Last of the Middle East

I notice that Adam has included a photo of Treacle in Wadi Rum, nuts deep in the sand. We got up that morning and crusied around in the sand dunes, having a great time not really following a particular route or looking at the maps - when we somehow managed to drive right out the other side of the desert & into a small village. Unperturbed we saw an opportunity to take a short cut and get back in for more off road sandy fun. We headed over to a ride when Flump, she kinda sank down into the sand. Not to worry said Ads and reversed her back a bit - Flump. It seemed we weren't going backwards either!

Thankfully we had bought a shovel incase we encountered such terrain in Mongolia, and this was to be it's first ever use. We were in quite deep and after a lot of digging, and moving only a inch forward in about 45 minutes, i think Ads suddenly remembered the sand mats that he had bolted on to the side of the car. Put them under and were out straight away. A good buy for 30 quid.



The last big site we went to in the Middle East was Petra - & what a way to finish! Having been before numerous times Adam suggested that we get up as early as possible to try to beat the crowds; so at 7.00 we got in the free shuttle bus from the hotel down to the site entrance. The sun had just come up but it wasn't yet hot. The entrance to the site is at the top of a long hill which runs down to an amazing canyon, where you literally seem to walk inside the rocks. It was about 1.5k from the entrance down to the Treasury and as i hadn't read the guide book re:the site i didn't know what to expect or where any of the actual "sites" were in relation to each other - This is because i find that if i read up on a site/location before hand i tend to create an image in my head and sometimes can be dissapointed with what is actually there. Aanyway so in this instance i had no idea what was coming & that first glimpse of it shining in the mornig sunlight, it's facade poking through the crack at the end of the canyon was pretty amazing!!

As we had go up so early and walked briskly down through the canyon there was pretty much no-one else there which made for a great experience.

No time to dilly dally, Adam said we must press onward and up to the Monastery whilst it was still relatively cool & quiet. It was an absolutely massive trek up some 1200 steps.... but when we reached the top we were rewarded with a wonderful sight. The Monastery is even bigger than the Treasury and again we had the place to ourselves. :o)
The rest of the day was spent exploring the huge site at our leisure, then when it came time to leave Adam took us to the Movenpick hotel for a well earnt ice cream. Yum.

I think we were both a little sad to leave Jordan as we had such a great adventure there and eventhough adam had been numerous times before i think he too was pleasantly surprised at the new light we were able to shed on it together as a couple.

Our last stop in the Middle East was a return visit to Damascas - quite possibly our favourite city so far. It was even more fuin this time as we stayed in the same place so knew where we were, where to go, places that were good to eat & drink...
We picked up a few souveniers, wandered the souk again drank more fresh balckberry juice, and visited the city museeum which was shut on our last stay. It is in the process of being re-organised so the displays were a little scrappy - apart from some lovely near complete mosaics with fabulous patterns and very intricate designs. We were wandering around when an elderly guard came up to us and becconed us through a restricted area down a flight of stairs. It led to the tombs, which is a partial reconstruction of what lies underneath some of the ruins we had previuosly seen in Palmyra. The tomb fronts all had individual carved busts of the people who were entombed within. They had such haunting eyes and long faces with delicate features. I felt very lucky to be able to see it, and it was quite spooky to as it had been done very well.
We also got to look around in the synagogue there with it's frescos, so all in all a very good visit.



Thats all for this entry - hope you are all still finding it an enjoyable read - we're still having fun out here xx