Well Kept with Kumuka (Amman Jordan)

The long road home started in Amman, Jordon when we joined a Kumuka tour of Jordon and Egypt. We flew from Istanbul into Amman and met up with Adam and Pasquale, who would join us on the tour. Most of the group we joined had already been together through Syria thus knew each other quite well. Two other Aussie guys joined the group with us in Amman taking the total to nineteen. We loaded up our own custom built truck the next morning and headed off for the dead sea. Yo, our Afrikaans driver and Neil, our Irish/English tour guide completed the group. The truck makes life a lot easier in countries with poor public transport as the group is completely independent. Having our own transport and our own accommodation (in the form of tents) meant we could go and stay virtually anywhere. It also meant you could stow your big bag underneath and stop lugging 17kg everywhere! (Photo below - floating the dead sea)


First stop was the dead sea with is incredibly salty water. Thirty percent salt, the water here is so dense it is impossible to sink. You can stand upright in water 4 meters deep and you’ll float with you head and shoulders out of the water. We spent a couple of hours enjoying this phenomena which included some rather comical impersonations of bicycle riding and running on water. Next is was off to Wadi Moses, a small town near the ancient city of Petra.

Photo right - The Siq, Petra.

Having featured in Indiana Jones and the last crusade as the resting place of the holy grail, Petra was the main reason I was keen to visit Jordon. That famous facade of the treasury (which is not in fact a treasury but a tomb) has featured on my list of things to see (the so called ‘bucket list’) for a few years now. And contrary to some other ruined cities (namely Machu Picchu) it surpassed expectations. Sometimes it seems the more you know about something and the more photos you’ve seen of it, the less impressive it seems when you finally glimpse it in the flesh. Machu Picchu looked just like the photos, nothing more, nothing less. But Petra, being slightly less popular is much less extensively photographed, leaving a few surprises for those who make the trip. The monastery, for example, up around 700 steps at the other end of the site to the treasury, while a big effort is another huge, exquisitely façade caved directly into the rock. After some amusing photos utilising odd angles to make it appear Adam had fallen off a huge cliff, we headed back to the hotel for a few well earned, but over priced Jordanian beers.



Photo - The Treasury


















The monastery