Petra: one of the great wonders of the world

The Treasury

The Jordanian port of Aqaba is not new to us: we visited this unique place (Jordan’s only seaport) in 2016.  A visit to Petra was available then too, but I was 17 kg heavier and feeling very out of shape.  In other words, I didn’t feel confident of attacking a Petra tour – over seven kilometres of walking required in high temperatures.  And that was in spring, three weeks earlier than this year’s visit.

Still feeling little confidence, I booked a tour this time and am so pleased I did.  Even though I’m running on three cylinders today.  Hazel and Deb had organised a private tour and one of their friends had cancelled so I took her place.  The 22-seater coach (different from our expected four-person car) turned up at 7 am and we were soon on our way. 

Our guide

The 35-year-old English speaking guide looked like a body-builder and he probably was, as he later told us that fitness training was his main occupation.  We also had a non-communicative but careful driver.

Outskirts of Aqaba

On the way, we passed sand mines, through arid mountainous deserts, villages and towns with boxy houses and lonely Bedouin camps. 

Boxy houses

A village

Plus, heaps of goats.  The Bedouin camps are now accompanied by utilities and large standard looking grey and black airy canvases, open to the elements.  In this dry, hot land it is hard to imagine the landscape covered with snow, but so it is in six months’ time.  We could see Israel and are apparently very close to Syria in this southern area of Jordan.

Entrance to Petra

We stopped along the way for the obligatory souvenir shopping – how I detest that – and arrived at Petra some time before 11 am.  But on the drive home, we stopped at even more souvenir shops.

We walked as a group, 3.5 kilometres down through a narrow earthquake-formed gorge or “Siq” to The Treasury, paying great attention to the ground we were walking on since it varied from sand, loose gravel, small boulders set as cobblestones by the Romans to concreted pebbles.  We needed to avoid the donkey carts travelling both ways as we walked through the As Siq.

Map of Petra valley

We were “let loose” when we entered the area of the Great Sacrifice (700 steps up a cliff face), the Royal Tombs and Roman Theatre, and walked back individually, each at our own pace. 

Burial mounds

These Roman soldiers must have been hot

Just as well.  A fit golfer in our group attested to no problems whatsoever, but that wasn’t the experience of most of us.  I was extremely hot and bothered but did not give in to the temptation to take a cart or ride a horse.  Hazel and Deb found it hard going, although they both did amazingly well, Hazel with two ski poles.  They hired a cart for the final uphill section.  I was pleased I had extra water, sun cream, an umbrella and a hat.

Hazel, Deb and Margaret

My Mother's Kitchen

Chicken and rice upside down meal

We gathered as a group at 2 pm and followed the guide to a restaurant called My Mother’s Kitchen.  We climbed some stairs, then more stairs and finally to the restaurant on the roof.  None of us felt like eating, but we did manage to do so, leaving the majority of the food for the poor.  The rice and chicken dish was accompanied by a very tart mint juice, reminding me of a much stronger version of the drink my mother often made in the 1950s. 

Jordanian salad

I did need to mix sugar with it to make it drinkable and most refreshing.

I enjoyed the meal but was too hot and bothered to feel hungry

The tour guide tried to talk us into taking a side tour to the Wadi Rum desert for 30 dinars extra, but although some were keen, others simply wished to return to the ship after a very strenuous day.  As it was, it was not until 6:30 pm until we returned.

Tombs carved into the cliff face

Camel ride, anyone?

I had arranged to have dinner with John, Gene and Nancy at 6 pm to celebrate Independence Day, but I was an hour late, needing a hot shower to soothe my aching limbs first.