Of islands, fish and fins: The Farasan Islands

A variety of modes of travel

Our bus left KAUST at 8:30 in the evening of Wednesday for a two day weekend get away. Our destination was the Farasan Islands about as far south along the Red Sea as one can go before entering Yemen. To get there, the 20 of us traveled by Saudi Airlines to Jizan about 600 km south of Jeddah.

This place is HOT! My watch said 32.8 when we got out of the air conditioned airport and we had no idea what the humidity was but anyone who has come to this region of the globe and walked from inside to outside and had their glasses fog up and stay fogged for about 5 minutes even after taking them off and wave them around, knows how humid it is!

The ferry to the Island was a one hour trip. I have a feeling that if we all put our heads together to try to recall this part of the trip that we would still only come up with a half a memory! Inside these questionable boats were 16 bucket car seats arranged facing each other along the walls of the cabin. Oh, and there appeared to be an additional 8 seats in what I take must have been the ‘women’s section’ in the back. We all crowded in the front cabin as there was only one door and it faced forward where the wind of our passage blew through. It took two of these boats to get our crowd to the island.

We were met by two Nissan mini-busses. I staggered into the front seat of one of the wrecks which had seen better days maybe 20 years ago. I sat in the front seat, on the exposed seat foam and watched the side mirror lazily flap back and forth as we ‘flew’ down the center of the deserted road with faith that there was a hotel at the end. My eye was drawn to the broken digital clock on the dash blinking 12:00…. No doubt having done that for years now.

Accomodation

When we arrived at the hotel at 2:30 am, and were checking in I watched a rather large cockroach wander around the main lobby. No one had the heart to step on it.

The rooms were wonderfully cool with one sheet loosely fitted over the bare mattress (which I must say was VERY comfortable) and a single heavy plush blue blanket as a cover. I roomed with Martin who I stayed with on the Madain Saleh trip about 3 months ago. Martin is the man who provided me with the GPS tracking file on the Madain Saleh trip (Here is his offering illustrating our track on this trip.)  Take some time to change the image to 'Satellite' setting and then zoom in, and drag the map around with your mouse. 

The room passed the test though – I did not have any new bites when I woke up. Good place! I’d go back.

All meals were covered in our hotel price. Our wake-up call came at around 7 am the next day. No, there was no phone in the room, we were woken by a knock on the door – much less jarring than a shrill phone. Breakfast was two kinds of eggs, instant coffee or tea, flat bread or hot-dog buns with jam, cream cheese and plane yogurt. For lunch, we had the same kind of hot-dog buns but with either egg or tuna filling (sandwich). We also had banana, oranges or apples.

Snorkeling

We left the hotel in the same dilapidated taxi and a few private suv to accommodate the 20 in our group to travel the short distance to a harbor to catch our boat for our snorkeling trip that day. Even before we got on our boat there were mutterings of mutiny among our group. We knew how hot it was going to get (and already was), and I can speak for myself, that I was having second thoughts if we were to be in a boat without shade! Gladly there was a roof over the boat, but still, we transferred our fear to the availability of drinking water and immediately asked how much there was on board. We were told that they had 150 bottles and in addition, maybe a quarter that of pop. I think we about polished off the lot by the end of the trip.

We stopped at three different locations for snorkeling and one really nice cove with a beach where we had lunch. The color of the water and beaches were startling. I think the most incredible thing for all of us was the amount of life under the water and the absence of life above. The islands are rock with not a plant on them, yet the coral below the water surface is like a continuous carpet of little Japanese gardens. We swam with innumerable species of reef fish and spotted the occasional Reef Ray. I also saw a single barracuda which was about a meter and a bit long.

On the beach

Our lunch took place at a beach and lagoon location. I used some of the time to walk around the island and discovered that it was completely made of old coral. We wondered how the islands got where they were. How can the sea have been high enough to cover them for the coral to grow and shells to be embedded in the coral just like we see currently underwater? We then talked a bit about the location of the islands and by examining Google Maps it is plane to see that there is a rift that runs down the center of the Red Sea with a trench, that I have been told reaches to close to 2 km deep. This ‘rift’, is a crack in the Earth’s crust and is separating, making the Red Sea, as Africa and Saudi Arabia move away from each other. With that information, take a look at the Farasan Islands… now look at the matching islands on the African side of the Red Sea. Could it be that these islands were under water and part of one larger coral reef at one time? Sure looks that way – also explains why when I was walking over this island, devoid of plant life, that the coral I walked on looked like it was stone – it was OLD! There were large sea clams and coral all over the place. Oh, and the only animal life I saw were birds and crabs and a few humans as there were a group of men who had pitched a tent and were there to scuba dive.

Back at the hotel

After lunch we made our third and final snorkel stop and then it was back to port for a rest. Many of us spent time in the majlis building which had throw carpets on the floor and cushions around the walls for us to lay/sit against. As people drifted in an out of the room I happened to drift off and had a nice nap before dinner. Five different kinds of local fish with rice and a yogurt vegetable sort-of-stew, made for one of the better meals I have had!

Seeing the Island

A good rest was had that night and up again with the knock on the door. The same mode of transportation took us quickly around the island to see an old Turkish fort, parts of the old town and then out for a short loop into the ‘wilds’ of the island to see some of the native antelope living on the islands. This is what one web site says about these animals: “Islands include the largest wild population of gazelles, Gazella gazella farasani (an endemic subspecies of the idmi gazelle).” Another animal that I wanted to see but found that the time to see them is in the early spring, is the Dugong (also know by some as a Sea Cow). If I came back to these islands it would be in April or May when I would also catch the migrations of the Whale Shark – which has now become one of my goals.

