The mighty pea

Well we've got our own transport again which is great. This time it's a bright green little number, like a moderately sized pea, only with less power.

Once again our vehicle is so woeful that you need to turn the AC off if you want enough umph to get up the hills. At one point Si thought that I was going to have to get out with the bags and push!

The driving conditions aren't too bad here in Jordan, at least it's a little calmer than Egypt. The biggest dangers are the enormous number of unmarked speed bumps and the high probability of meeting a speeding car on the wrong side of the road.

Today's trip went well though. First we visited Little Petra, very much like it's larger cousin but . . . smaller! It was well worth a look in and best of all we had the place entirely to ourselves.

Next stop was Shobak Castle, a thousand year old desert crusader castle, which we were really disappointed with. It didn't even warrant leaving the car! We carried on up the Kings Highway to our next destination, Karak Castle. The scenery en-route was fantastic, very much like the Grand canyon in some places.

However we did have a bit of a shock when for the first time in 5 weeks some clouds appeared in the clear blue sky, horrifying!

It was too late for the castle by the time we arrived in Karak so we headed to the Kir Heres restaurant for tea. It was rumored in the Lonely Planet to be the only place in town serving alcohol. When we asked if we could have two beers the waiter looked at us as if we were very dubious and said yes but we had to move tables from the front of the restaurant to sit behind a curtain at the back to drink our beer! Not that we are alcoholics or anything but we do enjoy a beer at the end of a hard day's sightseeing. Alcohol is quite hard to come by in Jordan and is only served in a few restaurants and hotels. But now that it's Ramadan even most of these places won't serve it at the moment. We were reading in the Lonely Planet that in Pakistan in the 70's the only way to get a drink was to obtain a medical certificate from a doctor declaring that you were an alcoholic. Only with this certificate were you allowed to buy drink, so it could be worse!

Petra

History tells us that Petra is the location where in 1938 Indiana Jones found the holy grail, thus saving the world from Nazi domination. Or at least that's what anyone who grew up in the 70's or 80's has been lead to believe.

Petra was the capital of the Nabataean kingdom and was at its peak about 2000 years ago. The Nabataeans controlled the overland incense and spice routes that linked China and India to the Mediterranean. The profits and taxes that this generated funded the building of the city.

The city started to decline when the Red Sea route that harnessed the monsoon winds opened up, bypassing Petra. By the 11th century the city was lost to the West and remained that way until it was discovered by Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1812.

Entrance to the city is gained via the Siq, a 1.2km long gorge with 80m high sandstone cliffs. The Siq starts off quite wide before it narrows to barely a couple of meters.

At the end of the Siq you get your first glimpses of the Treasury (Al-Khazneh), the most famous sight in Petra (and final resting place of the holy grail!).

The Treasury is believed to be the tomb for the Nabataean King Aretas III, who ruled during the first century BC. The whole building is carved out of the sandstone cliff and makes a truly spectacular sight.

Although Petra is most famous for the Treasury there's also a lot more to see. It's a vast complex that contains over 800 sites including more than 500 tombs and a Roman style amphitheater and colonnaded street.

There's also some incredibly strange shapes weathered into the surrounding sandstone.

The second most famous site is the Monastery (Ad-Deir). The Monastery is hidden high up in the mountains and is accessed via 800 steps hewn into the cliffs.

It was a fairly strenuous hike in the heat of the desert. You can get up to the Monastery on the back of a donkey but even Liz refused stating that there's no way an adult can look anything but undignified perched on the back of one.

We also got to see Petra by night, where the route through the Siq and the Treasury are illuminated with 1500 candles.

Madonna madness

After our first day exploring Petra we had a very narrow escape from being mangled by Madge.

Madonna was also (briefly) in Petra having popped over for the day from Israel where she is doing some concerts. We were trying to cross the road outside of the ruins and were nearly knocked down by her cavalcade as they whisked her away at high speed to her awaiting helicopter.

I swear that we're not making this stuff up! We didn't manage to get a photo as we were too busy trying to avoid being run over . . . But we can prove that she was here, have a look at this link.