Jordan
11th - 15th November (Aqaba - Petra - Dead Sea - Jerash - Irbid)
by Kathy
Short but sweet. It was an enormous relief to leave Egypt, which was probably my most unpleasant travel experience ever. Clearly the Jordanian border staff are used to wild-eyed, half-crazed overlanders breaking free of Egypt's bureacratic extremism, as they welcomed us off the boat in Aqaba with open arms, comparatively low red tape and a sympathetic ear.
We camped just outside of Aqaba and enjoyed some snorkelling in the Red Sea the next morning. The beach was deserted and the coral gardens great to explore. I think we would have hung around a bit longer if things hadn't started to take a bit of a chilly turn weather wise.
Onward then to the long anticipated Petra! Petra is a quite spectacular hidden city built by the Nabataens, expanded by the Romans. You spend a good 20 minutes accessing the city through a steep-sided gorge, and then get lost for hours or days in the warren of small paths, rock formations and ancient streets and buildings around the city. Alex and I, in our usual speed tourist mode did some serious walking that day, bagging only a few of the most famous sights, before totally exhausted ourselves. Despite our increasing travel fatigue, not to mention calf muscle fatigue, it was one of the highlights of the entire trip.
We then headed north to the Dead Sea, finding an awesome bush camp overlooking the sea with the lights of Jerusalem on the other side, only 40km away. It is pretty difficult to get lost in the wild in Jordan however, as a truck of locals turned up late to party the night away, and then a second car turned up with a group of tourists even later into the evening. It was the most bizarre camp ever, and we woke up bleary eyed to a litany of grafitti, food waste and beer bottles strewn around us.
After this, in dire need of a cleansing experience for so many reasons, we plunged down a canyon to 500m below sea level and enjoyed a fantastic hot spring and waterfall experience, bathing in 60 degree heat water in rock pools and caves. Arriving at 8am to 'Jordan's Best Kept Secret' meant we had the place totally to ourselves, but by 10am on the weekend word had clearly got round and we escaped just in time as the hordes descended, feeling completely rejuvenated.
We then promptly undid all the good work by swimming in the Dead Sea, the world's saltiest body of water, to experience the feeling of floating high in the water. The beach and everything about it was totally grotesque. Alex loved it, I hated it. The photos speak for themselves.
Again, time was not on our side and we pushed on to Irbid in the north in preparation for crossing into Syria.
11th - 15th November (Aqaba - Petra - Dead Sea - Jerash - Irbid)
by Kathy
Short but sweet. It was an enormous relief to leave Egypt, which was probably my most unpleasant travel experience ever. Clearly the Jordanian border staff are used to wild-eyed, half-crazed overlanders breaking free of Egypt's bureacratic extremism, as they welcomed us off the boat in Aqaba with open arms, comparatively low red tape and a sympathetic ear.
We camped just outside of Aqaba and enjoyed some snorkelling in the Red Sea the next morning. The beach was deserted and the coral gardens great to explore. I think we would have hung around a bit longer if things hadn't started to take a bit of a chilly turn weather wise.
Onward then to the long anticipated Petra! Petra is a quite spectacular hidden city built by the Nabataens, expanded by the Romans. You spend a good 20 minutes accessing the city through a steep-sided gorge, and then get lost for hours or days in the warren of small paths, rock formations and ancient streets and buildings around the city. Alex and I, in our usual speed tourist mode did some serious walking that day, bagging only a few of the most famous sights, before totally exhausted ourselves. Despite our increasing travel fatigue, not to mention calf muscle fatigue, it was one of the highlights of the entire trip.
We then headed north to the Dead Sea, finding an awesome bush camp overlooking the sea with the lights of Jerusalem on the other side, only 40km away. It is pretty difficult to get lost in the wild in Jordan however, as a truck of locals turned up late to party the night away, and then a second car turned up with a group of tourists even later into the evening. It was the most bizarre camp ever, and we woke up bleary eyed to a litany of grafitti, food waste and beer bottles strewn around us.
After this, in dire need of a cleansing experience for so many reasons, we plunged down a canyon to 500m below sea level and enjoyed a fantastic hot spring and waterfall experience, bathing in 60 degree heat water in rock pools and caves. Arriving at 8am to 'Jordan's Best Kept Secret' meant we had the place totally to ourselves, but by 10am on the weekend word had clearly got round and we escaped just in time as the hordes descended, feeling completely rejuvenated.
We then promptly undid all the good work by swimming in the Dead Sea, the world's saltiest body of water, to experience the feeling of floating high in the water. The beach and everything about it was totally grotesque. Alex loved it, I hated it. The photos speak for themselves.
Again, time was not on our side and we pushed on to Irbid in the north in preparation for crossing into Syria.
posted by Alex at 08:02
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