Mad dogs and Englishmen …

(AKA Doing the Tahlia Walkway)

OK I confess, I’m really not doing much exercise; I have a few excuses such as being busy with work, a few aches, but in the end I really need to get off my butt and do something. So today being a weekend, I decided to venture out from my Jeddah hotel and cross the street to a rather unique feature called the ‘Tahlia Walkway’.

The walkway is a 2km stretch of paved area which runs adjacent to the major shopping thoroughfare of ‘Tahlia Street’, built to enable local Jeddah residents to have a place to walk or run, without fear of having to dodge the endless and somewhat dangerous local traffic.

Despite having been here for almost 3 months, I had yet to take advantage of this facility, so what better time than a peaceful Friday when the sun is at it’s midday peak, hey, its only about 27 degrees!

So, off I set… past the familiar sight of the local Chinese …

Then onto the walkway itself …

Whilst I’m told it’s very busy at night and early morning, at midday on a Friday it was empty – I think during the time that I was out walking, I saw about 4 people. But I wasn’t deterred, I wanted to get the blood pumping, so armed with my iPhone and a bottle of water (and cap!) I began to explore the 2KM trail.

First up, just in case the walk itself in this heat is not tough enough, there are a number of exercise machines – I decided to give them a miss!

The walkway is just a long, straight path, but on either side there are a number of quite amazing buildings, many of which are very palatial family homes.

There are distance markers, and seats along the way for those in need, but not for me, I put my best foot forward, heading to the end of the line!

After what seemed like an eternity, I reached the far end, only to be met by yet more exercise machines, but again I fought off the urge to try them out! Oh, and there was a restaurant brand that you may be familiar with – one to check out later.

After a short rest, and a few swigs of water, it was time to turn round, and start the 2km back to my hotel.

By the time I got back to my room, I had been out about an hour, so hardly world record pace for the 4km or so that I had covered, but it was an enjoyable walk, and I had achieved my objective of ‘getting off my butt’. I really must try it at night next time.