Camping - bedouin style

Before we went to Petra, we spoke with friends who'd visited earlier in the year and had been guided by Abdullah. They'd said that the highlight of their trip was a trip to the top of a mountain to watch the sun setting over Petra. On this recommendation we asked Abdullah to arrange something special for us. However, there must have been something lost in translation as rather than taking a leisurely stroll to sit and watch the sun set over Petra, we ended up on a traditional bedouin camping experience. 

This involved being collected by Abdullah's mates in an old Hilux, (with the three of us squashed in the back) and being driven for about 30 minutes to the edge of the park. Once at the edge of the park, we were given a sleeping bag each and had to walk for about an hour up the side of a mountain to around 1300m. The rest of the kit for the night followed behind on 2 donkeys.

The mountain that we climbed, Jabal Harun, was allegedly the site where Moses' brother, Aaron was buried. I'm not sure if sleeping on someone's grave was supposed to be the highlight of the tour, or just an added bonus!

Anyway, despite the longer than expected hike, we made it to the top in time for sunset. Just. 

This is just a short description of the trip, but sometimes, what happens on holiday, stays on holiday. Isn't that right Barry?!!!

Petra

I knew before we came here that Petra was one of the places that you had to visit when you were in Jordan, but other than it being one of the places that Indian Jones was filmed and from what I'd seen on "An Idiot Abroad", I knew nothing else.

For the history buffs (this shows I was listening a little bit) - Petra is a city which has been created by carving buildings into the side of the rose-red sandstone mountains by the Nabateans over 2,000 years ago. 

We set off at 7am in the morning and having collected our tickets, we were able to enter the site. There is a long walk from the main gate down to the actual entrance to Petra. There are guys offering to take you down on an Arab stallion, but our guide Abdullah assured us that we should wait as there's much more fun inside waiting for us.

We had a full day walking around the various main points of interest. Here are a few photos of this amazing place. I've also uploaded a video of the surprise that Abdullah arranged for us.

The remains of a camel & trader carving

Our first glimpse of the Treasury

The Treasury

So, according to Abdullah the best view of the Treasury is from above, but as a 'special treat' he'd arranged for donkeys for us to save our legs. I think Barry's donkey drew the short straw!

Can you see the camels' head?

The Monastery

A little glimpse of the donkey ride

Dead Sea

One of the main tourist attractions in Jordan is the chance to swim in the Dead Sea and was one of the first things on the list of places we wanted to visit since we came to the Middle East.

The Dead Sea gets its name because of the high salt content and the inability for fish and other animals to survive in it. It is however known for the "magical" powers. With this in mind, we had to give it a go.

With the exception of a small public beach, the coastline can only really be accessed through one of the luxury hotels. We booked into the 5* Holiday Inn as a little treat as it has its own private beach with fresh water showers for cleaning off after  swimming.

On arriving at the hotel, we quickly headed for the beach. All the guide books advise not to shave and cover any cuts before heading into the sea and I have to admit that they say this for a reason. After only a couple of minutes in the water your body starts to tingle.

Due to the high salt content of the water, your body naturally floats. It is a very weird and quite an indescribable feeling.

The mud in the Dead Sea is also reputed to have healing powers and be good for the skin, so we had to give it a go. The hotel kindly provides a bucket of mud on the beach to save you the trouble of hunting for it. So, when in Rome and all that, we caked ourselves up. We were quite content to sit and wait for the mud to dry but the hotel guy on the beach told us that the best way to do this was to bury ourselves in the sand. Well what an opportunity this was to bury Jenny in the sand. I'd dreamed and planned of this moment on many occasions - only joking!! So after slowly cooking in the sand for about 10 minutes it was time to wash off. When we stood up, we looked like the inside of a crunchie bar.

I have to admit that putting mud and sand on the face was probably a bad idea. When trying to wash it off it would start to run into your eyes. The natural reaction is rub water into it. However, this is the worst thing to do. I don't know how many times Jenny did this and had to run out of the water blind to get the salt out of her eyes.

Interesting facts about the Dead Sea

1. The Dead Sea is approximately 400m below sea level.

2. The water is approximately 33% salt, which is about 8x greater than ordinary sea water.

3. The unusually high salt concentration provides natural buoyancy