The breakfast story — Bread & Jam — The Arabian Beast & Valley
Chapter 2 : The breakfast story — Bread & Jam
We followed the flowing valley aided by the soothing and calm breeze. Everyone’s hungry since we left Jeddah at 2am and we were looking forward to breakfast. One of my companions came forward to prepare our food. I am always touched and surprised by his sincerity. He took out some bread out of its packet and began applying some jam on it. I was observing him stylishly applying jam and it reminded me of a barber preparing his blade before shaving his patron’s beard! I kept observing him and took a few pictures on his request. Our other friend was engaged in hunting down butterflies and dragonflies to photograph! I was watching all of this barefoot and indulged myself to a generous portion of breakfast and then some to ease my hunger.
Fun fact: earlier, I had announced that I would try to fast a week before we began travelling, so that I could better manage my hunger, or I would ride out the journey by starving! [When I am hungry, I get low blood pressure and angry :). I am in all probability a constant nuisance to my co travelers, with my demands of food on time. My blurry vision can only be cleared after breakfast. Later I joined my friend hunting for something to photograph. I sat on a white sand rock carved like a beauty. I found a beautiful red colored dragonfly. The wings of the dragonfly shimmered in the sunlight and at times showed the many hues of a rainbow. Some dragonflies were skimming over the green grass and fighting each other. Their shadows reflected in the water and made the moment almost movie like. That observation turned into visualizing different stories about the critters. Like a movie everything seemed dramatic.
They were enjoying and celebrating the beautiful moments. I am told dragonflies have a short life and were probably celebrating or fighting each other! Who knows!? The same is happening in our short life and we should celebrate each and every moment.
We slowly stepped away from the white sand stone after obtaining plenty of photos. We moved forward and on our way met two guards. Two camels were resting on the right side of the valley. Their necks were long enough to have a great view of the valley even from their resting position on the ground. Like guards observing from a watch tower.
Camels are called the ship of the desert. They can stay long days without water and transport heavy burden through the desert. Anyway, we waved our hands at the guards as it is custom to respect them. We found a camel trying to eat some tall grass. We tried to capture them with our tele lens. All of us prepared for a battle. Actually, this is a battle for ourselves to convey that we are capable and to make ourselves believe that we have some skills and we could win the battle.
We continued our journey through the camel bazaar! They were looking at us, as if we were aliens. May be they don’t prefer our presence at this moment. “We live here in peace”.
We noticed that one baby camel was being fed by her mother. Actually “people” (including me) have the tendency to look if somebody is breastfeeding. People use their eyes to invade the privacy and comfort of others.
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The mother camel expressed her anger at us by making a threatening noise. We realized that they didn’t like our presence or our intention to capture some intimate moments.
Next to the mother, her companion was watching the feeding without any shame. We murmured to ourselves “have some shame guys”.
I thought we spotted wild camels. But I was proved wrong after seeing they were branded with numbers. They were marked with the number 8 in the top right back leg. Marked there, like a tattoo. We can see the №8 on every camel here.
Some of the camels were smirking at us. Maybe they learned to troll from us humans.
We moved forward and spotted a 4×4 SUV chasing us. We thought we were on the highway for a moment. I don’t know why people have this habit of chasing others! There was water flowing to our left, winding its way touching stones between hills and grasses. There is no way for the approaching vehicle to move past us.
The chase continues we decided to let the other vehicle pass. Sometimes in life winning doesn’t make us happy. We can fail. There is happiness in failing see their happiness on someone else’s face. May be this philosophy doesn’t work all the time.
The car rushed past us and braked to a stop, ahead of us after realizing the track came to an abrupt end. His quick chase appeared futile. It reminded me of the ocean and its waves. Waves begin like roaring monsters and ends at the shore broken into froth.
Moving ahead, the valley surprised us with its amazing view. Towards the right some locals were sitting under a tent, with some of them playing rummy and others engaged in preparing food. They acknowledged us with friendly hand waves welcoming smiles.
Sometimes we find the locals very welcoming. Arab hospitality always excites us. They often prove to be excellent guides and like feeding hungry travelers. They are extremely helpful to stranded travelers on the highway. It reminds me of another trip from Madinah to Jeddah, we had parked our vehicle to take a break. The sun had already set, and we moved out to one side of the highway. Suddenly a vehicle approached us with the customary “Salaamat”. The newly arrived driver just wanted to enquire if we were having any trouble with our car! Their kind attitude always surprises us.
After wishing them we continue our journey enjoying the rhythm of the valley. There is something else waiting for us.
(to be continued)
