Saturday 27th April – Auaba, Jordan
PETRA
I was at Petra last year and it was amazing. But didn’t get a chance to go down deep into the canyon so knew I had to go again.
I organised a bus trip with the same company I used last year. Finally 184 people booked to go. Funny.
There were a few hick ups. The evening before the ship decided they would use a tender ticket system to control the flow to people using shuttle buses to get out of the port area. After a lot of rushing around I was able to convince the powers that be that since we would have our own buses waiting at the ship we didn’t need shuttle bus tickets. All good. We got to go out the same gangplank as the ship excursions.
At the early morning gathering I did drill into people to NOT get onto the shuttle buses, to only get into the buses with the big signs saying RAINA’S Group.
And off we went. Five buses full. We had a narrated talk through the city of Aqaba and after about 15 minutes headed out into the desert.
So stunning.
Jordan is on the Great African Rift Valley (also known as the East Africa Rift). Is a 6,000k continues line of geographic trenches where basically – the African continent is splitting into two continental plates. The Nubian Plate and the Somali Plate.
This is what caused the Dead Sea, the deepest point being 730 meters below sea level. Although the area is fairly active with earthquakes, there is no need to panic. The rift started around 35 million years ago.
Most of the country is up on a plateau divided up by huge ridges and valleys, and of course lots of desert. Mountains go up to 1700 metres. Jordan gets a few weeks of snow each year. Our guide showed us some photos of Petra covered in snow.
Although there are a lot of volcanic rocks, much of the area is sandstone and is stunning. The land is really rich in minerals and has some amazing sand. Some is very high in silica. So white and different to touch.
The area is populated by Bedouin tribes still living a semi nomadic lifestyle. The country is building many schools in small towns with the hope that many Bedouin kids will attend. During the holidays most of them go out to the camps to continue to learn the Bedouin ways.
Horses have been replaced by cars, but they still live in semi mobile camps and tend their goats, sheep, camels and donkeys while out grazing. In the summer they go up into the mountains and come down for the winter.
Large wadis (valleys) drain the area and get huge flash floods after a small amount of rain.
We stopped at a stunning lookout for our first stop.
While here we discovered that one couple on one of the buses said “Is this the shuttle bus?”. They had only just realised that the 10 minute shuttle into town had turned into a 70 minute drive into the desert. Should I refer to them as ‘stowaways’ or as ‘kidnap victims’. I have a sneaking suspicion that they were the first, as one couple did ask that morning if they could join. I told them I thought we were full but to come out and see……..
They were given the option of paying for the trip or catching a taxi back to town.
Then Petra. Each bus group was taken down with a guide and given strict instructions to be back at the bus at s set time.
And off we went. It was hot – mid 30’s. But so stunning.
One of the 7 Ancient wonders of the world.
PETRA (or the Rose City) – is one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. It’s famous for its Rock-Cut Architecture, where they just carved a city into the sandstone cliffs! It was originally known as ‘Raqeem’. The Greeks named in Petra, meaning Rock.
Settled as early as 9,000BC. It’s in a basin and in naturally fortified by the mountains all around. By around 400BC it was the capital city of the Nabataean Kingdom. They were nomadic Arabs who set up here for the trade routes. It became a major trading hub.
In 312BC the Greeks raided the city but the Nabataean were able to keep them out due to their superior desert skills and the terrain.
The Nabataean were “Water Engineers” and were geniuses at harvesting water. They made the area into an oasis with channels, aqueducts, cisterns etc. They were able to collect water to sustain 100,000 people for a year. Many cities cannot manage that today.
The Nabataean Kingdom cover all of today Jordan, Syria, most of Saudi Arabia. It lost its independence when it fell to the Romans in 106 AD.
Sea trade routes opened up and the ‘Silk Road’ lost its importance. Then a series of earthquakes destroyed many structures and it lost all importance. And disappeared to the world.
In 1812 an explorer had heard old Bedouin tales, learnt Arabic, disguised himself as a Bedouin and found it.
Being lost for so long stopped it being robbed and raided. It became a world heritage site in 1985. UNESCO called it “one of the most precious cultural properties of man’s cultural heritage”, not because of the beauty – because of the engineering.
I walked down with the group but then went ahead at the end. The walk through the last bit of the Sig was just as amazing giving that first glimpse of the Treasury. The Treasury is the most famous monument in Petra due to its 40 meter high facade with detailed ornaments. One of the Indian Jones movies was filmed here.
But I only spent a moment as I was on a mission. I wanted to see the lower parts.
I found a camel person, negotiated a price and off I went.
Camels are funny. They lie there grunting and swearing at you, but let you climb on and off they go. Standing up is always fun as they lift the back end first – throwing you forward, then their front goes up tossing you back. Then I don’t know what but you are tossed again. My opinion is THAT is why they are called ‘ships of the desert’. It’s to do with the way they toss you around. Nothing to do with their ability to carry goods across the most inhospitable lands ever!
