We (and colleagues Francois and Sunhae) went down to the Farasan Islands for a weekend during Spring Break. The islands belong to Saudi Arabia and are just off the coast of Jizan. The location is well south of Jeddah along the Red Sea coast and barely north of the border between Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
This area (and the entire Red Sea) is world famous for scuba diving, snorkeling, coral reefs and sea life. This is the area used by Jacques Cousteau (inventor of SCUBA) to experiment with living and working underwater for extended periods.
We traveled with two colleagues (Francois and Sunhae Bourcier). Francois is French and Sunhae is from British Columbia.
This is the first time we have traveled on a domestic flight here in Saudi Arabia. We and our colleagues were the only foreigners on the flight. Francois, Jim and one Saudi man were the only males NOT wearing thobes (long white robes). All the women were, of course, wearing abayas. Alonda and Sunhae were the only women NOT covering their faces and heads.
Traveling to the islands was an extra adventure. We went on the “fast boat”. There is also a ferry boat, but that is not what we were on. We heard that on the ferry boat, the men and women sit in different ends of the boats. It is free, of course, but one of the boats is out for maintenance and the schedule is “irregular”. The “fast boat” was pretty choppy in the night, but we were all sitting together. The ride actually got better when the light in the little compartment burned out and it got darker. We arrived at the hotel on the island about a half hour after midnight. We had to get up and catch the dive boat at 7 am.
We shared the boat with four guys from Riyadh who were scuba diving. The day was very relaxing and the snorkeling was excellent. The reefs actually teem with life and color. The pictures don’t really show how beautiful it all is. We used a disposable underwater camera to take our pictures.
After getting back to the hotel and taking a very short nap, we went out to watch gazelles. The islands used to have a unique species of gazelle, but high-powered rifles wiped them out in the 1940’s. The island has been re-stocked with another species of gazelle. There are no natural predators (except Man), but there is almost no water. The gazelles were very hard to approach. They run when a car gets within a couple hundred meters of them. You could see them a little closer when you were in heavier brush. The good pictures aren’t on the site yet. We used our 35mm with the zoom and it will be a few weeks before we get them developed.
The hotel put on a fresh fish buffet dinner for us. The whole thing was served in a tent Saudi style; sitting on the floor with rugs and pillows, TV (American sit-coms with Arabic subtitles) and air-conditioners. We and the scuba guys were the only guests. The fish was excellent.
The next day, we toured the island. There is actually not much on the islands. Depending on the tide, there are about a hundred islands. They are made of uplifted coral and have very little soil. They were “harvesting” coral from the middle of Farasan Island. They cut it and use it for building material. We have seen a house with some of that type of material in it.
The bridge we stopped at now connects two of the islands (total population about 18,000). You used to stop and hire a couple of camels to walk across the shallow area. The houses and camel shelters are still there, but the bridge put all those people out of business.
We would highly recommend the scuba and snorkeling. It really is a world-class location.
