For breakfast this morning, we had the leftover curries and roti in a leisurely fashion. Fortunately, I had woken in the wee hours of the morning and taken them out of the fridge so they wouldn’t be too cold to eat.
Today, we’re headed to Dumat Al Jandal we would use as a base to explore Sakaka. Setting off at 1000, I was happy to see that E was back to his normal. He drove the 90 minute journey to Jubbah’s petroglyph site.
Google had indicated that it was closed today, being Friday, so we were happy that the gate was open with some women dressed in abayas wandering around.
The petroglyphs were located on two separate outcrops and we took time to go around the closest one in the south before moving to the northern one. We tried to interpret them as much as we could. After about 90 mins, we moved on in the car in search of the town’s other sites.
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- Petroglyphs on the the southern outcrop near the entrance.
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- Petroglyphs on the the southern outcrop near the entrance (zoomed in).
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- More petroglyphs on the the southern outcrop near the entrance.
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- Yet more petroglyphs on the the southern outcrop near the entrance.
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- Yet more petroglyphs on the the southern outcrop near the entrance (zoomed in).
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- The southern outcrop as viewed from the northern outcrop.
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- The northern outcrop is equipped with stairs to take visitors to some of the petroglyphs.
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- Petroglyphs on the northern outcrop.
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- Petroglyphs on the northern outcrop.
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- Petroglyphs on the northern outcrop. An ibex.
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- Petroglyphs on the northern outcrop.
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- Petroglyphs on the northern outcrop.
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- Petroglyphs on the northern outcrop.
It was around 1300 when we left and got waylaid the Nasser Athwini Museum and were invited in. Here they put on the traditional hospitality of dates, coffee, tea, fruit and incense. It wasn’t just for us as they stopped other passers-by and invited them in as well. We met a group from Aramco that were here for boys weekend (or as close as you can get to that in Saudi Arabia). We then toured their little museum before returning for another sit down.
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- Nasser Athwini Museum.
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- Being hosted at the Nasser Athwini Museum.
It was around 1430 by the time we excused ourselves and headed to the Al Naif Palace which was also a museum. It was a somewhat pricey place for about the same collection as the previous, which we enjoyed for free. But it had a well in the garden.
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- Al Naif Palace museum.
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- Al Naif Palace museum.
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- Well at Al Naif Palace museum.
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- It was a typical museum display of items.
We skipped the Annayef Palace with the pancake-layered towers and hit the road about 1530 for our nightstop at Dumat Al Jandal. We were about 2h later than what we had expected (not that we had any pressing engagements). But the hospitality we experienced today was special.
I took the wheel for less than 2h of the driving today and handed back to E for the last stretch into the Dumat Al Jandal, staying at the Al Farhan hotel.
It felt like luxury having a two night stay here after a series of one-nighters. Here, I was impressed with E, speaking to the Sri Lankan receptionist in Tamil.
For dinner, I had my first experience with the Kudu fast food chain. It’s local food at an inflated price.