We finally own a vehicle!

And why is this a big deal may you ask? Well it turns out that this is much more complex to achieve in Saudi Arabia than in many western countries - some of the many of the hurdles of licences and vehicle ownership are discussed at length in the excellent Working in Saudi Arabia blog.

Some of the key dependencies for us were that Peter needed to get his residency permit (iqama) - which took several months last year because of government errors and Ramadan; he then needed to get his local drivers licence. We then put car purchasing plans on hold while we waited for contracts to be renewed ...

In July this year we started vehicle hunting more seriously, and managed to find a Nissan Patrol (2000 model) that was being sold by another expat. The purchasing process took several weeks to finalize, with some extra complexity because the previous owner was a diplomat and so we needed to get new licence plates issued. His embassy staff were an enormous help in navigating the processes through the traffic department, and so Peter was able to drive away with a fully licenced (and insured!) vehicle on the afternoon of 11th August - just a few hours before everyone else arrived back in Riyadh from their holiday in Australia.

The basic specs: it's a Nissan Patrol Super Safari, 4.5 litre (6 cylinder) petrol engine with manual gearbox. In our Toyota Corolla and Yaris hire cars we had been able to explore a remarkable range of the rocky desert roads near Riyadh, but we're now much better equipped to explore more of the Kingdom and surrounds. The local 4WD club (Riyadh Rovers) starts again in September after the summer break, so we're looking forward to getting to some more remote and interesting places.