On Saturday, my husband and I parked our Harley Davidson Road King in our carport in Jeddah after riding 4,614 kilometers around Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. The focal points of the journey were the first Official Lebanon Harley Owners' Group (HOG) Tour in Beirut, and the third Saudi National HOG Rally in Abha. Our trip began in Gurayat, close to the Jordanian border. Our Harley (called “Maridadi”) had been shipped there along with 17 bikes belonging to the Riyadh HOG Chapter. Our first day's ride took us through Jordan to Damascus, and the next day on to Beirut for a three-day tour of the country with around 250 other Harleys, plus about 100 pillion enthusiasts. In all, we spent a week in Lebanon, and then started our journey back to Saudi Arabia with five other HOGs. Thirty kilometers after Damascus, the rear wheel bearing on Maridadi went bust. After contacting friends in Damascus for help, our Riyadh group continued on their way; we were rescued, Maridadi was fixed, and the next morning we continued alone. We rode via Aqaba, spent a night there, and then rode 1,124 kms to Jeddah in one day. After a two-day break in Jeddah, we set off for Al Baha where we met up with bikers from Dahran and Jeddah. The next morning, we rode together to Abha, and joined more HOGs from Riyadh, and Jubail. We were a total of around 40 bikes for the Saudi Rally – significantly smaller than the Lebanon Tour, but nonetheless an enthusiastic group who all thoroughly enjoyed touring the Asir area. Our return journey was with a Jeddah friend, and we had an exciting ride down a steep escarpment road from Jebel Al Soodah, the highest point in Saudi Arabia, down to Rijal Alma'a, and then a night stop back in the mountains in Al Baha. During our 18 days on the road, we learnt a lot about the differences between these different Middle Eastern countries. In oil-rich Saudi Arabia, there is a network of excellent roads and petrol is very cheap; in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, many roads have broken and uneven surfaces and petrol is up to ten times more expensive. In Lebanon, there are huge billboards with images of glamorous and scantily-clad women advertising fashion, lingerie and drinks. There are no restrictions on photography, but in Syria, you have to be very careful because although there are no signs saying “No Photography,” you may be apprehended because you are in a sensitive military zone. Lebanon still bears the scars of the long civil war, as well as the more recent 2006 war, yet the people haven't lost their zest for partying. The Lebanese HOGs gave the visiting bikers a huge welcome and were very enthusiastic about showing us around their country and their re-built capital – which we found to be extremely expensive! There is zero health consciousness, particularly in terms of smoking and lots of people happily puff away on cigarettes, cigars and shisha in cafes and restaurants. The Syrians, too, are very hospitable and generous; at the Syrian border, we were met by 28 bikers from Damascus who organised an official escort to lead us into the City in a convoy of 48 bikes, like VIPs. When we broke down on our return trip, our new Syrian friends, Hazem Alkadi and Louay Kazzaz, didn't hesitate to extend generous help and hospitality, and show us around their ancient city. In Lebanon, Syria and Jordan women drive cars, which makes a refreshing change! There are also churches in all those countries, frequently existing side by side with mosques in the heart of the cities. The citizens also welcome tourists warmly, and we met a Dutch father and son team, who are biking from the northern most point of Norway to Cape Town in South Africa, who claimed to have loved to ride through Saudi Arabia but found it impossible to obtain a tourist visa. Although we loved our unexpected extra night in Damascus, it meant that we missed out on our night in Amman. Nonetheless, we had a wonderful ride through Jordan; I learned that tomatoes are a major produce as we passed lots of small trucks full of them. We rode during sunset down the escarpment from Ma'an to Aqaba, into the Great Rift Valley where the World Heritage sites of Petra and Wadi Rum are located. We couldn't stop to visit those either, but we're already planning a bike trip back so that we can! We rode on coast and desert roads in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, where temperatures soared to 105F; then in mountains rising up to 2750 meters, where the temperatures plummeted as low as 56F at night. We drove through vineyards, pine forests, olive groves, deserts, massive rugged mounain ranges and the oldest inhabited City in the world: Damascus. We rode with a young Saudi man aged 24 who loved his Harley Davidson, and met an equally enthusiastic Frenchman aged 73 who had ridden from Amman to Beirut with his daughter and son-in-law. The final part of our ride was through the Hejaz and Asir mountains and they have some of the most spectacular scenery and biking roads that we have seen during our tour. Although we would love to be able to share these with bikers from outside Saudi Arabia, we also enjoy the kudos of them only being available to residents of the country. Throughout most of our biking in Saudi Arabia, we had the privilege of a Highway Patrol escort, and we're grateful to them for the efficiency, courtesy and helpfulness of their officers. The encouragement of a few specific people was vital for this road trip to have taken place. Diamond Robyn taught my husband how to ride a Harley and we bought “Maridadi” from him; Marwan and Monther Al-Mutlaq are responsible for establishing Harley-Davidson dealerships in Saudi Arabia and have created this extraordinary biking community that unites nationalities and age groups; Lisa Schlensker is the General Manager of the HOG in the Middle East, and played a vital role in roping me into this adventure. After a serious biking accident two years ago, I thought I would never get back on a motorbike again, but Lisa used her Texan powers of persuasion to get me back in the saddle so that I could keep writing biking stories!
