2,500,000 photostream views - the Flower Men of Tihama

2,500,000 photostream views - the Flower Men of Tihama, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

There are not many photos of the Flower Men of Tihama on flickr, or indeed on internet. They live in a very remote part of Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen and there are many road blocks and security checks before you are allowed into the area. In fact,. I think foreigners/westerners are not supposed to go there without a permit band a guide, but somehow we managed it. INitial requests to take photos of these chaps was met with a no or a wave of the index finger, but eventually we managed to get them to warm to the camera, with these (and a few more as the result). I was very happy to 'get' them!

In the meantime, thank you so much for all your view, comments, friend invitations, support and friendship over the past few years. It started off as just a place to upload photos from our trip to Middle East and Africa, where our friends and family could follow us on our journey from Istanbul to Cape Town. It has ended up as a place to make friends and keep up with their photos, their passions and their lives. It has led to a number of treasured meetings with fellow flickr friends,. the latest being London, Jeddah and Budapest, with Turin on the horizon. Looking forward to that!