jordan

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It was over a sunrise breakfast in Wadi Rum that I was faced with my first big dilemma of the trip: to accept the invitation to become a "Bedoweeeeen woman" and shack up with our Bedouin cook in the desert for the rest of my days, or carry on with Dom to Egypt......a verrry tough call I know, but in the end I couldn't face slaving away over that fire every day, I'm a ceramic-hob kinda gal at heart! Besides, moustaches don't float my boat......

Wadi Rum is Lawrence of Arabia country - it was from this neck of the woods that Lawrence and his motley crew of arabs reeked havoc on the Ottoman army during the WWI - and it's home to some of the most spectacular desert scenery on the planet. We explored all the neuks n crannies on a jeep with our new pals from Paris, "the Frenchies" - a.k.a. Andrew and Cynthia (not Sylvia as I mistakenly kept calling her, there's only one Syl!) - before enjoying some nomadic hospitality: copious amounts of sweet tea combined with a dash of Bedouin love songs from our lutanist......after murdering some Nirvana tunes on said instrument, Andrew eventually got the hang of Flower of Scotland, perfect way to end the day, and the sunset wasn't too shabby either.....

Petra is undoubtedly the first world-class sight of the trip, the ancient "rose red city" of the Nabataeans is breath-taking in both scale and detail and perfect for budding Indiana Joneses; the final scenes of The Last Crusade were shot at the Treasury, which gleams as you approach from the narrow Siq. We had our own mini-adventure scrambling through a deserted slot canyon but my whingeing about blisters soon drove Dom up the wall!

There weren't any monks or nuns at the Monastery, only an acrobat adorned in white who enthralled the gaping crowd below with his leaps and bounds - can you spot him? - a signed postcard goes to the first respondent. Persistant pestering to go for a camel/donkey/horse ride was a royal pain in the archie, the only person who didn't want to take us for a ride was this swaddled babe, give him a couple of months....

It was from Mount Nebo that Moses first looked out over the 'Promised Land' and God said to him, "This is the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your descendants'; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there." ' (DEUTERONOMY 34:1-4 ), so he promptly died aged 120! From there we went for a float in the Dead Sea - the lowest point on earth - which was a unique experience; lying in the sea whilst reading the Record is hard to beat! Perhaps even Mr C and wee Greg could perfect their doggy paddle here.....

Egypt up next......

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Comments

[Gwen]

The white man
He's up the top on the middle turret or whatever you call it. I'm still so jealous Take care Gwen :-)

[Bruno]

Fancy some frems
Aye, looking good the both of you, nice to see your letting jools have a shot of the keyboard dom! She's giving you a run for your money. All is well back in Scotland, had a mad mental one up in Aviemore with the boys, if you're travels take you there then go to the mountain cafe for a mountain breakfast, it's a nice hangover stopper. Look forward to the next installment, we're between broadband suppliers in the hoose but I'll send yous a bigger update when we're online again.