A couple more things
Two things I inexplicably left out of my last entry:
– The road to Shahara is, for at least part of the way, the main pilgrim trail from Sana’a to Mecca. On the side of the road we often saw little stone huts to shelter pilgrims as they make the long journey. It’s amazing to think that a road that bad – it took us two hours to go the final 10km to Shahara, on a terrible dirt path – could still serve as such an important route.
– A local woman died the night we were in Shahara. We didn’t find out about it until after we had left the town the next morning, but late the night before she fell into the village well and drowned. She had a history of seizures so the assumption was that she had one just as she was near the well or trying to get water from it. I used to have seizures myself when I was little, but I should say that the passing on of such conditions and diseases is increased when there is inbreeding, as happens very regularly in the Gulf. The lesson, as always: don’t marry your own cousin.
Tags: Arabia, Shahara, Travel, Yemen
Nick