Jordan - Part 1

It's been a while since I wrote anything here, but I finally have something worth writing about.

We decided to have one last chance of a holiday in the sunshine this year, so we booked a trip to Jordan. The holiday was an independent pre-planned tour, just the two of us with a local guide rather than a big party.

Friday 7 November
We took a Friday afternoon flight and landed at Amman at about 11pm local time. Processing in the airport, buying an entry visa and collecting our luggage, took some time and we were among the last people from our flight to get through the airport. We looked for our driver, but there was no-one obvious so we phoned the contact from the tour company which we were given in our joining instructions. She said that she would make a call and get a driver to us.

The local taxi drivers were anxious to help and eager to get our business so while we were waiting one of them called our hotel. To our horror they told us that our booking had been cancelled but they still had a room free. We had further calls from the tour company (our rep and her manager) about our driver and the fact that we weren't expected until the following day. After at least another hour we finally got our driver and drove about 30km to the hotel.

Saturday 8 November
After breakfast at the hotel we gave the tour company manager another call and established that he would get a driver to us for that day's excursion. Sammy the driver was charming and friendly and took us on our first trip to the old Roman-era city of Jerash. We spent much of the afternoon touring the ruins before having a late lunch. We were due to visit the Dead Sea the same day, but we discussed this with Sammy and agreed that as it would be dark when we got there we should postpone the trip until tomorrow.

We got back to Madaba for a second night in our hotel and managed to visit the old Orthodox church of St George with its Byzantine-era mosaic map of the Holy Land. In the evening we found a good local restaurant and had another call from the tour manager who told us that our guide would meet us at breakfast. This confused us slightly as we hadn't realised that we would get a guide and a separate driver for the trip.

Sunday 9 November

We met Mazen our guide at breakfast. He discussed the mix-up over the cancellation and the fact that we had missed out the Dead Sea the previous day. He then got off on the wrong foot with Sue by suggesting that we skip the Dead Sea and follow the King's Highway from Madaba. The Dead Sea was one of the things Sue was most looking forward to so she made it quite clear that dropping it from the schedule was not an option. Our guide was chastened and with a quick look at the map we came up with a schedule that we were happy with.

Our first tourist sight of the day was the church on Mount Nebo, the site from which Moses is reputed to have seen the promised land which he would never reach. We looked across the plain of Jordan to Jericho, and knew that Jerusalem lay beyond the hills, too.

Our next stop was the Dead Sea and Sue eagerly changed into her swimming costume, I followed with less enthusiasm, I am not a water baby! We floated in the Dead Sea and after a few minutes I felt I had "Done That" and was ready to get out. Sue was floating happily and thought it was great. Unfortunately my next step was to get some water up my nose and into my throat. It is so full of minerals that it stings, to make matters worse I got a drop in my eye as I was trying to get to shore. I managed to get a drink of fresh water and a beach shower and then decided I had had enough of the Dead Sea. Sue went back in and floated around for a little while longer.

We drove along the shore of the Dead Sea passing the rock pillar known as "Lot's Wife" before turning inland. We stopped for a picture of the sign marking sea level - the Dead Sea is at about -400 metres and is drying out fast. It may be gone in 50 years, like the Aral Sea, if nothing is done. Driving further inland we stopped at the town of Karak where we had lunch before visiting the old Crusader castle there. A local guide gave us a tour of the castle and its underground passages before letting us wander round the ruins taking pictures.

In the afternoon we drove through dramatic scenery before we arrived at the modern town of Petra just as it got dark. Petra was the other "must see" destination on the trip and we would have three nights and two full days there.

To be continued...