It’s ten past six on Monday evening, and as the sun disappears on the horizon, orange is scattering across the sky.
It’s just about as beautiful as the marble and gold-adorned Royal Terminal at the King Khalid International Airport in Saudi Arabia – outside of which, a group of slightly sunburnt journalists stand poised on a balcony, awaiting the arrival of the Prince of Wales.
Prince William arrived in the Gulf with one clear mission – deepen diplomatic ties for decades to come.
A £6.5billion trade deal announced by the Government in October last year aims to rapidly increase investment between the two nations.
Enter His Royal Highness. Would William’s touch be the key to furthering bilateral relations?
His first engagement was with another future King, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. There, the Saudi Prince provided a tour of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, At-Turaif, before they had a private audience and dinner together.
However, to think that this was simply fulfilling a constitutional duty is a serious understatement.
The Prince of Wales is at a pivotal moment where he must start to lay the foundations of what he wants his future monarchy to look like.
Prince William’s Saudi Arabia trip could not have come at a more pivotal moment. Did he pass the test? | Getty Images
Differences aside, that also means making relationships for the future.
As I sat on the British Embassy’s minibus reading the briefing notes, those foundations were setting into concrete commitments on the pages in front of me.
Saudi Arabia is ambitious in its sustainable regeneration. It’s the kind of environmental ambition that matches Prince William’s, too.
You only need to look at the impact of His Royal Highness’s Earthshot prize to see how much importance he holds in seeing problems solved differently.
So, whether it was his tour around an urban regeneration project in Riyadh which has turned wasteland into a community hub, visiting the Sharaan Nature Reserve in AlUla to learn about rebuilding an ecosystem in desert conditions, or taking part in an historic girls football training session (something which wouldn’t have been possible six years ago), our future king is certainly following in his father’s footsteps, but keen to do it in his own way too.
An international royal trip like this was a first for me (my thanks to Cameron Walker for being on holiday), and I cannot say enough what a privilege it was.
The days are long: attending engagements, providing live coverage of the tour for GB News programmes, creating and editing news packages for the next day, constantly being on the move, and all of this whilst being under the blistering Saudi Arabian sun – but don’t for a second think I’d change a thing.
On a trip like this, some of the most memorable moments come in the quiet, before an engagement with His Royal Highness.
For me, they are: the pure joy I felt seeing a camel, experiencing the Sharaan Nature Reserve in all its beauty, but only after our car up the dunes decided we had to slide around like we were rallying, working with the incredibly talented GB News producer and camera operator out there with me, and the dates stuffed with every kind of filling you could imagine.
The AlUla region produces more than 90,000 tonnes of the fruit a year, and I can only apologise in advance for the global shortage as I redirect all future shipping to my house.
Prince William came to Saudi Arabia amidst the noise of new revelations about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Jeffrey Epstein.
By the end of the visit, any lingering shadows from back home had parted, and senior Saudi politicians were personally giving His Royal Highness tours around and talking about a future visit.
The Prince of Wales has more than proved his leadership capabilities on the world stage.