Day 7 – Wednesday 20 December

Wide awake around 5am & breakfast at 7am before another walk with grandchildren along the shore of the Dead Sea.  We can just make out the mountains of Lebanon through the mist & haze across the water.  While walking along the beach I was very tempted to smear myself in mud again.  It is unbelievable but after yesterday’s mud therapy my skin feels so silky smooth.  I told the boys I should fill up a big jar & take it home, maybe I could smooth out my wrinkles, but Ron, not wanting me to feel disappointed, said that not even a truck load could do that miracle.  I will just have to accept the wrinkles gracefully.  We departed around 9am & head off on the scenic route along the shores of the Dead Sea towards Petra.  To think that the Dead Sea is the lowest part of the world at 430 metres (1,400 feet) below sea level. The rugged mountains around the shores of the Dead Sea tower above us, bare of any vegetation.

Now & again we pass a wadi, a small valley in the rocks carved out by water over countless centuries.  Some of these had a few palm trees clinging to life amongst the rocks.  The landscape has a rugged beauty, the shores of the sea have a white rim of salt along them & bare of any vegetation.  Now & again we pass a military observation post looking out over the sea & the mobile phone towers with microwave dishes at regular intervals.  We travel more than 100km before the landscape starts to change a little as we get towards the southern end of the sea.  We pass some very large salt evaporation complexes for harvesting the abundant salt from the Dead Sea then a large potash plant & a little later a large bromine plant.

Along the way we come across some tent campers, it’s hard to tell if some of these people are refugees (because on some of the tents we notice UNHCR written on them) or just some Bedouin tribes who are trying to carve out some sort of life before moving on with their herds of goats & donkeys.  We also drive past some green fields or rocky patches that are used for growing vegetables, this area must be Jordan’s food basket.  Along the side of the road there are some rickety stalls where people are selling very healthy looking onions, cauliflowers, eggplants, fruit, olives (they reckon they have the best olive oil in the world –they better not tell this to the Italians, Greeks or Spaniards).  Now & again we drive through some small towns & see some bigger towns in the distant hills.   We wonder what are these people living from?  We are stopped several times by police or military guards at the regular police checkpoints but when they see us they wave us on, we mustn’t look too threatening.

It is a long hard drive for Charles – we turn left & start climbing out of the Dead Sea valley, always heading higher & higher into very high barren hills.  The barren beauty of the mountains is like something from another world, there are lots of huge crevices & deep inhospitable barren valleys.  I don’t know if they ever have a lot of water (which I doubt) there could be wonderful waterfalls.    We eventually reach the top of the plateau & breath a collective sigh of relief, the road up has been full of dangerous bends & drop-offs. We drive through some towns & Google takes us on a few interesting detours, it is very interesting to see what life looks like off the beaten track.  Again, we have no idea what these people live from.  The road starts to improve & we pass some more military barracks, checkpoint complete with a serious machine gun in a tower pointed down the road & soldiers armed.

As we got into Petra a little misguided tour of Petra courtesy of Google again & a bit more serious Police check – passport & look in to the back & waved on.  At Movenpick, our hotel we get the usual check of passport, our names to see if we have bookings at the hotel & the usual swab over steering wheel, car, suitcases to check for explosive traces. After that bollards are moved & we are waved through.  At the front door guards & the usual metal detector check.  Jordan is a safe country.  People are nice & friendly.  This hotel has an Arabic décor, beautiful furniture & lovely Christmas tree, decorations & Christmas carols.   We have to wait as we arrived before 2 pm check in & our rooms had to be cleaned.  We are seated in the beautiful lounge & served apple juice, tea & biscuits/cakes are there for us as well.  I cannot help thinking about those poor souls living in those tents on that barren rocky land.

Charles is wonderful, he drove about 3 and a half hours up & up those mountains where he really needed his wits about him at all times, never losing his cool with us.  Not even when they didn’t have 3 rooms for us all, that’s OK they put a bunk bed in each room for the boys.  From our room balcony we can see the entrance to Petra & the start of the Petra wadi.  The front door of our motel is only about 50 metres from the ticket office entrance.

We went across the road to the information office & museum, where the museum was modern & had a comprehensive explanation of the history of Petra & had a great collection of some interesting artefacts to see.  Outside there were a few stalls selling souvenirs but we were too tired to look.  Back in our rooms we veg’d out for a while before we all went down to the lounge where Charles & Ron had a well deserved beer & we played Uno until dinner time.  Lovely Arabic & Western food with very yummy deserts.  I (Ron) had my fill of the Arabian food, it is certainly a different taste experience & delicious, particularly the desert, Um Ali.  Charles couldn’t wait for us to finish, he was too exhausted & needed to go to sleep.

It was another good day to see the wonders of this country & to share it with the family.  Everyone is asleep except for me (Tereza) – we all need a big rest because tomorrow will be a huge day.