Gansbaai Shark Diving

Just got my underwater camera developed!

Bonus Whitey pics

Just got my underwater camera pics developed!!

Back home.

Wow.  11 airports, 5 countries and 3 bodies of water (Red Sea, Dead Sea, and Atlantic Ocean) later.....   I am safely back home!  Even after a 3 hour and 5 checkpoint security scare at the Amman airport which then lead to a lovely overnight stay of a mere 5 hours in LAX.   It was a whirlwind tour.  Now that I've had a day or so (and early AM's as I cannot sleep past 4 am) to process it we were pretty much non-stop for the entire 3 weeks.  I think we rose mostly around 6 am almost every day of the trip!  But it was all good as I saw some amazing things.  And I must thank Jer for dragging me to the Middle East because I never would have gone otherwise - and it would have been a shame to miss out on Jordan.  Really was one of the most amazing places (food, sites, culture, history, landscape, people, did i mention the FOOD!!!) that I have ever been to.  And the nicest people.  So note to everyone:  give your tourists dollars to Jordan, they are not in the sh!t of the rest of the Middle East!!!!!

Aqaba

Last hours of beach relaxation before heading home tomorrow!!

Last stop in Jordan - Aqaba

View of the Red Sea and the hotel beach from our balcony. Looking west towards Eilat, isreal and Egypt.

Looking east from our balcony is Saudi Arabia.

Camels!

camels are everywhere.. but they are especially scary when you are driving down the highway at 130 km/h and all of sudden there is a pack right on the edge of the road!   and we got lazy in Petra (cuz we walked ALOT and it was HOT) and took a camel ride from the end of Petra back to the beginning :)

Petra - the Treasury

So ur walking through the Siq (slot canyon) for like a mile. Then u see this peaking out from between the rocks.

The Treasury is the most famous face of Petra. Amd it was also used In Indiana Jones movie as the the hidden desert temple Where they find the chalice of life.

The Treasury

Petra

Stairs to Monastery

Some of the 900 stairs leading up to Monastery!

(heather - all I could think of was Whitney!!)

The Monastery

See how small Jer looks In the doorway!

The Monastery

Warrior re-enactment

Petra

Jer and I took a camel ride through Petra !!!

Series of stone stairs literally known as "stairway to heaven"

Road to Petra

These stone cubes are houses Where the spirits of the dead lie.

And a view of the Siq u walk through

Petra entrance

If u look really close at the bottom right of the picture you can see the house that sells drinks. This house is at the entrance to the Siq (canyon) you walk through to get get to Petra.

Wadi Rum desert

We drove out to the Wadi Rum desert. Amd rented a guide with a 4wd truck amd motored out In the desert for 4 hours. Saw some petroglyphs, hiked some slot canyons, saw a few arch bridges, some red sand dunes, alot of camels amd goats, pretty flowers now blooming, amd hiked up to some scenic overlooks. It wad HOT!! close to 100. Amd dry. But oh so pretty.

Wadi rum - sunset camels

Wadi Rum desert flowers

Wadi Rum arche bridges

We also hiked up to 2 different arches.

Wadi Rum slot canyon

This is a slot canyon we hiked into in the desert.

Wadi Rum desert

Wadi Rum desert

Food!!

Usually twice a day we have falafel pitas for breakfast and lunch!! A pita stuffed with falafel hummus fries eggplant tomato cukes and hot sauce!!

And I also love the almonds on ice as well ;)

Petra at night

Petra was stablished sometime around the 6th century BC as the capital city of the Nabataeans. It is enclosed by towering rocks and watered by a perennial stream..  You have to walk through almost a mile of Utah-like slot canyon to reach the site of Petra.   We went to see the Treasury at Petra at night.. The almost mile long path to Petra is lit entirely by candles.. Then everyone sits in front of the Treasury on mats and they play some traditional music, one guy with a flute, another guy with a traditional sort of guitar and tell stories of Petra in the olden Beoduin days.   I think it was really cool to experience Petra this way first.. In the dark, walking a path through a slot canyon, in relative silence, lit by nothing by candles on the ground and the stars above.

Kings Highway - Wadi Mujib

We took the scenic Kings Highway which is road through meanders from Madaba, past the Dead Sea, down to Petra. This was the original north-south trade route to trade goods out of Jordan, and also between Arabia and SYria. This road goes through really pretty, really steep desert canyons.  There is now a more established, faster, lesser elevation highway that runs parallel though the desert.  But what's the fun in taking that?   These pictures are of us going through the Wadi Mujib, known as Jordan's Grand Canyon.  You drive rim to rim down through a valley cutting through 1200 m of altitude.