The Saudi Arabian capitol of Riyadh by day is a fairly drab, low rise city. We land after a long haul and layover in Doha at 10 am and hit the ground running.
We start at the futuristic 99 story Kingdom Tower building in the heart of the city. Crazily finding the ticket office was a nightmare with us going around in circles before getting a local shop keeper’s help. The entrance was a pokey little corridor with the only signage being an A4 sheet of paper with small font on a stand outside. Within the ticket office attendant boredly pointed to a QR code to pay on line rather than take payment herself. At the top, though, the view did not disappoint.
A helter skelter series of UBER and taxi rides has us late arriving for our pre-booked 2pm departure tour. Luckily our tour guide waited for us and we breathed a sigh of relief. One of the “must dos” in Saudi is the tour to the “edge of the world”. A two hour drive some of it rough 4WD has our jeep pulling up on the rim of a massive escarpment. The Tuwaiq Escarpment is 800km long with sheer cliffs 300 meters deep. As far as the eye can see is a flat dry ocean bed. There are no guardrails nor safety fences here and this is not a place for acrophobics. We spend 2 hours here walking along the rim and watch the sun set over the horizon before enjoying coffee and dates beside a campfire and our 2 hour drive home.
