Next stop was Wadi Mujib Nature Reserve for a trek through this magnificent canyon. The scenery was simply stunning as we waded into the gorge, completely ignoring the need to fully submerge our shoes as we crisscrossed the river.
To give you an idea of scale, you can just see me at the bottom of this photo…
2km into the gorge we understood why they recommended that we leave our backpack at the visitor centre, as we found ourselves scrambling up waterfall after waterfall in order to continue the trek.
And getting plummeted by others. It was beyond exhilarating, and eliminated any chance of jetlag setting in.
Then to top off an exciting first day in Jordan, it was off to encounter the experience of floating on the Dead Sea. Though the sky was somewhat dusty, it was quite incredible looking across the Jordan River to Israel.
And of course partake in the black mud body mask.
The following morning we visited St George’s Church in Madaba, which houses a mosaic that has been dated to AD 560, and is said to be the oldest map in the world depicting all the biblical sites of the Middle East.
The level of detail and workmanship in other mosaics housed in the church were simply incredible, and encouraged us to buy a couple of mosaics that we can embed in the poured earth floor of the house. I’d also like to go on a mosaic course when we return to Tassie Mania as they really are beautiful.
We met two girls from Holland at the Wadi Mujib Nature Reserve, and arranged to share a car for the long drive down to Petra, which left Madaba at 10am. We decided to go the long way, via the Kings Highway, and were definitely rewarded by the scenery.
First stop was the same canyon that we trekked through the day before, Wadi Mujib, where it becomes 1km deep and more than 4km from one edge to the other.
Second stop was Karak, the evocative ancient Crusader castle which became legendary in the 12th-century battles between the Crusaders and the Muslim armies of Saladin. At one point in its history, the castle belonged to a particularly unsavoury knight of the cross, who was hated by Saladin for his treachery. He was renowned for his sadistic delight in torturing prisoners and throwing them off these walls into the valley 450m below, even fastening a wooden box over their heads so they wouldn’t lose consciousness before hitting the ground, yikes!
Our final stop in the five hour drive was this spectacular lookout for a mint tea and quick cuddle at what really felt like the edge of the world.
After a good night sleep we had the first of what I was to discover would be many 5am starts in order to reach the major sites before other tourists, mmmm. But it was Karim’s birthday so I was ready to celebrate in whatever fashion he chose, and it was so worthwhile, as after walking quietly through a 1.2km long rock landmass formed by tectonic forces, the only living creatures in our first glimpse of the Petra Treasury was an Arab man and two camels.
This spectacular city of Petra was built in the 3rd century BC by the Nabataeans, who carved palaces, temples, tombs, storerooms and stables straight into the sandstone cliffs. How on earth they achieved this was simply mind boggling.
After passing over 40 tombs in the Street of Facades, we began our ascent to the High Place of Sacrifice. It was during this climb that we came across the first of many desert cats, who seemed in good health albeit a little thin and extremely thirsty, so Karim’s hat became the perfect drinking bowl.
Once at the top we couldn’t help but enjoy a quick rest and sun bathe on the ancient alter.
Descending on the other side of the mountain we discovered many other tombs built into the cliffs, such as the Garden Tomb, Soldier’s Tomb and Garden Triclinium.
It was here that offering our water to the desert cats went up a notch to giving them some of our food. Using Karim’s hat as a water bowl was now making it quite soggy, so we were able to build a new container from a juice popper.
Of course before we knew it, we weren’t even half way through a long day in the desert and we had given nearly all our food and water to the freaking desert cats!
Ignoring our lack of supplies, the astounding magnitude of the tombs that these ancient people constructed were enough to egg us on…
And there were hundreds of these tombs cut into the mountains as far as our eyes could see. To give you an idea of how far we walked and how many mountains we climbed, it was from the point we took this photo to the village that you can see in the distant background.
Oh great, a baby donkey in a cave in the middle of nowhere, just what we needed to ensure the end to our water supply.
I was completely exhausted at the end of the day
And I think Karim was somewhat delirious, evident by this image of his “camel ride”.
We met an English couple to share a car back to the capital city of Amman, and decided to go the quick way so we had time to look around the Royal Automobile Museum, which houses more than 70 classic cars and motorbikes from King Hussein’s personal collection. Karim’s expression says it all!
Dinner in the Wild Jordan Café, with views over the immense city of Amman, was a wonderful way to spend our last night in Jordan, as all profits from the café support the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature and wildlife.
Jordan would have been a wonderful enough holiday on its own, but we were yet to discover Egypt. The harsh reality of the level of aggression during the recent revolution was evident as soon as we arrived in the city.
Demonstrations were still going on, however they were peaceful and we felt completely safe.
A walk through the city uncovered beautiful buildings now being taken over by nature.
The condition of the taxi service.
The congestion on the roads due to 22 million people living in the city.
And some strange cuisine, such as “Fool With Oil”.
