Saudi Arabia: Driving Along the Yemeni Border
We opted for a shortcut road from Fayfa Mountains to Dhahran Al Janub that goes along the Yemeni border (it is an active war zone with frequent Houti rebel-launched missiles flying, but the road seemed scenic and was chopping off a lot of mileage). Googlemaps did estimate driving at about 30km/hr for some reason, but we though we could beat that. Wrong! The road went up to above 7k ft then down to 1k ft and then did the same three more times. At one point the switchbacks were almost vertical (from far away I thought there would be a tunnel going through the mountain, but it was vertical switchbacks that the car visually and audibly struggled to overcome). All along the route – incredible landscapes and panoramas!
