The old way of traveling in the valley of Tihama and Baha and Asir mountains in the south of the country has changed. A mountain trip on foot that used to take many hours can now be done in only 20 minutes thanks to paved mountain roads and tunnels, an old man in the Baha region said. Ali Al-Ammri, 70, recalls the old days when he would wake up around 4:00 A.M. to hike the 3000-meter mountain trail up to Baha City from the Al-Mikhwah Valley to do his weekly shopping. “That was in the 1960s and 70s,” he said. In 1965, Al-Ammri took his first mountain trip on foot to Baha to get his official ID. “It took us about six hours to go up through the rugged mountain,” he said. Villagers from the valley would usually spend the night in Baha to avoid the dangerous night trip down the mountain trail, he said. The trip was even longer with camels loaded with valley products to be sold in the Baha market. “Camels are very slow on the ground, let alone going up a mountain which meant that the trip up to Baha took no less than a whole day,” he added. The villagers from Al-Mikhwah Valley used to take their products on camels to the weekly market in Baha. It was a trip that was often made dangerous by the presence of mountain animals, Al-Ammri said. The old trail is still on the mountain and it triggers memories of a wonderful past every time old villagers drive past it along the winding mountain road, he added. “I miss the trail and the inexpensive products of those times when one sheep was sold for only three riyals,” Al-Ammri said. When vehicles were first brought into the Kingdom during the early days of its establishment, a dirt road across the mountain was opened for traffic, making the trip a lot easier for villagers. It was named Al-Abna mountain road and, in the 1980s, it was re-routed for modern construction, including mountain tunnels. “Who would have ever thought that we would have daily commuters from Baha to Al-Mikhwah,” Al-Ammri said. Baha residents go down to Al-Mikhwah for warm valley weather, a trip that is popular during summer time. Ahmad Al-Ghamdi, 73, said that they always walked in groups of four and five through the mountains for reasons of safety and security. “We spent many nights in the mountains with snakes, scorpions, and wolves, and we had a few near-death experiences with steep slopes,” he said.
