On The Road Again

....We intended to get up early, leaving at 5 am to avoid the famous Riyadh traffic. But you know how it is, and by the time we pulled ourselves together it was 7:30 am. As luck would have it, the roads were clear and we were able to zoom out of the city easy breezy.

Riding in ~45 °C made us question our existence but since we wanted to move our bikes out of the region, the only option was to go and kick it. To manage the heat, we agreed on mandatory hydration stops every 45 mins.
We were facing dry heat which instead of being boiled in our sweat, it became riding towards a blow dryer, in times with heat waves feeling like fire on the skin. At this very dry heat, you don't feel you're sweating, yet the shirt is encrusted of salt at the end of the day. Hence, electrolytes need to be provided - yummy hot salty water at every stop.
Fortunately, there were mosques here and there along the road, offering water dispensers where we took the opportunity to pour it on ourselves.

We also tested out the strategy to ride early, then find a shelter to hide out for a few hours until afternoon, to then continue riding. So we found a cafe which seemed out of place as it was far from any functioning town yet its very fancy interior and dessert variety didn't fit in with the area. It also served the best cheesecake we've had in ages.
We took off around 4 pm and realized it was still 40 °C and will likely be so until sunset.

And as we looked for a wild camp site, it was already maghreb. We heard of some oasis nearby and after a bit of searching we found it quietly hidden at the bottom of some sand dunes. We pitched our tent amongst the date palm trees and assessed our new strategy. It was half past seven and still hotter than what we're used to back home. Tomorrow we would ride 550 km in similar heat.

And as always: Let's just f*cking do it!Read more