UK engineer returns after 40 years

A British engineer who worked in Tanoumah 40 years ago recently returned to visit old Saudi friends and places he had cherished in his memories over the decades.
Ron Canty, a 66-year-old retired civil engineer, said that when he first arrived in Tanoumah all those years ago, he could not believe it was Saudi Arabia because of the mountain and greenery.
“If you had taken us from the aircraft and dropped us here, we would not have believed we were in Saudi Arabia,” he told Arab News at a guesthouse in Tanoumah recently.
He had arrived to work for 18 months on the Jazan-Taif Highway through the city that did not exist then. Tanoumah's scenic environment went against the stereotypical views held by Westerners of Saudi Arabia. Many had told him he would be going to "an ocean of sand.”
He thought there would be a lack of water to mix the concrete for the road, but was surprised to find a surplus of it in the area.
"There was abundant water everywhere. It was coming from the sky, it was underground, there was no problem. But where was the sand? We had to look around for it,” he joked. Canty’s passion for mountaineering matched the environment. “I couldn’t believe that I had arrived somewhere where I could enjoy myself,” he said of the many hiking and rock-climbing spots in the city.
In the 1990s he became interested in the place again when Arab News ran a story about an unusual snowstorm in Tanoumah, he said.
Canty knew about snowstorms in the area, but did not recognize the description of Tanoumah. “Having worked in Tanoumah where there was nothing, no houses, I couldn’t understand why they were calling it Tanoumah City,” he said.
Over the years, as more information appeared on the Internet, particularly on Google Earth, Canty was able to see how the place developed. He then contacted the city’s website to arrange a visit. He also advised others to visit in articles for the city's website and in various blogs.
Canty has many good memories of the city and its people. He said Tanoumah was small with a few locals working on farms, Bedouins with goatherds and a few tiny villages near his company's compound. He said the locals were friendly and hospitable despite the language barrier.
Canty socialized with Saudis and attended their gatherings in the villages, including a wedding, which he documented with photographs.
During his recent trip, Canty visited the house of a Saudi who worked for the company in those days. “He remembered me from my photographs,” he said. The people here now were not here 40 years ago, he said. “Those living here now, I think, can’t possibly be from indigenous families of Tanoumah,” he said.
Canty thinks the city should not expand further because the growing population was threatening the environment. "It is large now and if it gets any larger I think it will be a step backward,” he said.
“If I came back to work here, I would make Tanoumah smaller and greener,” he said. This would attract tourists.
He urged the government to make it easier for foreigners to get tourist visas. “If you are not a Muslim, and if you're not coming for Haj or something like that, the only way you can visit Saudi Arabia is for a business reason."
"As far as I understand, if you want to come as a tourist, you can only do so in a group of at least four people. And those four people have to be taken around by an officially approved tourist organization,” he said.
“My friends who enjoy going to the mountains would like to come here, but it would be difficult for us to arrange visas,” he said.
Canty said he would love to visit again so his friends could see the beautiful place he worked as a young man.