Not Valentine's Day

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day and while the rest of the world celebrated with red roses, romantic poetry and heart shaped paraphernalia, there was none of that here. 

The King's Forest: Not your usual Riyadh Desert Picnic

Snakes, scorpions, sandstorms.

Three words on the risk management matrix when I last went to the desert. It was with a group of children for an outdoor education day and we were heading to Thumamah. I remember that we saw no snakes or scorpions. We did see a huge rat vacant one of the Bedouin camp tents as we walked into it. I remember also that it was very sandy and not particularly pleasant.

Last weekend we went on a different kind of outing. No school children this time, just a group of adults in a convoy of five 4W drives. We were going to Rawdat Khoraim, also known as The King’s Forest.  You turn off along the road to Dammam, about an hour’s drive from Riyadh.

Wadi Hanifah - No Litter Please, We're Saudi

People told us that after it rained Wadi Hanifah filled with water. But we’d visited and seen it looking like this.

So when my husband cheerfully suggested that we go there last weekend, because the recent rain meant there’d be water and the dam would be full, I was unconvinced.  It had been so very, very barren last time. Imagining water was just too hard.