Jordan Part 3

Before I finish writing up last month's holiday I'd just like to wish my readers a very happhy Christmas and hope you have a great New Year.

To continue the story...

Tuesday 11 November
We returned to Petra to explore further. On our way to a viewpoint at the top of a hill we met another British tourist. After chatting for a while we realised that we were at 6th Form College together when I was 16-18. After leaving the college I met him once in 1981 and then just bumped into him by chance at Petra.

Later that morning as we were climbing another hill with Mazen we met one of his friends, a Bedouin lady called Hannan. We stopped at her jewellery stall and she invited us to have some tea. It was lovely to meet her and to chat. It was one of the experiences we would have missed without a guide.

We explored Petra on our own after lunch.

Wednesday 12 November
We left Petra to drive tom Wadi Rum in the desert. We transferred from our minibus to the back of a 4x4 pickup for a tour of the desert. We camped at a place where Lawrence of Arabia once camped, too. There were rock carvings of Lawrence and Faisal Hussein.

We walked out to a good viewpoint of the sunset efore returning to camp for dinner. We spent a happy evening with a French party singing songs and telling (and translating) jokes before going to our tent for a night in the desert.

Thursday 13 November
Sue and I got up early to walk out to see the sun rise over the desert. This was beautiful, and well worth the early start. Returning to the camp we had breakfast and packed. We got back to our minibus for a drive to Aqaba. This was to be a day of chilling by the seaside.

When we got to our hotel we arranged a ride to a diving club as Sue was keen to go snorkelling ya coral reef in the Red Sea. We picked up our snorkelling equipment and went to the beach. I didn't have a happy time snorkelling. I'm not as good a swimmer as Sue and at one point was quite scared of drowning. Sue got me safely ashore before going for a brief snorkel dive to the reef. She really enjoyed it, but was sad that I wasn't there. I need to take some lessons and swim regularly if I am to be confident in the water.

Friday 14 November
We left Aqaba after breakfast and drove to Amman. We went straight to the old citadel to see the Museum of Antiquities including the Dead Sea Scrolls and some of the earliest sculptures ever found, from the Jericho area. We stayed at the citadel until sunset and then went to our hotel. Mazen took us to a wonderful Arabian restaurant for dinner, this was the tour company's compensation for our hassles at the beginning of then trip.

Saturday 15 November
Our flight home left on time mid-morning. We were cruising over the Adriatic when the cabin pressure dropped and the oxygen masks came down. The plane descended rapidly in a steep spiral dive before levelling out. The Captain finally came on the intercom to tell us that we would be making an emergency landing in Belgrade.

The Serbian authorities eventually coped very well with our unexpected arrival. At first we had to wait in the gate area, but after a few hours we were given transit passes to go into the main airport where the gave us sandwiches. We could then wander the shops and bars until our replacement plane arrrived. I had been in contact with our taxi firm at home (mobile phones and SMS are a great invention) so they knew we would be late. We eventually got home at 1:30 am on Sunday, 9 hours late.

It was a slightly scary end to one of our best holidays ever.

Check out the photos on Flickr.