Doc's first overseas trip

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This is the starting point of our first overseas trip as a family. Heading to the airport it still seemed unreal. It had been a long time in the planning and called off 6 weeks before the date and then on again 1 week before our due departure date. A Big rush to finalise bookings, do the medical bits, organise home and do the packing.

This is mostly about Doc's record of our trip. I will be typing most of it for him, to be quicker - a case of the blind leading the blind. During the day Doc tells us what he wants in the blog and you can imagine by the time we get to a WiFi point in our accommodation at night, Doc is too tired to concentrate on this task. We are not far behind. We hope you enjoy getting some news of our trip from this site too.

Thirty two hours after leaving home we arrived at our hotel, Petra Panorama. Very well named. We had 18 hours of flying: Melbourne to Hong Kong - Hong Kong to Dubai - Dubai to Amman, 3 hours driving from Amman to Wadi Mu'sa (Petra) and 11 hours taken up with time zones, customs, immigration, scanning hand luggage, waiting in queues or walking through an airport.

First impressions of Jordan were a countryside that was dry, no trees or greenery, flat, a lot of rocks, buildings unfinished and a lot of rubble around them. Where they being built or were they being torn down? There were camels, donkeys and goats on the roadside and there were no fences. Whenever we visited any sites, there were always plenty of feral cats. As we went along the highway, our driver would slow down for speed bumps. Strange to be on the highway

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Photos

Petra
View from our Hotel over looking Petra

roadside Jordan
A typical secene at a Bedouin settlement