R2R
Or just one hump and a really bad temper? Not sure. I don’t think I really did anything to piss her off but she made lots of noise and was somewhat ill tempered. But I do know she only had 1 hump…one uncomfortable hump. I will share more about Alia the camel a little further in the post. In an attempt to shake things up a bit, here is more of a photo blog of our time in Jordan including Petra and Wadi Rum. We also swam in the Dead Sea in Jordan, it was a salty experience 🙂
This is the first view of the Treasury through the Siq…really it is awe inspiring! If it looks familiar it’s because it was in the last of the Indiana Jones movies (the last crusade)..we enjoyed a showing of this at the hostel after our day here..it was kind of funny seeing it on the big screen after seeing it in person.
To get a sense of the size of this building carved out of the rock I left the people in the photo below. So incredible!
From this location in Petra we wondered across amazing landscapes, over old tombs, and climbed up hundreds of stairs to get to “the Monastery.” Our favourite part of the climb was the kids trying to sell us a donkey trip up the mountain: “ride before you die.” It didn’t install confidence in the stair climb ahead, but we enjoyed chatting with the kids assuring them we didn’t need the donkey nor did we think the donkey wanted to take us up the stairs. Neither of us were expecting what we found at the top:
Take a close look at the photo above, as you will notice a person standing (on top of some rocks) in the doorway. On this trip we have seen incredible architecture and even have somewhat of an idea of what is gothic compared to art nouveau. This building differs from anything we had ever seen simply because it was carved by taking the rock away from the mountain around it..not taking a rock away from a mountain and then making something out of that (like say the Trevi fountain in Rome).
There was a lovely pathway up to another viewpoint which gave us a fantastic different view of this masterpiece (and the photo proves we were really there!).
As is always the way, we both craved a bit of wilderness and time away from the noise and craziness of city’s and the throngs of tourists and accompanying touts. Wadi Rum fit the bill. What a beautiful location – red sand with large mountains poking out of it. We spent 3 days in a desert camp with our days on the back of the camels. Here we are on day one before the chafing began and when the camels still seemed not unhappy with us on their backs (although my camel is not cooperating for the photo which may have been an indication of behaviour later on).
This is the land of Lawrence of Arabia and our Bedouin guide spent time pointing out some of the highlights from the movie (guess we should watch that?!). Here we are at a natural land bridge, and me tempting fate sitting on top of the arch. I wonder what Lawrence did at this bridge?
As the pictures show despite being in the desert it was not as hot as you would imagine. The sun was warm however so it was a constant game of put your sweater on and take it off. At lunch time we usually enjoyed a siesta for about an hour in the shade which could get cool (but also meant less flies). This is me doing my best impression of a human burrito in an attempt to stay warm and keep the flies off.
One day for lunch we had a suprise visit from the owner of the company (Jordan Tracks…highly recommended) and his lovely wife and daughter. This littlw one loves camels, and it looks like Matt’s camel is fond of her too!
We camped at night in our “traditional Bedouin tents” with none of the trappings of the real world…no electricity, no cell coverage and no ovens. Fortunately there were lots of blankets as the temp dipped down to about 10 degrees at night.
Our evening meals were made the traditional Bedouin way: a pit dug into the sand with a big fire built in it, and then vegetables and chicken placed over the coals and buried for 4 or so hours. It was truly mouth watering!
We both really LOVED Jordan and would recommend it to anyone. We felt safe (despite some bombing over the border in Isreal at the time we were there), and truely welcomed in the country…well except by Alia. As I alluded to at the top of this blog she didnt always behave as she should and by day 3 was quite vocal about her thoughts. For those of you who haven’t seen this on facebook, enjoy this clip of Alia’s version of welcoming me to Jordan on the morning of day 3…she really does have a gift for the gab. Click here to see the video.
