The trip to Petra today was amazing but exhausting. Much more there than we expected.
On this trip we have now ridden on
horse (today at Petra)
Camel (On the way to our bedouin sleepover in the desert at Wadi Rum)
Donkey (at Luxor - my eyes still water just thinking about it!)
Horse and carriage (also at Luxor)
Boat (up the Nile for 4 nights and by ferry in the Gulf of Aqaba)
Felucca (at Aswan - a highlight of the trip)
Hot air balloon (Sue only - at Luxor)
Train (overnight to Luxor and then overnight back to Cairo - erroneously called a "sleeper")
Bus (lots of time in buses)
In the back of a ute - around the desert
Foot (Lots of walking. Mt Sinai was the most challenging, with Petra a close second)
Plane (Getting here)
I am sure we could have got a motorbike ride in Cairo too, but the Cairo traffic seemed dangerous enough in an airconditioned bus.
The camel ride to Wadi Rum was approached with some trepidation after the donkey experience, but with a bit of observation and experimentation I found a relatively painless way of riding. Taking photos while riding was another matter, because while the camel only travelled abut 6km/hour in a forward direction, it also went up and down at about twice that speed and threw in some sideways motion as well. To top it off my camel chose to take a nap at one point and concertinered(?) down (as they do) only to be prodded back up. I think I did well to stay on!
Today was a long (but amazing) walk (and climb) in Petra. Sue took a donkey up one of the climbs, but I wasn't ready to punish myself again so soon. On the way back we decided to ride a horse (I was pleased to see that these horses are well looked after, unlike some of the horses we saw in Egypt). I was looking forward to walking the horse back to the carpark, but the horse owner wanted to give me the "excitement" of a canter or gallop. It took me a while to explain that a walking pace was just fine.
We were supposed to be going to the Dead Sea tomorrow, but there is an international meeting there and the roads are closed so we miss out. Fortunately Sue and I visited the Dead Sea back when Moses was a lad (about 1979). The mention of Moses was because Moses gets some big mentions here in Jordan. The valley here is called Wadi Mousa, which being interpreted means, Valley of Moses. There is a mosque to Aaron on a mountain nearby.
Thats about the end of my scribblings for today. I was fortunate to get WiFi access as part of a Turkish Bath package. Sue took the Turkish Bath and I get the WiFi.
Bye for now
