Trip to Mada'in Saleh- Part II

As soon as Davis and I arrived home we turned on my laptop and looked at the map. It was easy to tell where we had been driving as there were only a few roads crossing in the middle of the desert. Two cell towers also helped by making perfect landmarks. The road we needed to take was the only road we hadn't tried off of the badly damaged tank road.

Early morning the next day we again set off full of high hopes and absolute certainty that we would see our destination. We make it to the badly damaged tank road and turn onto the correct road. Total time to make it further than we did the day before, less than twenty minutes.

We drove on, enjoying the scenery and confident in our route. After an hour and a half we stop in a little village for fuel. This village comprised of a gas station, a tiny market, a police station, and a few houses. I would estimate the population as being made up of a large family. All villages in the Kingdom are identical. So we pull up to the fuel pump and the Indian worker asks "how much" in Arabic. Here is a man that comes from a beautiful lush country of a billion people, and leaves his family and friends to work alone in a speck of a village in the middle of a desert. I want to talk to him, to ask him why. What are his motives, his dreams, his desires. But alas, we are unable to communicate. So I hold up all my fingers to signify how much fuel to pump and then wave goodbye to this sad lonely wanderer and leave him to contemplate his decisions and being.

A camel relaxing by the road. Photograph by M. Davis Clarke

Down the ribbon of pavement we glide, enjoying the ups and downs and tight turns the hills offer us to break up the monotony of the desert. When my eyes start to close from drowsiness I just reminisce about the utter wastes of Utah's Salt Flats or Nevada's deserts and I snap awake with the understanding that this isn't bad. It could always be worse. But this time I seem to have awoken to a mirage, for there looks to be a giant mountain covering the road. Surprisingly Davis seems the same. There truly is a hill of dirt covering the road. Stunned, we stop in front of it for a moment until I realize a dirt trail with construction equipment littering it climbing the left side of this unexpected roadblock. Against Davis's wishes I drive up this makeshift road to the top. From the top we are greeted with an fabulous view. High up on the mountain are heavy construction trucks moving dirt around. I secretly hope for one to go tumbling down the mountain since the precipices they are working on don't look like they could support a man let alone a giant block of metal moving around. Down below us on the opposing side of our roadblock is a beautiful road weaving through the mountain pass. I feel sorry for it as it looks so lonely without any cars. 

Now we were at an impasse. I felt that we had driven too far to give up so easily and Davis felt we had no options. I offered up the idea of driving down the side of the mountain but Davis is a safety minded individual and was against it. I then offered roaming around the desert looking for a way to bypass this problem. Again Davis was against it saying that we only had a small front wheel drive sedan. I could see that Davis just wanted to go home since he was making excuses about my easily executed and perfectly safe ideas, so I humored him and we returned to Tabuk crestfallen.