Hiking in Mecca

Today after getting ready and eating breakfast in the hotel lounge for 148 SARs, we headed out for a day of hiking in Mecca. With another sunny and warm day in Mecca, I found it hard to pass up a day of being inside, so the group agreed with me that we should all hike the Al Wahba Crater. 

Situated in the desert, this massive crater measures nearly 1 mile across with 850-foot cliff faces stretching to the bottom of the pit. The crater bottom fills with water in the wet season and turns into a salt-pan in the summer as the sun evaporates the moisture. This area once saw large amounts of volcanic activity, and the sandy plains surrounding the crater consist mostly of volcanic ash. Trek up the side of the crater to the top. Palm trees grow along the northern cliff face, providing shade for tired hikers. Some locals claim that the crater resulted from a meteorite, but it is in fact an extinct volcano.

The cost of our hiking equipment was 1485 SARs. Once we paid for our things and grabbed some food from the local market for the trip we headed out to begin our hike. The trip to the top took around 2 hours and by this time we all were exhausted. After spending about an hour for lunch and chatting with another group of hikers we made our way back down to the bottom which took about half the time it took to get to the top. 


Here are a few photos from our day. 

Once we turned in our hiking equipment, we were all exhausted. When we got back to the hotel we stop in for another meal for 148 SARs and called it a night.
Sites:
http://www.arabiancamp.com/trips/wahbacrater.html
Total Expenses: 
1781 SARs 
475 dollars