Jordan - Day 2

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After the massive walking of yesterday both Dave and Chelle were completely exhausted. So it was with great joy they woke up and hopped into a rental car for a full day of more walking and sightseeing.

Because the tour that we were going on didn't actually start until the next morning (oops - a wee spot of bad planning that actually turned out really rather well) we had decided to rent a car for the day and drive up to see the ruins of Jerash and then head down to the dead sea to have a bit of a float.

So we started the day by trying to navigate our way out of Amman. We were pleasantly surprised by how empty the roads were as we were driving out of the city and were most impressed by the fact that we actually managed to find the correct roads out of town really easily. Our walk around town the day before had shown us how confusing the road network in Amman can be so we were most impressed when we got it right first time.

The drive to Jerash was about an hour from Amman and was signposted really well most of the way. Unfortunately the signposts dried up right at the critical moment and we ended up doing a wee detour right at the end. We ended up driving right past the ruins a couple of times and couldn't work out the way in. But we got there in the end.

Jerash is actually one of the most complete set of roman ruins in the world and is the best preserved in the East. They were actually rather impressive. You walk through the main gate and then up the cardo maximus (main road). You can wander off the main road at any time and look at the bits and pieces that are around. There are two amphitheatres (one of which had some Jordanians all dressed up playing the bag pipes - very unusual), a hippodrome (that puts on a roman gladiator reinactment at 11am and 2pm each day - we didn't bother with that), some churchs and temples around the place.

Jerash is pretty darn big and it took us quite a while to walk all the way around it. Yes another full morning of walking (in jandals again). Needless to say that at the end of our time at Jerash we were ready for a little bit of pampering.

So we hopped back in the car and headed back towards Amman, then through Amman, off to the Dead Sea. I was really excited about this as I have wanted to go to the Dead Sea for ever. We decided to head to one of the resorts on the Dead Sea to have some lunch and then a float in the ocean.

On the way to the resorts we passed the most hilarious sign ever. We couldn't believe that they were actually warning people that the water was salty!!!! It looks as though the person is drowning in the water, which would be very hard to do considering you float in the dead sea. The dead sea is actually sooooo salty that it can't support any form of life (hence the dead sea!)

All the hotels on the Dead Sea are on the same little strip and when we pulled up we decided to head into the Marriot. To actually go into the resort you have to purchase a day pass (which is a little expensive) however this day pass also includes lunch and you can choose to either have the standard buffet, or go to one of al a carte restaurants and spend up to 40 Dinars each. We headed straight off to the al a carte section (we were rather hungry after our morning of walking) and had the most delicious italian lunch, complete with wine, on a wee balcony, overlooking the Dead Sea.

The resort itself was absolutely packed (heaving even) and all the pools (there were about 5) were really loud and noisy. And since we were there to reallyl have a float in the dead sea we headed straight off down to the beach after we finished lunch. And boy did we float. It was sooooo much fun. I played away in the water for quite a while while Dave took a whole heap of photos of me being stupid. The water is amazing in the you really do float really high and the water self corrects you and send you shooting back to the surface if you try and get under it. They actually recommend that you don't stay in there for too long and that you shower immediately when you get out. The water is really good for your skin (in small doses) and I must stay that my skin did feel rather lovely after my soak. However I did get a wee spot of water on my lips and it was truely terrible. So salty. I started going "phu phu phu" immediately trying to get the taste out of my mouth.

Dave had a wee float in the water as well (doing all the silly things that I did as well) and then we had a nice little lie down in the sun to reward ourselves after our big afternoon and morning of walking. And of course we also had to get our photo taken with the sign that shows that we were 401m below sea level.

After a while though we had to leave the comfort of the resort and head back to Amman to return the rental car, and the get ready to join our tour the following morning.

On the way back to Amman we went in search of the wonderful salt formations that we had seen in the guide book. They looked amazing and Dave wanted to try and find them so he could take some photos of them. Well it turns out that the road around the dead sea is actually at quite a high level and is nowhere near the water level. So in order to get down to the waters edge you have to find somewhere to pull off the road and then scramble down a rather large slope (and in some cases cliff) in order to get anywhere near the salt.

So Dave found a likely spot, pulled over, and set off on his salt discovery journey. I declined to join him on this trek as I had rather hurt my foot the day before on the massive hike and since I only had jandals on I didn't think that scrambling up and down a hill would help my foot heal. Dave finally came back about 20 minutes later, looking rather hot and bothered, but extremely chuffed with himself and from the photos that he took I think you will agree that the salt formations are rather spectacular.

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