Petra and Wadi Rum, Jordan

Wadi Rum - a huge desert valley in Jordan

Being so close to the third of the New 7 Wonders of the World, Petra, we had to take a side trip.  Each of our Israeli contacts strongly advised us to take a tour that would ease our walk across no-man's land to Jordan and steer us as we travelled to Petra and Wadi Rum.  (The border experience and the driving through Jordan seemed relatively easy compared to some of our other ordeals on Milly so we're not sure how necessary the tour was but, as usual, we learned a lot more, saw things that perhaps we would have missed and enjoyed the company of ten other interesting folk on the tour.  That being said, who knows what I'd be writing now if we hadn't been on a tour!).

We have never walked a few hundred meters across a fenced and barbed no man's land.  An Israeli tour operator met us and said good-bye on the Israeli side and we were met, after our walk on the other by a Jordanian from the same tour company.  We had to wait for bureaucracy to take place - the smiling official with gun in belt engaged us in lively, good-natured banter, trying to teach us some Jordanian words.  Very friendly and easy going!

We stayed the night before the two day tour in Aqaba, Jordan, on the Red Sea coast.  Jordan shares Aqaba Gulf of the Red Sea with Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt.  The length of Israel's coastline is less than 20 km, the Jordanian coast is 26 km long, essentially just room for all-important ports and now tourism.

The modest harbour in Aqaba.  Saudi Arabia in the distance.  

The next day after a two hour bus ride in the rain we reached Petra - also in the rain.  Although gray and chilly, the scenery was still magnificent.  Over the morning, a creek with rapids gradually built up in the narrows of the 1.2 km "Siq" into the city - we were lucky it wasn't closed with the threat of flash flooding.  The climb to high ground would be impossible.

Trying to warm up for our 1.2 km walk along the "Siq" - the main "road" into the city.  Luckily Sandy had lent me a longer down-filled shell.   Layers made it hard to bend my arms but kept me relatively warm.  Even with the rain it was incredible landscape.

The start of the incredibly narrow Siq through which rudimentary carriages pulled by horses barrelled along, and donkeys lugging soaked tourists plodded.  Taking your eyes off the traffic was dangerous.

The incredibly narrow passage is actually a fissure in the rock bed made by an earthquake.  A brilliant location for the 3rd century BC capital chosen by The Nabataeans, an Arab desert tribe that dominated the area in pre-Roman times.  Concealed from the outside world.  

Our first glimpse of the Treasury.  Actually a tomb for the king...    

 The Treasury gets it's name from the story that an Egyptian pharaoh hid his treasures behind an urn on the second level of columns.  A story that must have been believed by the locals - the urn is pockmocked by rifle shot in attempt to smash the urn now known to be solid rock.  Where is that treasure? 

Petra was a caravan stop along the trade route between Damascus and Arabia along which silk, spice and slaves passed.

Until the 1980's, Bedouin lived in many of the buildings.  They were then moved to a local village.

When the rain stopped, we could see the Neapolitan swirls of colour in the rock from the iron content.  This amphitheatre was one of the prettiest we have seen because of it.

The donkey's barn did not have psychedelic wallpaper.  All natural, beautiful colours.

None of the buildings are free-standing.  Instead they are hewn out of the rock face.  This is a row of Royal Tombs.

A toppled column in some later Roman ruins.

A massive earthquake in 555 AD forced the inhabitants to abandon the city.  

Taken from in front of one of the Royal tombs, the view was stunning.

And so was the ancient inside.

There are more than 800 registered sites in Petra including 500 tombs.

Walking back along the Siq in sunshine.  It seemed possible to leap from one side of the fissure to the other, the top sides were so close together.

Our second day was spent exploring Wadi Rum on a jeep tour with a Bedouin who had grown up in the area and knew everyone.  "Wadi" is an Arabic term for valley or, as we had learned in Israel,  sometimes for a dry riverbed that is wet only during heavy rain.  T.E. Lawrence passed through the valley several times during the Arab Revolt in 1917-1918.  Lawrence of Arabia was filmed here as was The Martian and Star Wars.  It is definitely an otherworldly natural wonder.  And a delight for photographers!

The drive from Petra south to Wadi Rum was amazing

The Seven Pillars of Wisdom named after Lawrence's book written after the Arab Revolt.

There are crazy people preparing to climb this rock face to the left and above my head - not us.

Wadi Rum has become a modest hub for ecotourism with desert camps and glamps, horseback riding, climbing, hiking and camel trekking as you can see above.  Puts a little perspective on the enormity of the view.

The only spring provided water for the village and was the site of the camel gathering, hanging out waiting for tourists.

A miracle in the desert

Hard to see but we were on the peak of one of the high rock monuments.  The ridge was soft sand dune with a precipitous drop to the bottom.  Would have been out of bounds in North America.  Our tour companion crawled across....wisely.

Peter on the top.  It's hard to tell how high we are, it's so monochromatic ... but it was high!

We found an easier route down a sand dune where a couple of young uns were learning how to sand board.

Newborn still had umbilical cord attached.

Another high one over...

...this arch

Our Bedouin lunch spot.

Another resilient bush of flowers

Our driver gathering brush for a fire.  He had to wander far for the spindly stuff.

Lunch home-made in the desert.

Good-bye Wadi Rum.  You are spectacular!

To end the day we were driven back to the border where we walked through No Man's Land and were seriously questioned on the Israeli side.  Not so many smiles but we understand why.