Kings of the Road - Amman to Aqaba

We finally cleared the border from Israel back into Jordan to find that we had missed the last bus and all the taxi drivers were wanting to charge us twice the price we had expected to pay. So we started walking and thought we would hitch or find another 'servis' bus somewhere. But typically after walking about 1 km a bus hurtled past us without stopping. We got a lift with a guy who worked at the border in the duty free shop and he took us all the way to our hotel in downtown Amman and even bought us a juice on the way. He would not accept any money for his bother either and I am sure he went out of his way to help us.

Back at the hotel we found our bikes and bags still there and another bike parked by ours. We soon met Maarten, from the Netherlands, the owner of the other bike and found out that we had a common friend, Eelco the Dutch cyclist that we had met in Istanbul. Maarten had got to Amman in 3 ½ months from The Netherlands (although he did take a train across Germany). He and a friend had been trying to cycle to Nepal and had battled with the metres and metres of snow in Eastern Turkey before his friend had had to return home because his girlfriend was expecting a baby and Maarten had turned south hoping for warmer weather.

The next day we all set off together up hill out of downtown Amman. It was hot and steep and I was a bit nervous to see if my lungs had fully recovered from the cold but we did OK. Soon Robin and Maarten were speeding ahead and we made it to Madaba very quickly. I was better, it was great, suddenly cycling was fun again! The weather was really warm and sunny. Maarten had planned to part from us at Madaba but when he went to use the bank machine in town he found that his card did not work because of insufficient funds. It turned out that his friend at home had forgotten to keep the card topped up. (Well he had quite a good excuse because his son was being born) but this did not really help Maarten who quickly went to email the Netherlands. Maarten decided he would stick with us as we had enough money and it was cheaper to buy food in a big amount together and cook and camp together, so we all set off stocked up with lunch towards Mount Nebo. We were heading towards the Dead Sea. Maarten had been swimming there the day before by taking a bus from Amman, because he had not wanted to cycle back up again, but now with us he was headed down on bike to the bottom of the earth.

We had a great lunch of Danish Cheese!! And enjoyed looking at Alpine swifts and even saw a Cuckoo, our first signs of spring! We decided we did not fancy spending the Dinar entrance fee to go to the church on Mount Nebo, which is supposed to be the spot where Moses saw and proclaimed the Promised Land and then died. So we had lunch on a nice hill just beside it but the West Bank was in the haze so we did not really see the Promised Land.

The descent went on and on! It was great to cycle down hill with ravens circling around us in the glorious sun. The temperature was getting hotter and hotter as we went down. Eventually when we got to the bottom there were military check points and the Dead Sea is an International border. We cycled on determined to find a hot spring we had been told about and a free place to swim in the Dead Sea. We found it eventually and enjoyed our dip as the sun was setting. It was great fun and really nice to wash off the salt in the smelly hot water of the stream. We were just setting up the tents near this point when some soldiers appeared and told us we could not camp there. This was a big disappointment since it was such a beautiful spot and we had to repack everything and cycle on in the fast approaching darkness to find a restaurant that the soldiers said we should go to. We found the restaurant which was beside some even bigger hot springs, but the atmosphere was really seedy and noisy. There were loads of cars parked there and big groups of men sitting round fires. The restaurant guy said we could camp there for free, but we were looking around thinking that the place was not very secure as there were so many people there and also then we noticed that the hot springs were being used as a gay love spot. We cycled on in the dark and found a big lay by area with some trees and set up our camp there. The soldiers had told Robin that it was not allowed to camp on the sea side of the road but we hoped that they would not find us in the trees and it was really difficult now that it was dark to find any good places to camp, also we were tired and hungry.

Just as we were settling down to cook together a car pulled into the rest area and it was the same soldiers again! They told us off, especially Robin, and asked to see our passports. I told them that as a woman I did not feel comfortable back at the restaurant because there were too many men there and it was so noisy. Luckily this swayed the soldier who was really a very nice guy and we promised him that we would be up at sunrise to take down the tents, so he let us stay where we were, even though he was not supposed to. He even apologised for disturbing us as he left! A fair contrast from the encounters with soldiers only a few days earlier in Israel.

After a very early morning we cycled south along the beautiful Dead Sea coast. Aqaba was signed at only 250 km but we had planned to take the road back up to the Kings Highway; we were making our journey longer but much more interesting scenery wise. First however we had to climb up from the bottom of the earth in the heat. After refueling with falafel we set off up some very steep hairpin bends and we all got a bit sun burnt that day. After some 400m of climbing we arrived at a sign informing us we had reached sea level, a bit bizzare experience after going uphill for so long, but a reminder it was still a long way to go. It was hard and hot but there were military check points on the road were we got water and rested and we made it after 5 hours to Al Karak; only 30km distance from the Dead Sea shore but a 1300m climb! We checked into the New Hotel there and enjoyed a well earnt shower and feast.

