike Nott Photos By: David Chambers, Manuel Schmidt, Kim Merritt and Mike Nott 
I know a bloke, who knows a bloke, who knows another bloke that can get you a 30-day open visa to travel by vehicle from the UAE into Saudi Arabia and explore at will. The bloke I know is David “Streaky” Chambers and to him I owe the completion of the best, rarest and most cherished off-road trip I’ve ever done. To say that achieving entry into Saudi in this way is “rare” is like saying Dodo eggs are “rare.” The trip comprised four drivers: Streaky in his old Discovery, Manuel Schmidt in his short wheelbase Defender, Kim Merritt in his LR3 and me in my old G500. We had 16 days of holiday to play with and our plans were ambitious and based on Streaky’s extensive knowledge of the country, gained from over a decade of living there. In brief, we were to head from Dubai, through Riyadh and onto the volcanic area around the Wabar crater, calling on some ancient and historical villages, forts and dams en route, and then head via the outskirts of Medina, through Tabuk and up to Halat Ammar on the Saudi-Jordanian border. From there we were to follow the route of the old Hejaz Railway all the way to its finish in Medina. Any time we had left over would be spent in the south, near Yemen. It had been a life time aspiration of mine to follow the Hejaz Railway, born from slogging through TE Lawrence’s “Seven Pillars of Wisdom,” seeing the epic film and having an unhealthy passion for narrow gauge steam railways. Of course, when Streaky was gauging interest in the trip from a group of potential fellow travellers, and his ideas for it, I signed up instantly. 
Once the group had been settled, there was much preparation to do, particularly vehicles and equipment. We were likely to do up 8,000km in the 16 days so everything had to be in tip-top condition. There followed a personal frenzy of servicing and checking my G500 and ensuring I had the right spare parts should any of the “known” faults occur. These included: starter motor, water pump, thermostat, crank position sensor, a full set of front wheel bearings, radiator and fuel hoses amongst much else. I also replaced my radiator and one of the centre prop CV joints beforehand. I then felt we were ready. The car was loaded with fridge/freezer, water, dry foods enough to last at least ten days, fuel cans and the ensemble of tools, fluids and recovery equipment to be able to deal with, hopefully, anything, and finally some bedding and some spare clothes. I managed to achieve my normal aim, of keeping everything below the level of the vehicle windows. We met at the Saudi Consulate in Dubai to go through the rigmarole of getting the visa. This is not as straightforward as we’d expected (nothing like this usually is!). The consulate had the “letter” with our names but said the visa would take three days (we’d already been delayed three days waiting for the letter in the first place) so Streaky exerted some personal influence and managed to persuade them to issue the visas that day. Great, but we then had to go to Wafi Mall and the visa service company to get them. To the Saudi Consulate’s great credit we received “fast-track” service and had the visas by 4pm. We left the next day. 
From Dubai, the drive to the UAE-Saudi border, is the longest one you can do within the UAE. It’s not the most exciting trip though, consisting mainly of following the interminable coast road through Abu Dhabi emirate. Crossing into Saudi proved to be our first challenge. There are hundreds of trucks at the border but almost no cars, which meant you can go straight to the gates but we were something of an oddity. We had to be processed, with finger prints and photos being required but there was nobody to man the equipment and the usual call for the “Captain” went out. After some help from his staff, we were eventually finished, stamped in and allowed to progress through customs (after what can only be called a “cultural” delay), buy our third party insurance (100 AED for a fortnight) and get on with the trip. Manuel works for a company in Dubai that has Nokia as a client and they had been so enamoured with the idea of our journey that they had given us all Nokia Lumia 1020 phone cameras to record the trip with. Thus, our first stop in Saudi was to get a Saudi SIM card for the phones and the second was to top up with petrol. Now, one of my colleagues had told me that the cost of living was noticeably cheaper in Saudi than the UAE. He wasn’t wrong but the price of petrol was something of a shocker, though pleasantly so – 0.6 Riyals per litre, that’s basically 0.6 AED, or, for those in Imperial, that’s about 45p per gallon. The prospect of doing 8,000km now didn’t seem like it would be too big a burden on our wallets. First impressions of a person or a place can