The roughly triangular-shaped Diplomatic Quarter of Riyadh is known for its manicured green spaces and water features, but my new friend Tania and I were keen to get our walk on, so we sought out the trail that runs around the entire area. I’d heard there’s about 20 km of path, but it was a bit of a struggle to figure out where to access it. So, even though it was out of business hours, we asked our driver to drop us at the Australian or New Zealand embassy, where we figured we might find some helpful advice.
Good move, lopers!
A couple of lovely ladies who were just leaving the Aussie embassy pointed us in the direction of Asheeh Park, where we found the above ‘Walking Track’ sign (please don’t ask me what they call a walking track in Arabic).
We threw off our abayas and let the late afternoon heat circulate around bare skin (a total luxury that is allowed in few public spaces in Riyadh), and away we went down the dusty, rocky path.
I thought it looked a whole lot like an archaeological dig, but every now and then we came across metal vents in the rocks so it’s clearly a constructed path.
The vista across and down to Wadi Hanifah isn’t exactly pretty, but all that wide open space gave me a very welcome sense of freedom that’s in short supply here in Saudi. It made me feel positively giddy. Even the fierce, barbed-wire fence couldn’t get me down!
Mid-way along our walk we came to this green oasis at Al Arrar Park where, to the overtures of fighting cats, we enjoyed the cool shade of date trees and the pleasingly-geometric pagodas that bring welcome relief from the sun.
With the sun fast-dropping, we hustled to the similarly designed Al Nafal Park,
where we turned away from the natural trail and completed a circuit walk back through the residential areas toward the Aussie embassy and the nearby Starbucks for a necessary iced latte.
All in all, it was a fabulous, if short, introductory walk in the DQ.
I’ll definitely be back to complete the greener sections of the trail where it dips down to Small Wadi and the gardens surrounding Tawaiq Palace. But that’s for another day…
Stats: 3.17 km, 4843 steps, 3 floors.
PenLoper 