Wadi Rum, famous for it association with Lawrence of Arabia, is breath takingly spectacular. The scenery is like something out of a cowboy film with long flat sandy valleys flanked by towering reddish mountains. The silence inside the park is wonderful and as we sat on a small rock outcrop watching the sun set we couldn't here anything apart from the wind. If you have a 4x4 then you can explore to your hearts content but after our previous efforts in the White Desert we took a sunset jeep tour that took us to Lawrence's springs, a wonderful canyon and then onto our rock perch to watch the sun set. We spent the night in the car park completely on our own and lay in bed watching the stars without any light pollution.
When we arrived at Petra we found Dave (Tripoli) was about to leave, so we delayed him enough to feed him have a great chat catching up with his news and half mend his Garmin GPS unit for him! Dave was having to head back to Aqaba as he had problems with a warning light on the dash and hoped to get it fixed there.
Petra was a great surprise for us. We like everyone else have seen the image of the Treasury as you approach it from the Siq, but we had no idea just how big the place is! To give you an idea we walked about 30kms over 2 days and barely scratched the surface and Dave drove to the next town for a walk and managed to get himself detained for not having a ticket for Petra! It is huge! A 2 day ticket is an absolute must but you could easily spend a week walking and exploring.
Apart from the Treasury, which we saw on a candle lit walk and then at 7:30am to beat the crowds, the Monastery, the numerous tombs, God blocks and the old city there are loads of picturesque walks through ancient tunnels, mutlicoloured canyons, gorges that narrow so much you can only just squeeze through and paths with sheer drops on one side and a cliff on the other. We loved it and found it amazing that despite it being the main tourist attraction in Jordan with literally thousands of people there at any one time you could easily find your self alone in a canyon or hike for 30 minutes or more without seeing anyone if you were away from the main attractions. We particually loved a walk we did through a deserted Wadi full of Oleanders in bloom through a gorge where the sides looked as though they had been painted and the rock looked like candlewax dripping down the sides of the gorge. It took us around 3 hours to complete the walk and at one stage we had to be man handled up the gorge sides by some Bedhouin as the gorge was flooded. We stopped for our packup lunch in a deserted tomb overlooking a valley littered with tombs and in silence part from he goat bells and occasional bleet. Apart from the Bedhouin we saw one other couple!
The Monastery is in some ways more spectacular than the Treasury as it is much bigger and at the end of an arduous walk up 800 steps. Some people do this on Donkeys but the path at times is very narrow and the donkeys merrily waltz along right next to the edge oblivious to the sheer drop next to them. We walked!
After completing the Monastery walk in the morning we headed for the Place of High Sacrifice in the heat of the afternoon. Mad dogs and Englishmen. The walk took us passed many tombs and up and down mountains like a roller coaster. We had opted for the pilgrimage route and you certainly felt you'd been on a mini pilgrimage when we arrived. In the three hours the walk took we saw 2 other people. It was hot to say the least and at times when we drank it appeared we were colanders! The view at the end was spectacular and we even got to glimpse Aarons tomb in the distance. And to round it all off we had Movenpick Ice Creams at the end of each day. Yum.
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