Jabal al Haylah

And then my house battery gave up its ghost. No battery, no fridge, so I need a new one. No problems, I am close enough to Abha so I tell my friends we will meet down (around 2200m) at the coast in Jazan once I am done. But nothing is as easy as it sounds. No deep cycle battery to be had in the region with about 1 Mio inhabitants. After a long search I find a fitting one in Jeddah. OK, they will deliver, it will arrive in 4-5 days. I hang around Abha, drive from here to there and back. Having a lot of opportunities to discover Abha and Khamais Mushait, the neighboring city.
When installing the battery, the pin onto which to attach the accessories brakes off in the hole it is screwed into. Now I have to find a workshop to drill out the screw. I find one, just before they close for the noon prayer. And just as in Saudi fashion, they don’t charge me for this service. Now I am set to go.
I travel down to Jazan, stinking hot down there. I make another traffic light acquaintance, a very nice family who invite me to their home. I only stay with them for a short time, before moving on, as I am still trying to catch up with the Boegers.
 I’ve only travelled for 100km at the most, when the next problem becomes obvious. My fridge is playing up. So back to Jazan, asking my new friend Hamad for help. He finds a fridge repair shop and after installation of a new thermostat the fridge is back to working order.
The next day, after promising I will visit him and his family when driving to Najran I am sent off.
The next day or two a stink of eggs fills my car. What is going on now??? It turns out to that my car batteries are on their last leg, and they are fuming my car up with toxic gases. At least this shouldn’t be too hard? And I am right there: in Najran I get some new batteries and am rolling again.
For quite some time now one of my teeth is giving me some grief. I had it checked out in Jeddah, they could not resolve this problem. But when I got into Riyadh a few weeks after my car troubles I needed to resolve this issue. And what is the outcome? I need some root canal fillings and a new bridge and crown. Thank you very much! That means three weeks or more until everything is done. But there is no way of avoiding it, so I will have to arrange my travel routes around my dental appointments. And put my hands deep into my pockets ☹.
Well, that’s how it goes with us elderly ladies. We need some TLC (for you Germans: Tender Love and Care) now and then. And some mechanical work.Read more