Скачать или смотреть The WORST Part Of Saudi Cycling? 🙁 (It’s NOT What you Think)

Day 305. 101km (69847kms)

I know I always say this but wow was it ever hard to tear myself away from the palatial apartment that was mine ‘for as long as I needed’. As it is I’d stayed an extra day partly to avoid a particularly strong headwind, partly to coordinate with cyclist Muriel who I hoped to meet coming the other way tomorrow, and partly just to stay in bed for the day.

Getting out of Dammam was a nightmare. North of the airbase was some sort of military enclosure regrettably not marked on my map, that took a lot of getting around. After already heading much further north than I’d have preferred and having passed the base I now needed to continue out of my way to cross the train line. The roads are 4 lanes in each direction and in an attempt not to cross unnecessarily I tried riding on the pavement but this was a disaster; gaping holes in the paving meant I ended up walking, carrying the bike much of the way.

At last I could turn west but the grid system of the road network requires joining a motorway to cross a each perpendicular motorway. Once over you can rejoin the smaller roads but these minor roads never cross under or over the highway requiring several returns to the motorway. Once I had finally escaped the nightmare of dual lane motorway entry and exits and made it to the open road no more than 15 minutes passed before a patrol car showed up! Perfectly friendly and kind, but this was not the problematic nor most dangerous part of Saudi cycling! Anyway, they rotated in and out every hour or two for the remainder of the ride. The extra kilometres leaving Dammam meant that I was now tipping a century and was pretty tired. I dismissed a very busy service area crossing my fingers as I pushed on a further few kms to a small mosque. I wasn’t sure how the conversation would go with the police guy but he seemed satisfied at my selection. During the double back to get around the fence I guess he made a call because he seemed to be telling me his sergeant had authorised that I sleep inside the mosque! What a result! A little before 7pm final call to prayer blasted through speakers into the women’s section (if it’s the call to come pray why is it played into the prayer room?!) and I fell asleep, exhausted, shortly thereafter.

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#saudiarabia #cycling #travel