sometimes be deceiving or just plain wrong. Once through the border crossing and into Saudi proper, my “first” impressions of the local border town was one of decay and squalor and the roads were in a really poor state. Dismayingly, this first impression would be sustained for the duration of our trip. We turned off the main highway which headed towards Qatar and took the unbelievably straight truck road to Riyadh. It’s a single carriage unfenced road but was not busy and it was the shortest route to Riyadh but Streaky was adamant that we should not travel on it in the dark, and rightly so because of the wayward camels. After several hundred kilometres and as dusk approached, we turned off into the dunes and had out first, noticeably chilly, camp. Our next stop was to be Al Kharj. Streaky’s steering column was looking a bit worn so we tried to locate a scrap yard, amongst the many, to find a replacement. But after touring a huge one we were to be unlucky. So, after an obligatory group photo by the “witches hat” water tower we headed on to Riyadh. Streaky had a very useful contact in Riyadh who had given us the coordinates of a Land Rover spare parts dealer but despite this help we were still out of luck. The next place to try was on the southern outskirts of Riyadh near Al Hair; this is scrap-yard city, miles and miles of them, stretching into the desert. We flagged down a taxi and told him to lead us, in our four vehicles, to the scrap yard, through the chaotic rush hour traffic. It was something of a rare achievement that we managed to stay together in our five-car convoy and made it, eventually, to a Land Rover graveyard. The part was “available,” bought and we headed out of Riyadh and pointed ourselves towards Makkah. From Riyadh the landscape changed and became more dramatic, with mountains, escarpments and ominous storm clouds in the distance.
We turned off the motorway and found ourselves a convenient gravelly plateau to camp for the night. The storm clouds loomed and the sheet lightning began and we thought we could relax and watch this remarkable celestial show as it passed us by to the north but that would have been too easy. The wind picked up and the storm headed our way. There was a comical moment as we dashed for our roof top tents to make sure all was secure and for me to quickly erect the rain cover, and dive in. The wind battered us and the vehicles rocked in the melee between wind, rain and tents. There is something quite calming and enjoyable about being in a good tent in a storm and knowing you’ll be dry and warm while the elements do their forlorn best to force their way in. Streaky had made an excellent plan to visit, what turned out to be some superb sights as we wended our way to Halat Ammar on the Jordanian border. We turned off the Makkah motorway at Muwayah and headed north. Our first target was the fort at old Al Muwayah; an ancient pilgrimage fort with an adjacent mud village. The fort had been recently renovated and looked immaculate behind the newly erected fence. Sadly no “retainer” was present and we had to satisfy ourselves with a tour of the mud village and look-out post and to take photographs of the fort from outside. The fort is on the edge of a once very active volcanic area where the plateaus are covered in lava and there are numerous classically, cone shaped, extinct volcanoes. Our next target was to be a volcanic cone that Streaky had spotted from Google Earth and we hoped to be the first to camp inside its caldera. Route finding was challenging, particularly through the lava fields. After an initially encouraging false start and with some help from a group of bedu we encountered repairing a flat tyre, we picked up a rough track heading our way. The scenery suddenly became startling; flat sand/sabkhah plains to our left and volcanoes to our right. Streaky led us further into the lava fields and with his keen sense of direction and the use of a maze of old tracks we eventually saw our target cone about 6km to our right and headed for it. The landscape is best described as “prehistoric” and unlike anything to be found in the UAE or Oman. We discovered a track up the side of the cone but it petered out before the rim, so we walked the short distance and peered down inside; a perfect crater appeared in front of us about 1km in diameter. Despite the use of our binoculars we could see no vehicle tracks inside and the potential descent from the rim looked like we’d never get back out again. We traversed the bottom of the cone and looked for another way in. I had a go at another faint track that led up to the rim but like the previous route it petered out before the top had ever been reached. We instead camped in the lee of the cone and enjoyed a spectacular sunset and our first properly “wild” camp. (To be continued)
