Jordan

Our flight arrived in Jordan's capital, Amman. On our first night there we were kindly hosted by some family friends of Jem, Gary and Heather, who live in Amman. They were really generous during our time there, taking us out for dinner and breakfast, giving us advice about exploring Jordan and even offering career guidance. The following day Jem's brothers, Rory and Benji, flew into Amman from the UK to join our trip for 2 weeks. They arrived late at night to the Air BnB, sadly welcomed by thunderstorms and surprisingly cold weather! The next day was still rainy so we explored the Jordan Museum, which was very comprehensive and interactive, and included an exhibition on 1001 inventions from the Arabic world. We then spent the next couple of days exploring some historical sites, including Amman's citadel and amphitheatre. The highlight was visiting Jerash, a very impressive and extensive roman city founded in around 300 BC, which included a hippodrome, churches, columned walkways, and not just one but two amphitheatres. We also enjoyed trying Jordanian food, and became slightly obsessed with a falafel wrap store that supplied us with some very cheap lunches. 

We hired a car from Amman and set off to explore the rest of the country. We drove to visit a project called ‘Greening the Desert’, which uses sustainable permaculture methods to demonstrate how the desert's harsh ecosystem can be transformed into usable land. We were given a tour by the owner's daughter, and had some fresh fruit smoothies in their cafe. We then drove on to Madaba, a town south of Amman famous for its mosaics and carpets. We went out for dinner at a restaurant supplied by another organic permaculture project, which served delicious and creative local food. The next morning we had a fun time walking around the shops looking for carpets, and ended up accidentally buying one each from a very sweet old man! (He happened to be the uncle of British actress Julia Sawalha, who starred in Absolutely Fabulous). We also visited some mosaics, including one of a historic map of Jordan. We then drove on to the Dead Sea, famous for being the lowest place on earth and having incredibly high salt content. We went for a swim in the sea, and very much enjoyed the surreal floaty experience. We also had a mud bath spa with local black mud (thanks to Rachel and Jonny for the honeymoon gift), and had another dip in the sea. After having a shower to wash the salt off, we headed onwards to Petra. 

Petra was an ancient city built by the Nabataeans (an Arab people of the northern Arabian peninsula between approx. 200 BCE to 400 AD) as the centre of their middle-eastern trading routes. The city is famous for their mausoleums, houses, and religious structures carved into the sandstone rock, as well as for creating an oasis paradise by developing intricate and advanced systems to capture and transport water across the desert. For our visit to this wondrous place, we arose at 5am, thereby ensuring we were the first in the entrance queue for a sunrise view with minimal other tourists. We walked through the Siq (narrow entranceway between towering cliffs) and emerged at the grand entrance to Petra - the Treasury. The impressive, finely detailed rock face carved mausoleum, which stands nearly 40m high, created an awe inspiring start to our tour of the city. After gazing in wonder for a while, we trekked around the city, marvelling at all of the carvings, stone steps to high points, and ancient Greco-Roman inspired columned streets and ancient temples. After an extremely exhausting first day, we returned again the next day via the back entrance at Little Petra (a very impressive and more quiet village version of Petra). After dealing with some tricksome tourist touts, we managed to trek to the Monastery (another highly impressive carved structure, even larger than The Treasury, located at the top of a mountain). We finished the day by walking back down towards Petra city centre and back along the long road to Little Petra, declining many offers of expensive donkey rides. Luckily we were offered a free lift from a local, helping us avoid a growing gathering of stray dogs in heat that had decided to join our long walk. A huge thank you to Mandy for the gift of our Petra entrance tickets; we had a fantastic time and learnt much about the ancient civilisation! On our last night in Petra, we had a relaxing evening and watched Lawrence of Arabia in preparation for our next destination. 

We were excited to venture into the desert and explore the famous Wadi Rum conservation area. We arrived at the visitor centre without having organised a tour first, and were immediately greeted by a very persistent but friendly guide who offered us a surprisingly good deal for 3 days accommodation, food and activities (thanks to Claire and Roger for contributing towards this as a honeymoon gift). We hopped into the back of his pickup truck, and headed out to a camp in the middle of the desert. The camp was made in a traditional bedouin style, and we had private tents as well as a large shared living area tent for meals. There was a friendly cook who made us breakfast and dinner each day, along with a scattering of other guests. The desert itself was stunning; fine red sand stretching for miles with unique rock faces rising above. Our guide Saud took us out in his jeep each day and showed us around the desert to various sites and landmarks, and we enjoyed driving through the open expanses. Our highlight was going on a walk ourselves each evening, where we strolled barefoot through the sand, rolled down sand dunes and watched the sun setting from atop the rocks. On our final morning we rode camels back to the main village, which was a fun and fitting end to our desert adventures.

We drove onwards to the south of Jordan and the gulf of Aqaba. Aqaba had a different feel to the rest of Jordan - a beach and holiday town which is famous for scuba diving. We stayed in an entertainingly rundown and oddly laid out AirBnB for a couple of nights. We had fun exploring the town, which had a lively vibe despite the low season. We enjoyed a lovely seafood dinner, which was a nice change from the multitudes of falafel wraps that we ate during the trip! The next day we arranged to go scuba diving in one of the many dive sites in that part of the Red Sea (thanks to Simon and Carleen for the honeymoon gift). Apparently the king of Jordan is an avid scuba diver, and arranged for several ships, planes and tanks to be sunk off the coast in order to make artificial reefs for sea life and make for some exciting diving. We did a shore dive to a shipwreck which was sunk in the 1980s. The coral and colourful fish were striking as soon as we entered the water, and it was fun to venture deeper and see the wreck emerging from the depths. We swam through the wreck and were impressed with the variety of coral and fish growing on it. We then headed back to the shallows, and relaxed on the beach for a while. The next morning we waved goodbye to Rory and Benji and took a taxi over the border to Saudi Arabia!