Return to the Dead Sea

We reluctantly left Aqaba this morning, after a last walk on the beach, and headed for the Movenpick dead sea resort.

On our way we stopped to take a look at Lot's Cave, Lot was escaping from the destruction of Jericho with his wife and two daughters, unfortunatley Lot's wife ignoredGods command and turned to look back at Jericho and was turned to a pillar of salt, Lot and his daughters took refuge in this cave...

A recent construction on the Dead Sea Highway is the observation centre, some amazing views from here...

Finally at the Movenpick resort... this is constructed like a village with entertainment (a belly dancer tonight) in the village square...

Jordan has been an amazing trip and we are already planning a return visit.

Aqaba

We have now arrived at the Sourthernmost point of Jordan, Aqaba, on the Red Sea.

This is a tropical resort with clearly much higher wealth than most of Jordan through which we have travelled to date.

The Movenpick resort is very impressive with plenty of bars, restaurants, live music , 4 pools and its own private beach. A great two night recuperation after the intense travelling/exploring of the past 5 days.

Photos of the town...

And the marina...

Photos of the hotel grounds..

Irene tests the temperature of the Red Sea !

Tea with the Bedouin

A fantastic day in the desert..

We hired a guide with a 4 wheel drive (battered) vehicle and headed out into the Wadi Rum desert, this is an incredible area of outstanding natural beauty..

We parked up on the side of a sand dune and Awwad our guide ( a Bedouin) built a fire and brewed traditional Bedoiun tea while we ate our picnic...

Petra at night

After more exploration of the Petra site today we attended the Petra at night event, basically the whole of the route through the Siq to the Treasury is lit with candles and hundreds more are in the the area in front of the Treasury.

They then had some Jordanian musicians playing and afterwards a story teller.

Really great experience but very difficult to photograph as you can see......

Petra!

Today we visited Petra, also called the Rose Red City and immortalised in Indiana Jones and the last Crusade.

This is an amazing place, you enter via a long narrow canyon, more a crack in the rock sometimes less that 2 metres wide and after 1.2 km you emerge by the Treasury, hewn out of solid rock...

This an astounding sight but Petra just goes on and on, suprising you time after time with new marvels...

We climbed 800 steps to the Monastery, total exausted but well worth the climb...

We are back tomorrow to explore further, its a huge site.

Dead Sea and Kings Highway

Great trip by Royal Jordanian from London, flying like it used to be with pre-allocated seats, free drinks and movies and good food - highly recommended!

Arrived Marriott Dead Sea resort in the early hours, fantastic hotel, although you could easily believe you were in Florida, watched people floating effortlessly in the dead sea, going to try this ourselves on Saturday when we are back in the area.

Photos of the resort...


Took a trip to the baptism site of Jesus by John the baptist, fascinating, you could feel you might be back in Biblical times, at one time we were only 50 feet from Israel.




Visited Mount Nebo where Moses saw the promised land but never made it there being buried at the site..


Then drove to Petra via the Kings Highway and the Jordan Grand Canyon, Wadi Mujab.


So much to see here, fascinating country and everybody is incredibly welcoming..

Petra Tommorow !!

Map of Jordan

This is the record of our trip to Jordan at the end of March 2009.

Its still in the planning stage at the moment ... More to follow soon...