But off we went. Me and my camel train of three. After about two minutes the man threw me the lead rope – now a rein and said “go that way’. Hummmm a bit different to steering a horse. Scary and fun as they are so tall.
The biggest issue was the thousands of tourist who fail to see a half ton, two meter tall, stinking, slobbering beast walking up behind them. And with me on top yelling out to look out, behind you and so on. But I didn’t actually run anyone over. Passing people on the donkeys was pretty funny. They were all of 10 hands high so way, way down.
But my plan was to sit atop the camel and take many photos. The ground was very rocky and covered with rubble from the huge deadly flash flood they had some time ago. I would have been so slow picking my way over the uneven ground.
When I realised I had some control it was much better. A few times the guy called out at me to stop as he had found another rider. I pulled up and froze, not wanting to give some signal to make my camel lie down.
But it was fantastic. I went right down into Petra past the theatre that I had heard all about. Down the avenue of facades.
The theatre, like much of Petra is carved out of solid rock. Some parts were constructed but most was carved out. It has three horizontal sections of seats separated by passageways and seven stairways. It could seat around 8,500 people. It was designed similar to Roman Amphitheatres giving it amazing acoustics.
Then down to the start of the royal tombs I got a great look at the first Tomb, the Urn Tomb. This tomb is built high on the mountain side, up many flights of stairs. It is thought that this is the tomb of Nabataean King Malchus II who died in 70 AD.
The Petra site is massive and goes back along the canyon for many kilometres. I still only saw a fraction.
It was then the slog back to the bus. The walk through the Siq was still amazing. Then onto a horse for the trip up. This horse was pretty amazing. It neck reined beautifully and listened to me. The horse operators were a lot greedier than last year and some were very aggressive at payment time. There is no set price. The ride is officially covered in your ticket, and you give a tip People paid anywhere between $5 and $35 US. Depending how well they stood up to the bullying at time to pay.
We then did the 30 min drive to our lunch destination. A Bedouin tourist camp set in amazing rocks.
There had been some rain last week as was heaps of green pick. Mobs of stock were our grazing. A camp set up as a luxury food place. Quiet stunning. And had our lunch. The best hummus ever. It was like silk.
A 10 minute drive had us at Little Petra through more amazing rocks.
Little Petra is another Nabataean site with buildings carved into the sandstone walls. It also has a lovely Siq as an entrance. Going by the canyon, it is not far from Petra.
It is believed that this was a ‘suburb’ of Petra, a place that housed the camel caravans and traders on the Silk Road. It wasn’t rediscovered and excavated until the late 20th century.
In 2010 a chamber was announced to the world, that had recently been discovered. A dining room with surviving interior art depicting grapes and vines, even birds, probably paying homage to Dionysus and to the drinking of wine.
The ceiling fresco was found under soot.
We climber up to the “Painted House” and it was awesome! Amazing. The climb – not so much!
What a privilege to see it.
It is believed that this area was “The Vegas of Petra”. A place for the camel trains AKA “long haul truckers to relax”. It was all about drinking, hookers, spa baths and so on. How very cool.
Little Petra was great. And so quiet. Maybe 100 people were there, rather than the tens of thousands that were are Petra.
It was then back to the ship. Another great drive.
We then had five glorious sea days – much needed.
We started with Pirate Drill and loaded our extra security men on board. The ship went into ‘Safe Haven’ mode with the lights out at night etc.
Of course no pirates were to be seen. There were always putting people putting rubbish on the internet. Things like how tense it was as we travelled through the dangerous waters.
Someone watched the pilot boat arrive … next thing the buzz around the hip was that PIRATES were boarding.
Fools. These ships are so big pirates couldn’t even throw a rope high enough to latch on to anything!
One thing of excitement was when I went to check some prices at the Next Cruise desk and came away with eight bookings.
So….. Andy and Glennah……
We are booked on Radiance
****Vancouver, Ketchikan, Icy Straight, Juneau, Skagway, Hubbard, Seward.Seward to Vancouver 28th August 2020
***** Seward, Hubbard, Juneau, Skagway, Icy Straight, Ketchikan, Inside Passage, Vancouver,
– interior Accessible need to move to room next door!
Vancouver to Tokyo – 4th September – Balcony Accessible
*****Vancouver, Sitka, 7 sea days, Sapporo, Sapporo, Hakadate, Aomori, sea day, Tokyo.
Tokyo to Singapore – 20th September. Balcony Accessible – SAME ROOM – YAY
*****Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Okinawa, sea day, Hong Kong, 3 sea days Singapore. Then fly home!
Fun times ahead.
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