The streets appeared very clean compared to India, although after climbing above street level we soon discovered where they were hiding the rubbish.
Another 5am start became worthwhile when we walked through the Mena Village at Giza into a broad plaza, where without any warning the great Sphinx suddenly appeared, with the Pyramid of Khafre in the background, and not a tourist in sight.
The pyramids were just incredible, their enormity making Karim look like an ant at the bottom of this photo.
We couldn’t help but try a sarcophagus out for size, and realised that the ancient Egyptians were quite small.
A horse ride into the desert offered magnificent views of all nine pyramids at Giza, as well as an adrenalin rush when we started to gallop.
After a pleasant couple of days in Cairo we now encountered a 4am start to fly down to Aswan, south of Luxor. It was here, further into the desert, that the temperature started to ramp up, and the umbrella came out.
First stop was the Unfinished Obelisk, 43m long and 4.3m wide, weighing an estimated 1,168 tonnes, constructed from a single piece of granite stone.
Are they really supposed to have chipped this obelisk free from its surrounding stone merely with these dolerite balls???
Here is the Obelisk of Ramesses II, which was completed at Luxor Temple.
Next stop was the Aswan High Dam, the statistics of which gave Karim some crazy ideas about our future micro-hydro system. Of course, he knows better, as a dam of this scale does, and has, caused major ecological damage.
To complete a wonderful day we then caught a boat over to the Philae Temple with this lovely Nubian chap, Mohammed.
It puts history into perspective to realise that Philae was being built when Hannibal was defeated in the Punic wars that gave Rome final supremacy over the Mediterranean, and Isis was still being worshipped at Philae when Rome was in ruins and goats grazed in what was left of Colosseum.
Here’s my reaction when over dinner Karim announced that we were rising at 5am again the next day in order to get to Kom Ombo and Edfu before the violent desert sun would burn the skin off our bodies.
It’s hard to describe what it was like standing in front of the hieroglyphs at these sites, trying to comprehend the amount of history that we were witnessing and what took place here thousands of years ago.
The precision and craftsmanship involved in chipping the hard stone away around each image to form this relief work is simply unimaginable.
Karim was right about the desert heat, as by 8am I had to upgrade from the umbrella to the umbrella and scarf.
And by 10am I was ready to retreat into the air-conditioned minivan and couldn’t handle the thought of that sun touching even one centimetre of my Celtic skin!
While he went hat shopping at “The Best Bazaar Karim” (note Karim camouflaged amongst the hats.
Without boring you with hundreds more photos of us climbing tall rocky mountains, monstrous temples and dramatic hieroglyphs, just imagine my joy at rising before the sun each morning…
And collapsing before sunset each afternoon, and I didn’t care where!
Needless to say, twice I sent Karim off into the desert on his own while I chilled out. It actually worked out better, as being Arab looking and pretending to be a student, he was able to offer “Backsheesh” to the locals and gain access into locked parts of the temples he was particularly interested in, which were clearly closed off to the public. Even the books that Karim has been studying refer to these places as being closed, so he was over the moon to gain access.
They even let him enter a flooded section of the Oseirion, which Karim sees as one of the most fascinating structures in all Egypt.
It was here that he was looking for, and found, the enigmatic Flower of Life etched deeply into a hidden corner of a stone column, in a temple where no other sign or symbol was appeared. It is this single symbol that encompasses the entirety of sacred geometry and philosophy. You can draw lines between points on this symbol to create simple geometric shapes such as the square and triangle, as well as all five of the plutonic solids. How it came it be there, and how it was etched so deeply into the granite pillar, remains both unknown and largely unacknowledged.
And the even stranger hieroglyph, which seemed to depict the Anunakai that is referred to in the Old Testament and Babylonian texts, being the gods who came from heaven to earth and created man.
Another feature he dreamed of seeing was the infamous “helicopter” inside the Temple of Abydos. Unlike any other hieroglyphs in Egypt, these can only be described as appearing like a helicopter, tank or boat, and some kind of air craft.
We simply loved Egypt, the people were fantastic and very welcoming. We were continuously inspired by their earth building techniques and materials, as seen here where they’ve collected the sand, rocks (sifted into various sizes) and manure ready to build the next wall.
We loved being by the Nile River and feeling both its history and its energy.
We loved the big bottles of ice cold Stella beer after a long day in the desert heat.
And we loved learning how versatile a scarf can be.
We arrived in England safely and have had a wonderful week with Karim’s family down in Devon, including meeting his gorgeous little nephew Donovan for the first time. It was really fantastic to spend time with the family again and we hope it isn’t too long until the next get together.
Last night we celebrated Gavin and Wendy’s marriage, which was simply beautiful. It really has been magic to see three of our good friends join hands with the love of their lives over the past couple of months.
We feel very, very fortunate indeed to have had this amazing holiday… and are now looking forward to heading home after a final celebration with friends and my sister Mandy in London tonight.
