Richard

As it was far too dangerous and pretty well impossible to ride across Jeddah by bike (big highways, and essentially no intersections or crosswalks or overpasses), we booked an Uber XL. The driver was amazingly relaxed and welcoming even as we piled our 2 filthy dirty gravel bikes into his SUV with white upholstery for the 10 km ride to the Jeddah old town waterfront. Enjoying riding with no gear for the first day, we set off on sidewalks and some quiet roads along a few pretty inner city lakes until we reached the Red Sea shoreline. With many sections restricted or blocked for construction projects, we did a lot of weaving in and out of roads and using road shoulders against the traffic. Reaching the pretty South Corniche parks, we cycled on the nice promenade pathways. Despite being totally empty of visitors, we played a “game“ to try to avoid the numerous “security people“ telling us bicycles are banned. Getting past the huge restricted harbor and water desalination areas was a huge challenge with only big, busy highways with no intersections. We ended up using sections of sidewalk and highway shoulder against traffic to finally get to the north Corniche area. This was where many huge hotels were and lots more being built so more recently developed. There was even a good bike lane but unfortunately well back from the shoreline and in between traffic lanes. So we went back to our “game“ avoiding security to enjoy the beautiful water-front pathways under palm trees until reaching the Formula 1 racetrack and the floating mosque. We were turned away from the area around the Jeddah Yacht Club and then entered the modern northern suburbs without direct views of the sea. We cycled on to the Jeddah municipality of Obhur along the natural inland waterway. With the sun setting and many locals coming out for waterfront sundowners, we bought some snacks and beer (alcohol free of course) and joined them in a nice, welcoming atmosphere. The backdrop included the partially built Jeddah Tower which will be the world’s tallest building when completed. We cycled on next to the lively evening promenade and stopped for nice exchanges with several locals before deciding to call an Uber to take us back. We discovered that our mobile internet was no longer working so we ended up asking local police to help. They were very friendly and gave me a wifi hotspot to book the Uber XL. Another friendly driver helped stuff our dirty bikes into his SUV and offered to help us anyway he could while in Jeddah. Successfully back at the hotel from our final day on the bikes, we reflected on an amazing bikepacking adventure through Saudi Arabia, rich in experiences and wonderful encounters with welcoming and generous Saudi people. We felt like pioneers with uncharted routes and no other westerners seen so there was great attention and curiosity shown towards us. And we were relieved that we had absolutely no problems of any kind and not even a flat tire. With Saudi Arabia set to become a world class tourist destination in the years ahead, we were really happy to have experienced the country now. We both felt extremely safe and welcomed everywhere and can highly recommend Saudi Arabia to all bikepackers.

We were served a delicious breakfast and had to decline invitations to stay longer so we could get to Jeddah. Off on quieter roads and then followed a back route proposed by Komoot. At a military block I managed to convince them that we were following a known cyclist back route and they let us continue. It was an old deserted and eroded road through sand but we made it to a series of poor communities and then back on to a big highway before crisscrossing through the first Jeddah neighborhoods. With Jeddah made for cars and fast-flowing traffic, we had lots of busy roads and a few dangerous highway intersections to cross before finally getting to our hotel (and original starting point). Nice to check-in and have time to explore the old town Al Balad (via the much safer option Uber).

We thoroughly enjoyed a relaxing rest day in the luxurious apartment with another evening hosted by Majed into the majestic mountains and spectacular views overlooking Mekka. Majed bought some lamb and we shopped BBQing at the apartment. Finding it difficult to leave, we set off in the hot sun around midday on large, busier roads around Mekka heading for Jeddah. We got onto some smaller roads through various towns of very different levels of social standing with some being quite poor with only immigrant workers.. As we were close to our destination in early evening we were invited by a nice man to be his guests at his family home. He escorted us there and we were greeted by his family with tea, coffee and dates. None spoke much english so used ChatGPT for some very good conversation. We then ate a nice meal together and then more tea and coffee before we rolled out the provided mattresses and bedding to a restful sleep.

We packed up and headed back to the gas station to charge our devices again and resupply before heading north on a long, empty 90km stretch of desert. Fairly soon a Sudanese truck driver took pity on us and offered us a ride which we didn’t refuse. Arriving in the outskirts of Mekka, we knew there was a large zone restricted to Muslims only but we didn’t know the boundaries exactly. We had made contact with a well rated apartment accommodation and hoped that it was ok to go there. Being unsure we stuck to back roads of the large, modern housing development to the south of Mekka. Our host Majed who spoke some. English greeted us and seemed to take a liking to us and our way of traveling. He upgraded us to his luxury apartment with private swimming pool which was an amazing contrast to the previous 4 nights of camping. And with great pleasure, his house assistant washed all our clothes as we had nothing left that was clean.
Majed, who worked in the Mekka central zone municipality, then took us out for the evening into the beautiful high mountains to the city of Taif to see the highlights and for an excellent walking tour of the old town. Then on to the glitzy, modern mountain oasis of Ash Shafa before taking us out to dinner in a Mekka restaurant. A long and wonderful day full of surprises and contrasts…