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. 

Sewing in Saudi and a Visit to the DMC Shop

“What you need,” my daughter said before I headed back to Saudi about a week ago, “ is a project.”

I woke up a few days ago with her words ringing in my ears. I realized the many minutes of empty space that needed to be filled in the days ahead. She was right. Over the last weeks in New Zealand there’d been Christmas and a wedding to celebrate. It had been busy and fun, but now I was back in Riyadh and it was all over.

A Wedding In Saudi

This has been a year of travel, and at this very moment I’m in New Zealand again. Last weekend I went to Auckland and visited St George’s Church, Epsom with my daughter.  In a little over a month she’s getting married there.  

St George’s is an old traditional church with a white painted wood exterior. The inside is dark and cool. As we stood together in the silence beside the old wooden pews, it felt just perfect for a wedding.

Sick in Saudi

My husband came back from London a few weeks ago with a cold. This turned very quickly into bronchitis, which then triggered off his asthma. Lots of coughing, sleeplessness, nausea, tightness across his chest, and no voice. Time to see a doctor.