Blogs from Al Karak, West, Jordan, Middle East

I had a good sleep after the day at Petra, so we went down early for breakfast at the El-Rashid Hotel. Again, this is budget, so the breakfast was very limited, but was not bad. I think they may make you an omelette upon request, but we just had bread and labneh, with tea/coffee. Then we took off. We decided to head down the road less travelled and made our way towards Little Petra. Unfortunately, we took a wrong turn somewhere because the signs were not very forthcoming. We followed signs to Wadi Araba, but this is on the flatlands west of the mountains, which meant we took a windy mountain road that wound up ending in a gravel road with potholes. We were unsure how much further it was, so we turned back and found ... read more

Jordan is truly the Promised Land when it comes to outdoor sports in some “virgin territories”. What might look as desert & arid scenery at the first sight is actually filled with hundreds of canyons, waterfalls and underground springs leading to the Dead Sea, possibilities are thus countless. On this sunny Friday, I settled for my first “off the beaten track” canyoneering experience in Jordan with nothing else than the Wadi Assal – nickname “the big one” although by then I didn’t know it yet. Leaving Amman & making our way to Wadi Assal Friday morning 6.20 am, Amman – the day starts with the usual nightmare whenever you need a cab on a Friday early morning. So somehow it was a warm up “trek”, heading on foot to the main streets & keeping my finger ... read more

The King's highway is one of the three North-South arteries of Jordan. The others are the Dead Sea highway to the West and the Desert Highway to the East. The Desert highway is a modern freeway that is quite busy, but both the Dead Sea and King's highways are twisted scenic roads with some spectacular views. We travelled the King's highway South from Madaba to Karak Castle. It crosses Wadi Mujib, which is Jordan's very own Grand Canyon. We stopped for Bedouin Tea at the top of the valley, before descending down hair pin turns into the Wadi and then back up across the other side.... read more

My last day of touring was a trip to the city of Karak to see the Castle. This was a one hour bus trip from Jordan's southern bus station. The castles was originally built in 1140AD and is a natural strong point in the area. Since then, this site has been key for any power that wants control of the area. Sieges where the common way of taking the Castle, with the majority of them lasting months of years, with in habitants eating everything inside and selling wives and children to prolong supplies. Much of the interior has been excavated with numerous halls, churches, kitchens, quarters etc. This concludes my blogs for the moment, as I head home tomorrow. Thanks to all for taking the time out to check these entries out and providing comments and ... read more

Today was a massive day. We joined our tour group in the morning at about 9am at the Shepherd Hotel in Amman. They had all only just arrived from the UK at about 2am. We were the only people doing a land only trip so we were in a pretty good state compared to all of them. There were about 14 people on the tour and only one other man so Dave was in women heaven. Unfortunately most of the ladies who were on the trip were a little only ( a group there as a 50th b'day present to themselves). We all hopped on a bus and then headed off towards the first stop of the day at Mt Nebo. Mt Nebo is supposedly the mountain where Moses died, within sight of the promised ... read more