After a lie in and with some very stiff leg muscles we all started cycling on the Kings Highway. Jordan is a very high and hilly country with a desert in the east. There are really only three roads going north-south in the whole country; the dead sea highway, which we had climbed away from the day before, the busy desert road motorway, which is the fastest and flattest route south, and the Kings’ highway, which is the most famous and ancient road in the land. The road was mentioned in the bible, and is allegedly the 'oldest continual use road' in the world. It is a fantastic route; as it winds its way over the highest parts of Jordan it is bisected by massive Wadis (valleys). This makes it quite hard going when on a bike but also means that there are some great down hills even if they are always followed by huge long, hot climbs. It was good cycling with Maarten we were all pretty well matched for speed.

We were trying to make it to Tafila, but we had spent too long at lunch time enjoying the immense view across Wadi Hasa to wave upon wave of sandy coloured, rocky desert mountains. Only to then have a second lunch ten minutes further along on the road courtesy of a group of guys in a taxi having a picnic. We eventually made it out of Wadi Hasa to find a village and shop, stocked up on food and camped. Some local youing guys turned up and sat with us for while, obsessed with making us a fire. Though they did run off and fetch a Shisha water pipe to share with us after we had eaten.

The rolling high hills con tinued the next day and the scenery just seemd to be getting better the further south we pushed. We were heading towards Dana Nature Reserve, but a stronger and colder wind grew as the day went on. Just before we got to the reserve the good weather we had been enjoying for days disappeared and it started to rain and hail very hard. It was now very cold since we were very high up and it was with great relief that we found Dana village and Tower hotel. We even had a free (and quite annoying) police escort into the village as it was "dangerous - water" according the police.

Dana is a fantastic place. The village now only has about 8 families staying there and is perched on the side of a huge drop into a very impressive canyon that stretches down west to the Dead Sea valley. The village is very pretty, made of local stone and is run now with eco-tourism in mind. We had thought that we would go walking in the reserve that day but the weather was cold and wet so we just enjoyed sitting in the hotels' Bedouin tent round the stove. Luckily the weather was better the next day and once we had gone down a bit into the canyon the wind was not so cold. We spent ages not really walking very far just sitting and scrambling over all the cool rocky wind blown crags, marveling at the beauty of the huge cliffs sculpted by the wind and sand. The valley is much greener than most of the surrounding area due to restricted grazing and full of wildlife due to bans on hunting. We didn't find any Ibex but did see plenty of birds and watched a team of ants hauling seed pods 2-3 times thier size up a smooth, almost vertical cliff several metres high. Every now and then one of them would slip and hurtle to the bottom, only to immediatly start climbing again. We decided next time we though the going was tough on the bikes we would think of these guys.

After cycling and pushing up to the main road again the next day we were heading south to Petra. We had lunch at Shobak castle, another Crusader hilltop fortress, and made Wadi Musa (Moses’ valley, the town at Petra) by dusk. We negotiated a 2 dinar a night room and enjoyed watching the final of the African nation’s cup. We had been warned that Petra would be expensive, and it was. This is Jordan’s most famous tourist attraction and the local shop keepers definitely had different prices for us compared to locals.

Not really sure my words can do justice to the amazing experience that is Petra. For those who don’t already know it is a Nabatean City of rock carved tombs and Temples, made in beautifully coloured rose red rocky mountains. The entrance to the 'hidden city' is through a narrow cleft (called the 'siq' in arabic) running through the middle of a mountain, in places only 2-3 metres wide and maybe a hundred metres deep. The Kazneh (or treasury) is a monumental piece of architecture, all carved from the cliff face in whihc it stands. It was featured in the Film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
We met up with a motorcyclist called Mark who had passed us on the road the day before and we all spent two days enjoying walking around the amazing tombs and mountains of Petra. Even though the place has a lot of touts trying to sell camel rides and crappy jewellery it was quite easy to find quiet places to just sit and absorb the amazing views.

The three of us continued south on the Kings Highway heading for Wadi Rumm, the next famous tourist sight in Jordan. The road was hilly as usually but not too steep and it was great to cycle, but soon we reached the end; where the Kings Highway joined the Desert Highway. after days of quiet solitude while riding the largely traffic free Kings Highway, we were back with noisy and smelly trucks again. The road soon climbed down from the mountains into the totally different landscape of the southern Jordanian Desert. A huge flat yellowy sandy plain studded with different coloured rocky hills rising out of the sands like islands in a sea.

