Thankful Slave: Hajj Step 10: The 3 days of tashreeq

After the Tawaf al Ifadah done, we returned to the camp in Mina at night. It is worth mentioning that some people from our group reached the hotel in Mekkah at 18:00 only, after having spent more than 12 hrs inside the buses from Muzdalifah. They were just too exhausted and could not complete their Tawaf ifadah, they had to do it another day.

It is important to know that traffic jam in Mekkah/Mina/Muzdalifah is such that you can be trapped inside the buses for hours long, if the bus has facilities inside, then you are in good shape, but what if there are no facilities and one has to relief himself/herself? this is why it is important to plan onto walking and be independent from the traffic jam, especially if you have elderly people with you.

As for us, we found ourselves trapped again inside the return traffic to Mina from Mekkah, the roads seemed to be all closed, and we came to a stand still. Sensing that we could stay trapped long, I decided to talk a walk back to the camp with some other friends, leaving our women in the buses as they felt too tired to talk.
We walked for another 90mn to reach the camp, there was so many families sleeping on the walkways, and this is what generated a lot of traffic jam.
As for our wives and daughters, they also had to abandon the bus at some point of time and had to walk again another 90mn to reach the camp, asking for their way to confirm they were heading to the right direction. Al hamdulil'Allah I spent some time on the day 1 when we reached Mina to explain the tent position inside Mina to my wife and daughter, and to show them reference points and show them the street map. This proved to be very valuable lesson given as they were confident on finding their way back to our tent, while many people stayed behind trapped in the buses because they were so scared to get lost.

27 hrs inside buses:
As for the 9 people that stayed in the bus, they had to spend their night inside the bus at Muzdalifah, far away, their bus got lost and they only managed to reach our hotel in Mekkah (not even Mina) by the following day at noon time. Among them were people who had been trapped already 12 hrs the day before, and another 15 hours on the return to the camp.
Bottom line: if you are fit to walk, then do not waste your time inside the buses and WALK WALK WALK...

The Jamarat and the 3 days of Tashreeq:
During the 3 days following Eid, the main ibadah to do is to stone the 3 pillars each day after Dhohor. You could stay 2 or 3 days. Our group spent only 2 days in Mina.
There are clear pathways to the Jamarat and the place is wide enough al hamdulil'Allah, there are no reason to be scared of that place anymore as the authorities have made it very large and wide to accommodate the pilgrims, Jazahum Allah khair. The Jamarat used to be the most scary event of the hajj, but it is nowadays very easy.
There are escalators that can take you to the different levels, walkways are well indicated, there are no mixed crossing of the crowds, you enter one side and you will exit from another one, without having the risk to cross another flow of people.