This is a map made by Jeff, one of the guys that went with us on our Hejaz Railway excursion last year. This was our proposed itinerary, but it ended up changing a bit. The Day 1 leg is actually Jeff, Doc, and Chris coming from Riyadh to meet me, Kent, and Mike in Medina (we were coming up from Jeddah, which was 'home' for us). A little context for those that are lost here; Kent's my brother-in-law; he's an infantry officer in the U.S. Army and he was the one I went to Saudi to visit. The other guys are all Army officers as well. They all had jobs there for a year advising various parts of the Saudi military. You couldn't ask for a better crew of guys to go exploring the history of a semi-hostile foreign nation with.
    So, Day 1 had us camping just a few miles outside of Medina, on Day 2 we camped somewhere around the Wayban or Tuwayrah train stops (I don't recall exactly which; I'll have to double check that one. All I remember is, it was in the middle of nowhere, with some great red mountains that were made of a gnarled, weathered lava rock that was murder on tires.)
    Day 3 saw us make it through Al Ula and Mada'in Salah, and we stopped for the night somewhere in the vicinity of the Mutalla station, on a vast flat plain, with our camp behind one of the only hills to be found. Day 4 was a long, tooth-rattling day along the rail bed, through lava plains with small, knife-sharp rocks and gravel that were at various times red, gray, or black, and then the pumice would give way to hard-packed dry lake beds, and some stretches of sweeping dunes. On the last stretch before we came to a real paved road again, the rail bed threaded its way in and out of a Saudi military firing range. Needless to say, everyone's eyes were peeled for any unexploded ordinance that might have been laying around, or worse yet, a barrage of live rounds. Finally we made it to Tabuk, where we stayed at a western housing compound (I think it was mainly British oil workers and military types) in some of their guest villas. One of Kents's Army buddies from their days at the Armor Officer Advanced Course hooked us up with the villas. By the way, remind me to tell the story of Kent's and my airborne "onramp" experience sometime. Good times.
    On Day 5, we went back down to Mada'in Salah via a much faster paved highway, and managed to squeeze in the Nabatean ruins there before the sun went down. For those not familiar with the Nabateans, they're the ones who built the city of Petra in Jordan, which was featured prominently at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. That night we camped near a huge elephant-shaped rock a few miles down the road from the Nabatean ruins, much to the chagrin of the officials there. They were either worried for our safety camping out in the open, or thinking that we might think them inhospitable. They really, really wanted us to stay in one of the local hotels, but we really enjoyed camping out under the stars, especially near something as cool as the Mammoth (or Elephant Rock as it's also known). That night as we assembled skewers with shrimp, goat, peppers and onions for our bbq, a rain storm blew through to the south of us, giving us front row seats to a brilliant display of lightning, and the rain gave the air a refreshing humidity and a sweet scent.
    On Day 6, we made one last stop in Al Ula, so that we could take a picture of the one train station that we had missed on the way through the first time. We had only intended to do a drive-by and then hit the road for the long trip back down to Jeddah, but as we pulled out to leave, some guys from the house across the muddy road from the station and the mosque stopped us and invited us into their tent for some tea and coffee. We hesitated at first, as we had a lot driving to do (and we'd done an awful lot of it already that week), but they were insistent that we come inside and experience some genuine Saudi hospitality. We spent an enjoyable hour with them, and then it was back on the road and home to Jeddah. So that was just a brief synopsis of our Hejaz Railway trip. I've left a lot out, like more cross-cultural experiences, history of the Hejaz Railway, etc. Don't worry, we'll get to that. Time allowing, I'll be posting all the stories bit by bit.