Jordan is a fantastically beautiful country and I really recommend cycling here; within 3 days we had passed through really lovely but very different landscapes, all of them stunning with great wildlife. We were very lucky with the weather I suppose because it can be very cold in the mountains. We definitely enjoyed our time in Jordan even though our calf muscles were constantly stiff because of the steep climbs. The exhilarating road made it all worth while and even on the climbs I was always really wanting to see what was round the next bend. Cycling together with Maarten was also great, we all kept each other upbeat and this makes cycling so much easier as most of the difficulty in sport or cycling is in your own mind. Probably this is true in life also. I always try to remind myself to smile and appreciate how lucky we are that we are fit and able to take this time to see the world. It is easy I suppose when life is just about cycling to be very happy but I will try to keep in mind that things do not have to be complicated and that even if in future I am busy and stressed, hopefully I can look back and remember the peace of this trip and in particular Wadi Rumm.

We camped in the desert outside the protected area of Wadi Rumm and Robin and Maarten had fun scrabbling up the rocky crags in the wonderful light of the full moon. We had stocked up with food before we left the main road to go to the protected area of Wadi Rumm, as we expected it to be a bit of a tourist trap designed to get lots of money from the tourist, it is I suppose, but we were lucky because we had our own transport. We paid the 2 dinars entrance fee and resisted all persuasions that “it’s a desert we must have a guide and a jeep safari!” We found a very nice man called Muhammed Sabba who runs a basic hotel in Rumm village and a permanent fancy camp in the desert at Wadi Rumm. He let us lock up our bikes and some bags in his hotel and we set off walking into the desert of Wadi Rumm. We were well prepared with walking boots and backpacks but only after a few minutes an official jeep pulled up and asked us if we needed any help, probably they had spotted Maarten with his flip-flops on and his plastic carrier bag of supplies!


T. E. Lawrence made this place famous; I think he described it as God like. It certainly is impressive; "a mile wide avenue of sand between towering sandstone walls".
The place is tranquil and calming and beautiful, the distances are very deceptive and there are far too many jeep tours going on for my liking, but at least we were there in quiet season. The mountains really are towering, with truly enormous rock faces rising vertically from the orange sands below. Depending on the light the rocks take on various shades from brown and red through to purple and black. From higher up, especially at night under the moon, the flat desert sands looked like low clouds covering deep valleys between the huge mountains.

Robin and Maarten were determined that night to camp under the desert stars and no amount of clouds and wind were going to stop them sleeping outdoors. I decided to put the tent up and at 4 am was joined by a very wet Robin! We found Maarten the next morning - he had got himself under an overhanging rock and slept very well. The weather cleared up that morning and we dried out Robin's clothes and sleeping bag before setting off for a nice walk across the sand. We past a few Bedouin camps and met a Swiss/Chilean family with two small boys that we had spoken to on the road the day before. They were travelling in a camper van and we arranged to meet them back in the village and to camp together that night. They had taken a jeep tour into the desert because their youngest son was too small to walk yet and so they also relieved us of our heaviest bag and took it back to the village for us.

We had a great walk amongst monster sand dunes but did rather foolishly eat jam sandwiches beside them and hence also a lot of sand too! Wadi Rum is a truly spectacular place but we were disappointed that the 'Protected Area' status seems more concerned with protecting tourist income than the environment. Many of the sensible rules, such as driving only on pre-exisitng tracks, were blatanlty ignored. We saw many drivers fooling around and making a mess of the sands, including official jeeps driving straight up enormous sand dunes in some kind of competition to see who get the highest. The only Nubian Ibex we saw was a picture on a jeep-guides mobile of one that he had shot. There is no environmental education at Rumm either for the locals it seems, nor for the tourists. It would be so easy with education to help the tourists and the locals appreciate the wildlife that is there, and not just the landscape. And also for the locals to earn money from their knowledge of where the wildlife is, from shooting the animals by taking photos instead of with guns.

We all met up again at the village and had a luxury night cooking inside the camper van with the family. That night however the weather turned colder and the next day whichever direction we cycled in the wind was against us. We stopped for lunch at a truck stop and were invited in by a Palestinian who had an office there to eat in the warmth and drink tea, this we really appreciated and we cycled on downhill finally to Aqaba and the sea again! It was late when we had gathered food for the night and we set off to the ferry terminal thinking we would ask for info and then probably have to find somewhere to camp for the boat the next day to Egypt. However when we got there we discovered that there was a night boat leaving in a few hours so we eventually bought tickets and after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between different offices and lots of paper work were stamped out of Jordan. There were lots of people sitting around waiting for the ferry and we were invited for a meal with a Syrian truck driver who would not let us cook our own food at all. It was great to have Syrian hospitality again, although a bizzare way to end our stay in Jordan.

We had met a lot of travellers who had told us that people in Jordan are not friendly. This is a bit unfair, but I think that it is probably just because Jordan is beside Syria which in contrast has the friendliest people we have ever met. Jordan was a contrast and a bit of a shock after Syria, it is the first place were we have been constantly asked for money by the children we pass. Also Jordanians are much better at charging the tourist price so it was a bit tiring to be always asessing whether you were being ripped off or not. We did met many friendly, kind and generous Jordanians though (although they often turned out to be Palestinian or Egyptian.....). Maybe Jordan will be good training for Egypt.....

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