Monday 11th March 2013 +4.0hrs GMT: Aqaba, Jordan ­ The Road to Petra

We were soon clear of the docks and travelling on good roads up into the Mountains.  The landscape seem to change every 10 minutes or so, first offering views across desert with stony outcrops but quickly becoming more rugged and as the twisting road, offered spectacular views across the plains below.  The photo doesn’t really do justice to these vistas since it was misty. 

There had been heavy and unexpected rain at the end of January and the effects of flash flooding down the Wadis could still be seen with a green path of low grasses, shrubs and flowers that were flourishing as a result of the rain.  Every so often we came across a Bedouin encampment with shepherds following their goats as they grazed on the fresh vegetation.

Soon we were high in the mountains 800 – 1,000 metres and overlooking the city Petra hidden in its valley behind and below the rugged peaks.  It did give some idea of the extent of this ancient city that at its peak it stretched for over 30 kilometres.  Today we were only going to see a very small part of the centre of the city.

Our Guide, interestingly, had been born as a Bedouin in the caves of Petra and had lived in the ruins of the ancient city for the first 10 years of his life.  He was one of 16 children and the only one to have left the Bedouin life behind – his family still prefer the Bedouin way of living despite attempts by the Jordanian Government to settle Bedouins in newly constructed villages and townships.

Apart from phosphate Jordan relies on tourism for income and has been hard hit by the problems in Syria to the north.  Usually some 15,000 people visit Petra every day but the Syrian civil war has cut this to an average of 1,000 a day.  Today would be a little busier since there were 27 buses from an Aida Blu Cruise ship in front of us (One of those block of flats you know I admire so much) but they were on a tour of other ancient sites and so the hoards of Germans did not appear at Petra until we were leaving in the early afternoon.

My knowledge of the geography of his area has been greatly enhanced by this cruise and although I knew that Eilat in Israel sits opposite Aqaba and could be seen clearly as we climbed out of the docks it came as quite a shock to realise that in the centre of Petra we were only a few kilometres from the boarder with Israel which runs north – south in the range of mountains that surrounds the city.