A rather frightful night really. We commented after dinner that we had not seen all day the guard dog, aka wild desert dog from the night before and even joked that it may have been cooked up for dinner after there were complaints about its barking during the night. Settling into the trailer for a peaceful night and I have to add, I have been falling to sleep quickly and soundly every night on the trip, we are woken at 4am to the frantic barking outside our trailer and not long after a yelping of the dog which I presume was the camel kicking the dog for getting too close. Though I would not like any harm to come to any animal, I think the camel and I came to the same thought about the dog, please shut up and go away.
We have breakfast at the camp, pack up and set off. We have a very loose plan of where to go, but it all centers around the border crossing. We hope the return is less hassle that coming to Jordan. We make it to the Jordan exit and would you believe it, we have a mistake on our car registration for Jordan and even funnier, it is the same one we had for KSA, they missed the zero off the end of our registration. This causes some confusion but after going from office to office for 10 minutes, I am ushered to the payment desk for 25JOD payment for the car. Then to the passport desk for stamping before being sent back the payment desk for 20 more JOD payment for personal exit charge. I did not mind the car payment or being sent backward and forwards, but was left scratching my head to the perps exit cost as this would not be paid at the airport. I must be missing something but o pay and we are on our way.
We arrive at the KSA and we are first singled out and think we may have been fast tracked after being asked where are we from and we said UAE. This was not the case and after passing the guard our passports we see the line of cars pass through past us and we are led to an office for finger printing and Becky’s passport having the visa number written into a page on her passport, not sure why but we move onto the security search. Love the fact that Becky is asked to sit on bench outside whilst I go into the office and have coffee and our vehicle is search by the sniffer dog and staff. Nothing to declare or find we are on our way again. Even with the delays we are through within an hour and a quarter which is still half the time of one airport for one journey.
We push on and head along Route 15 looking to get as far along through KSA as possible. We soon reach Tabuk which we like, except this time we do not pass Starbucks so not celebratory coffee. We make decent time on main road as mostly it is in a decent state and no too many pot holes. We as not going to make it as far as I hoped. We shot passed the spot called the hills and with the sun starting to drop we decide to find a new spot to stop. It is pancake day Shrove Tuesday and of because I want pancakes lol.
Looking out for a track or hill that we can pitch behind away from the road and far enough away we do not disturb anyone we pull off and gingerly follow a track. The track is hard ground mostly and I see some sand and decide close to that, swinging around I must have miss judged the sand and I kind you not! I get stuck. I try to boot it and off cause I dig deeper. It just goes to show how easy it is. I get the max trax off the side and dig them under the tires. Try again! No luck and just like miss judging the sand in the first place, I make another mistake. This time it is Becky that calmly states, that I have the read upside down. Off road school boy error. I am soon out and we park up safely.
Dinner is stir fry and now with the sun setting the temperature down rapidly so we bunker down in the trailer for a warm and peaceful night.