Al Ahsa, Jeddah - and Makkah

It was Ramadan, so patience was needed. First of all, nobody really did anything before late afternoon. And then, all work and social life shifted into the night, lasting until the morning prayer at the first glimpse of light on the horizon.

Since we had been riding, we hadn’t been fasting in the previous days, but now, towards the end of Ramadan, we also stopped eating and drinking during daylight hours. During the night when everything is open, Ahmed drove us around to different workshops to figure out what could be done with the engine, while Ridha introduced us to the nocturnal social life of the town.

As everything moved slowly in these last days of Ramadan, we decided to take a break from the waiting game and took on a 19-hour bus to Jeddah.
Planned ahead of time, we orchestrated a genius strike: we had asked Kedo, the legendary Yamaha thumper parts supplier , to send a spare piston and piston rings to the address of a traveler we had never met before. As we had found out asking in traveler groups, this guy was going to fly from Berlin to Jeddah. And it worked out: We met Nikolay in his hotel lobby, exchanged a box of chocolates for a piston, and voilà, the next step in reviving Kismet was secured. Thank you, mate!

From Jeddah, we moved on to Makkah. RidingKismet’s family was there for Umrah, a mini pilgrimage to one of the most sacred places in Islam. We had planned to visit Makkah anyway at some point on this journey, and it happened to be not on the bike, but on public transport.

(Un)luckily, due to the recently escalating conflicts in the Middle East, the family’s flights had been rearranged, forcing them to leave two days earlier than planned. The hotel, right next to the Kaaba, was already paid for though… and we ended up with two nights for free right at the center of it all.

And Makkah was full.... Completely full in fact.
We arrived at Maghreb and were immediately welcomed by one of the many free meals shared at sunset. Afterwards, we tried to make our way to the hotel, but the continuous night prayers made it nearly impossible to move, since the streets were packed with people bowing towards the Kaaba.

Eventually, we found the family, shared a simple dinner, and walked together around the Haram, the space surrounding the Kaaba.

It’s a place of deep spirituality. People from every nation and every background gathered for the same reason: to reset, to reflect, to find some form of grounding.

So we stood there for a while...
Grateful for what we have. For being alive. For being able to move, to choose, to go where we want. For the people who support us along the way. For having some sort of dedication and purpose maybe.
Thinking of those on the other side, with fewer options, less freedom, less certainty. The ones who would love to, but can not. The ones who lost faith, trust, or their direction somewhere along the way.
Let's just reflect a bit, recalibrate, if necessary, and move on.

Then Eid came, the end of Ramadan. A reason to celebrate for many. And for us, another one: RidingKismet’s birthday!
So, back to Jeddah, then back to Hofuf/Ahsa.
Would there finally be a way to bring the old 350 back to life??

Let's go!Read more