The next morning when I woke up, I remember the first thing I did was check my sugar levels. To my shock my sugar levels were still very high and they had abnormally peaked very high during the night. Like dangerously high. I immediately injected a larger dose of insulin than I normally would at breakfast time. Despite this my sugar levels did not come down enough for me to enjoy a decent breakfast.
I think whenever I go travelling I do have periods of severe insulin resistance. Not sure if this is due to not drinking enough, being too active or maybe climate or perhaps a combination. But it’s been something I have always needed to worry about whenever I travel.
After a coffee and hard boiled egg for breakfast I wanted to visit Uhud Mountain in Madinah. I’m not entirely familiar with the story behind this but it’s a big dark granite mountain with creeks and caves where Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) led a battle against the Quraish of Makkah.
The Uhud Battlefield is a historic battle where lessons on obedience, trust, martyrdom as well as forgiveness were taught. Many people hike the mountain to reach the top which takes about 40 minutes. Unfortunately as it’s very rocky and not smooth as well as not being entirely safe, I didn’t hike the mountain. I am partially sighted and would need to be extra careful where I step which would have made things dangerous not only for myself but other hikers.
The base of the mountain is actually where the interesting parts are. There’s not only more of the historic parts but you’ll find the shops, souks and cafes. I stayed at the base of Mount Uhud which was a beautiful place to be honest. It was early morning so there was hardly anyone around at the time.
Now this is probably a lot of my fault as I didn’t do enough research to know which part of the 7KM mountain to stop off at. So when I arranged an uber to take me, the driver asked where on Mount Uhud I wanted to go.
I said the base but obviously there are many parts and different sections. More for his convenience I think, he dropped me off at a local mosque away from the Mount and just advised me to make prayer here as there was no vantage point. He used a translator on his phone to communicate this.
The mosque was small and it was quite far away from the mountain, so I decided to walk in that direction from the mosque. There was one straight uphill road leading to the mountain which I just trekked.
The area was pretty deserted. As I carried on going I eventually came to what looked like a car turnstile and car park. Further up, there was what seemed like a small souk or market with shops on both sides. Only two were operational at that point which included a type of restaurant and a small cafe with a straw ceiling.
There was only space for 2 tables inside. One on the left and one on the right. Beyond this the area was full of some derelict oldish shops which I don’t think were even open and a short walk up ahead got you to the rock. I’m not sure if this was a hiking point from then on, and I certainly didn’t see anyone.
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