20/3/2019:
Crossing the border into Jordan reminded me of those movies where prisoners are exchanged and walk past each other in no mans land to the other side. Many checks of passports and security checks but it was fairly painless and we walked into Jordan by 8am and onto a Jordanian bus with a new guide and new driver as our Israeli friends and our lovely bus stayed in Israel.
The Petra experience is hard to describe. The rock formations are so huge you feel in awe and completely insignificant. The walk down to the treasury site was fantastic and walking out into the open treasury space blew me away. The photos didn’t do it justice (& neither did the Indiana Jones movie !) so I tried to just to drink it all in. ( advice from my darling Ethan!). Mum caught a horse drawn buggy back up with some of the other ladies as it’s a long incline back. She gave the driver strict instructions on watering his horse at the top ! She wanted to make sure he did …& she calls me bossy! Not sure how well they treat their animals in Jordan and unfortunately when I was walking further down with the remainder of the group one of the horses fell .. an awful scene. The people were alright but not so sure about the horse. Jordan while so close to Israel is so different. They have to import water from Israel and apparently they take a lot of NZ sheep ! Our Jordanian guide Aladdin ( and before you ask Mr Taylor ..no he didn’t have a magic carpet! ) was lovely and twisted my head scarf in the traditional way to demonstrate to the group. It stayed on most of the day & really worked to keep the sun off. While Jordan was an experience I was glad to get back across the border to the land of milk and honey and our super clean, modern & well maintained bus and our gorgeous sweet driver David and Ilan our incredible hilarious guide for the past 10 days.
I must say the timing for the sites we’ve visited has been impeccable. Our group has been amazing at getting to the bus on time everyday and at every stop.. no waiting for stragglers (although Mum & I are often last off and last back on!) and David & Ilan have ensured we have missed most of the crowds and cruise ship bus loads arriving within minutes of us leaving each site ! We’ve often had places to ourselves.
Walk down to the Treasury
Mads outside the Treasury
Nova outside the Treasury