And back we go!

A quick ferry ride back to Jizan, then into another taxi back to the airport where I nearly died sitting in the far back corner of the mini-van – Oh! HOT!!! One thing that I have wanted to capture ever since I took my first flight in this country is the Travel Prayer’

which is always played as we taxi down to the end of the runway -- just before each flight takes off. I am so fascinated by this example of culture. I held my phone up to the overhead speaker and recorded this.

Oh, and one last piece of culture. My son Garnet will recall about 4 years ago when he and I went to Kenya, that we had our safari driver/guide stop and cut him a branch from the ‘toothbrush bush’ for him to chew on and brush his teeth. Well, closely related to the well known saying of ‘cleanliness is close to godliness’ is the marketing for wooden stick toothbrushes purchasable in the duty-free magazine on Saudi Airlines. I purchased a box set of three vacuum packed sticks after seeing the slogan written on the box: “Purifies the mouth and pleased God”. (quoting exactly as written).

AND as always, there is my travel story in pictures which can be found here.

The art of winning, fishing and photography

I’m Losing!

Since the last blog entry I have lost something like 2 kilos. About 50 of us at KAUST have banded together under the guidance of the Health and Wellness group to shed some pounds. It started with a ‘cleanse’ which I would not recommend to anyone… It just about killed me, but I did not quit. For the first 5 days or so I had headaches and the backs of my legs ached so much that it woke me up at night. The diet consisted of lots of water, no coffee, no processed starches, no sugars and LOTS of vegetables. It is hard to be creative when eating such a restricted diet. I wondered down the grocery store’s isles searching for something to buy, anything! During these first days I really was not in condition to do much other than drag my body to work and home. Now that ‘normal’ foods – well, I am still restricting my coffee intake, sugars and starches – are now back in my diet, exercise is being introduced to our group. I can make it to the Tuesday night session but skip the Sunday night as I place a Skype call back to Canada every Sunday evening. We do high intensity ‘resistance’ exercises. The group moves around in a circle, through about 15 stations where pairs of us do different forms of exercises – jumping jacks, pushups, passing a medicine ball, doing steps, sit-ups, crunches, thrusts and a whole lot of other activities. Each set is for 30 seconds and then 30 seconds to move and get ready for the next exercise. This goes on till we reach where we started and then a second round happens with the time between stations reduced to 15 seconds. One would think that a person can do just about anything for 30 seconds! RIGHT!!!! Just try it. We ‘give-er’ for 30 seconds and can hardly catch our breath before starting the next thing. The change is really nice each time but I have found that the next day really tells that I have used all of my 640 muscles in my body --- ohhhh, ouch!

Fishing

The other evening I was out fishing along the shore just in front of the university, which is a bike ride of less than 4 minutes from my door. Other people were catching fish but my gear was too large. I will look for a smaller rod and some spinners when I get back home. It was an interesting experience to see fish that I have seen swimming among coral being pulled out on the end of a line.

Arts Events

The evening of May 12th brought applause and cheering to a large crowd of people sitting appreciatively in the university’s auditorium listening to 13 contestants, sing, dance, play instruments, show their fashion creations and demonstrate Tai Chi, at the first annual KAUST Talent Show – think of something like America’s Got Talent but on a miniature scale and you will get the idea. The 13 contestants represented nine different countries and were a good representation of the cultural mix at this institution. A Chinese won First Prize for his Tai Chi demonstration, a Mexican Second for his solo salsa dance and an American for her original poetry reading. The People’s Choice award went to the very popular salsa dancer who was totally amazing and danced all alone. 8-)

This week also had the first ever KAUST art exhibition. I entered three of my enlarged photos and found when I went to the grand opening event that they were prominently displayed as the first pieces to be seen at the entrance. I have had a number of people come up and comment on how they like them. I think my favorite comment was from an Arab man who said that his small son liked the camel photo so much that he was not interested in any of the other pieces in the show. Heheheh So, I am now on a search for new locations and subjects to inspire me to take photos.

Killer Trigger

I am not sure if you are getting tired of hearing about my scuba exploits but I can tell you, I am not getting tired of going on them. This last weekend we were attached by a triggerfish. This kind of fish is known for its aggressive behavior when it guards its ‘nest’. There were maybe 20 or so divers that passed over to the area where this fish was and of these, the fish bit two divers, on their hands, one on their forehead and cut another diver’s hand when he tried to defend himself as he swam about 15 feet above the fish, without even knowing it was down there. The fish came out of no where and flashed in front of the diver and when he brought up his hand the fish brushed his hand with its sharp fins and delivered about a dozen slashes to his knuckles. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEsgLzaa-Dw

A Weekend Away

This weekend, I am going with a group of people from here to some islands known for their wildlife and coral reefs, located about as far south along the West coast of Saudi Arabia as you can go before you reach the boarder with Yemen. I am going down to the Farasan Islands. I hear that there are sea cows (Dugong) there and some kind of rare antelope and many different kinds of birds. I will be snorkeling and taking pictures under and above the water. So you will have something to look forward to reading about in the next blog.

And finally…

Things can become scarce around here for no real reason that I can discern. Take for example that every washroom that I have visited around the university this week, is out of paper hand towels. So, the commodity that is now being used for drying our hands is a role of toilet paper… placed conveniently beside each sink. Nice accent don’t you think? The pearly white looks great against the black marble counter tops.