Rijal Alma 2

From now on these monkeys were a daily occurrence. You could spot them everywhere, on the mountain peaks, on the walls lining the roads, in the morning rummaging in the big rubbish bins close to our vehicles, making a huge racket. Quite a nuisance those creatures, picking apart every rubbish bag and leaving an unbelievable mess in their wake.
But this stretch of road had something more on offer. I have travelled a lot of passes on my 40.000km journey; steep ones, mean ones, pot holed ones, rock plastered ones, every sort you can possibly imagine. But I was not prepared for the Saudi passes! These things go straight to heaven or hell, depending which way you go. Oh man! They are steep! Never seen anything like it!
After my Kyrgystan experience, where I have fried off my brakes, I am a bit weary. We are very heavy after all. Therefore going down these passes was a heart stopper for me; not for worry of the decline or those really mean, close and steep curves but for worry of my brakes. There were no safe escape routes should they fail, the only way was downhill.
But when getting to Rijal Almaa, we knew this was really worth it. This is an ancient village, built up a hill, containing multi storey houses, hugging up the hill as they climb up. A place of stunning beauty, nestled into this green valley. What a surprise and exceeding all expectations. I reminded me on those Yemenite architecture which I always wanted to see, but very likely never will.Read more