Riyadh Roving . . .

By Jason Mundy

This past July, I had the distinct pleasure of accompanying two new friends on a weekend excursion into the desert several hundred kilometers southeast of the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, with a group of four-wheel drive adventurers who call themselves none other than the Riyadh Rovers. Not by coincidence, I was in the same car with fellow compatriots of the legal profession. I know what you are thinking and I thought about it, too, there had to be a joke somewhere about three lawyers in a jeep in the desert . . . .

As a Rover neophyte, it was my task to secure the drinks and handle the on-board entertainment, i.e. bringing an I-pod with a variety of music to satisfy the musical variances of three people for 600 kilometers. Since Saudi is a dry country, literally, and also as in no alcohol is permitted within its borders, Bud “tall-boys” in a can were simply out of the question. Instead, we had to settle for Moussy, the local non-alcoholic beer sold throughout Saudi, and water. From the musical side of things I was fortunate in that one of the other lawyers is also from the southern United States, which meant that it was highly probable that he liked classic rock. This is a good thing. Unfortunately, our other poor lawyer, not being from the South and not even from the United States, I’m sure got more than his fill of Johnny Cash and the Marshall Tucker Band. I’m positive that both of them were absolutely sick of my insistence for just one more Grateful Dead song. If they were unsatisfied with my selections they hid it well.

The first morning of the expedition we drove approximately 200 kilometers, punctuated by stops to two different rock formations that were reminiscent of those located in an area outside of the city I used go to school at in Wyoming. The shapes of the rocks were fascinating in that over many millennia the weathering had managed to create holes in the boulders several feet in diameter.

In the afternoon, we quickly switched gears and embarked on the majority of the “off-road” portion of our trip. I am more than likely preaching to the choir when I say that a trip into the dunes or into the Saudi outback is a must for anyone. There is something perversely satisfying about driving 150 km an hour across desert flats and seeing huge columns of sand shaken from their slumber by the passage of a powerful v-6 engine or feeling the sway of your vehicle in 4-wheel drive as it navigates soft sand or loose gravel.

After a day of hard driving, we set up camp in an old Wadi. After finalizing the evening’s sleeping preparations and cleaning up a bit, our group turned their attention to dinner and conversation. Maybe it is because camels are such fascinating creatures or maybe because they were constant companions during the day’s journey, talk amongst us featured a somewhat lengthy diatribe on these natural desert rovers. Having recently moved to Saudi Arabia from Mongolia, where there are many camels of the Bactrian “two-hump” variety, and having lived and traveled in East Africa where camels are an inextricable part of the culture, I am somewhat ashamed to admit that I did not know the answer to the question posed as to where a camel stores its water. I won’t give you the answer but will instead hopefully prompt the curios among you to take a quick trip to Wikipedia to find out.

After my camel physiology lesson (which I am glad to have learned something new) and a dinner of canned meat product topped off with canned fruit and warm water to wash it all down, I ambled over to my cot and rested my head on a makeshift pillow fashioned from a dirty shirt and shorts. I was sweaty and tired but the view of the night sky complemented by a gentle evening breeze was an experience I will remember always.

Under the Milky Way and the crisscrossing of satellites across the heavens I drifted off only to be awoken several hours later by wind gusts depositing sand in every open orifice. I stumbled from my open cot into the jeep and managed to catch a few more hours of sleep before the morning sun-rise.

Packed and on the “trail” by eight, the highlight of the second day was by far Thunderdome, a large granite outcropping that proved no match for the Rover contingency. While a few of us elected to traverse the “Dome” on foot, a few brave souls put their vehicles in second low and carefully inched up the mountain. I watched in disbelief and awe as two of the Rovers drove their vehicles up the side of this monstrous granite formation. Sadly, I was without a video camera as the footage had the perfect makings of a Toyota (or Jeep) commercial.

After the afternoon’s highlight at Thunderdome, we “deserteers” made preparations for our return to the city, stopping for one more break under a tree that has hence become known as the French Mecca for a small lunch. These stops were a great way to have light and pleasant conversations and gave the group the opportunity to meet and learn more about each other.

Little did I know that transcribing my day’s thoughts into a journal during the last morning coffee break would make me the de facto scribe and thus responsible for memorializing the trip. Our Rover captain said it was RR tradition for a newbie to write a piece for this journal, but I remain skeptical. Nonetheless, committing to paper my thoughts and observations is but a small price to pay for what has been the most memorable experience for me thus far in the Kingdom, except maybe for the one really good round of golf that I managed one afternoon at Riyadh Golf Course. Sorry Rovers, I am by nature a golfer, but I most certainly plan to put the clubs away a few more times a month to make it out on more roving adventures.

Oh, and if anyone has a punch line for the three lawyers in a jeep in the desert, I’m all ears. The world can always use one more lawyer joke.

Jason is 2008 graduate of the University of Wyoming College of Law and is working in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia for the firm of Johnson and Pump. His focus is on water, mining and foreign investment law.