A cold wind whipped round Heathrow and I was happy to be heading south as I boarded my plane to Amman, Jordans' sunny capital. What a surprise to get there to find it cloudy and cold - fleeces and jackets were the order of the day. It's winter here too but not nearly as harsh as ours. On the Middle East part of my trip I had a travel companion - Dom - a friend dating back to when I first came down to Essex several millennia ago..
Our first stop was Madaba. We had hired a car as public transport here is limited and the roads are empty. Madaba is home to very ancient mosaics - so a swift tour of the town was made only stopping for a quick bowl of hummus (the first of many) at the famous Abu Yousef restaurant - he's been making it for 30 years so the boy knows what he's doing!
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| Just one of the thousands of mosaic photos I have - don't hesitate to ask to see more!! |
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| Grand Mosque Madaba |
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| Mig fighter landing on a roundabout! |
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| Jordanian Grub! |
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| The national dish Mansef |
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Arab brekkie
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Lethally sweet Arab pastries
Next morning we headed to Mount Nebo where God showed Moses the promised land...maybe not the best decision he ever made considering the way things turned out in the region! Anyway the weather had improved and we caught a glimpse of one of our future destinations - Jerusalem...
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| Moses left his staff here... |
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| The promised land... |
After taking in a few more mosaics (we're mad for them!) we motored down to the Dead Sea - at 400m below sea level the lowest place on earth - the sea is 10 times saltier than other seas - you don't want to get in your mouth or eyes I can tell you! We had fun making the standard silly photos and then having the ultimate mudpack!
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| The Dead Sea is a bit crusty round the edge!! |
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| I'm still finding bits of mud... |
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| Sunset on the Dead Sea |
Next stop in this compact but amazingly diverse country was Dana Nature Reserve. On the way we took in the amazing Herod's castle where Salome did her stuff and was rewarded with John the Baptist's head on a platter. We also stopped at Karak - one of the greatest Crusader castles.. the fun never stops in Jordan!
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Crusader Castle
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| On the road central Jordan |
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| Typical sight as you drive along... |
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| View back to the Dead Sea from the mountains |
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| There are hazards tho... |
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| Like turning right by accident...! |
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| Herod's Castle |
Our accommodation in Dana was a camp of the edge of a great Wadi (dry river valley) We sat around the woodburner sipping strong black tea - the traditional Arab welcome. Next day was spent hiking in the Wadi - exploring ancient caves which the bedouin herders still use today
They date back thousands of years to the Nabataean civilisation (they also knocked together a city called Petra...)
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| Heating up on a cold night... |
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| Tucking into dinner |
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| The view from our camp... |
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| Our guide dog...we had a couple of human guides as well though! |
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| Desert puppies |
Back on the road - destination Petra - we checked into our hotel - found some hummus and had an early night in preparation for a big day of walking!
We were lucky to have a lovely sunny day - about 15C - Petra can be freezing in the Jordanian winter Another bonus is that it was very quiet - due to it being winter but also due to a decline in tourism in Jordan - but more about that later
Petra is one of those places that can walk the walk and talk the talk - from the stroll through the Siq to that first glimpse of the Treasury it thrills you..
I'll let the pictures tell the story of this amazing place..
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| The Monastery - in some ways more impressive than the Siq |
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| Roman Road |
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| Every lovely place has it's problems... |
Want to do back to back amazing places..? Come to Jordan!!
The next day we were in Wadi Rum - in the footsteps of Lawrence of Arabia we ran up sand dunes, climbed rock bridges, trekked canyons, milked camels, skid panned thru the desert at high speed, listened to live Bedouin music and slept outside under the most amazing galaxy of stars you can imagine!
Heading south it had been getting warmer - our forecasts for the Red Sea had us at a toasty 28 - looks like Jordanian weather forecasters are as accurate as the British! It was cloudy, windy and barely hitting 20 - no chance of sunbathing so we decided to go under the sea to check out the famous corals and fish life!
The next day the sun was out so we had our first "rest" day - books and beers..
All too soon it was time to return to Amman up the desert highway - we dropped off the car and had a very comical taxi ride to our hotel!
I thought we had established a price and our destination - apparently not as our driver started to mutter "What? Why? Where? When? " - over and over!! - eventually I had to attach my own Sat Nav to the windscreen and guide him to our hotel!
We spent the afternoon perusing what the Romans did for Jordan - a final bit of hummus was eaten (or so we thought..!) and our wonderful time here had come to an end..
I really can't recommend this lovely little country enough - it's a 5 hour flight - very compact and easy to get round. Such an amazing variety of landscapes - all of the above was done in 8 days! Tourism is down because of the war in Syria - Jordan shares a northern border - but all the tourist areas are nowhere near that region. People are open and friendly - food is good (you must like hummus!) and it's great value
PS I'm not being sponsored by the Jordanian Tourist Board - I'm just very impressed!
That's it for this blog - more travel musings from the Middle East soon..
WanderVet
