Cruise ships of the desert

I'm a massive camel fan (great smelling, great sounding and wonderful temperament, who wouldn't be??), but couldn't bring myself to take a ride with the cameleers at Petra. Something about being constantly pestered makes me even less willing to try it out; I think I'd be far more inclined on my next trip to take a full day camel trek rather than try out the camel thing on a 500 metre strip of well-trodden strip of sand.

Marvellous looking beggers though.

The other other wonder

Petra is considered the site to see in all of Jordan, if not the entire Middle Eastern region. Having recently been voted into the new 7 Wonders of the World, it certainly was high on the to-do list.

We saved it for lucky last while in Jordan, and I have to admit myself absolutely dumbfounded by the place. This is one of those rare places in the world that enjoy the combination of astounding natural environment with beautiful human architecture - and how. The 30 minute walk down the Siq (of Indiana Jones fame), the natural cleft through which those wishing to enter to the city must pass, is an exhibition of amazing geological formations. Into this is carved the evidence of the ancient people, the Nabatians, who made it home, and indeed, in it's prime, one of the most important trading posts in this part of the world.

The site at the end of this gallery of wonders almost belies belief - it certainly belies photography. Whatever I managed to capture couldn't do this incredible old city justice; if for no other reason that imagination can't be applied to a photograph at anything like the level it needs to be to see the truly stupendous nature of this place.

Dead fun

The Dead Sea is as much fun as it looks - and this incredibly warm, bizarrely situated (400 metres below sea level in the middle of an arid desert) is impossible to leave until the salt in the water starts to make you start to sting all over. The presence of US-style resorts here that wouldn't seem out of place in a Hollywood depiction of Miami is strangely at odds with the locals; many of the women retain their body-covering garb while sitting by the pool or paddling in the water down at the beach. Another example of the strange collision of "East" and "West" in the region, but one that seemed to be a hit, as what would otherwise be a very unwelcoming place has become quite a destination for local families and travellers alike.

Enlightening

Once in while, you come across someone who makes what could otherwise have been just another site (while that doesn't really do justice to the brilliance of the sites we saw every day here) into something amazing.

So it was with Ibrahim Smadi, our tour guide at Ajloun Castle, a Saladin-era castle in the north of Jordan. Ibrahim's tour, and the stories he had to share of his time working on archaelogical sites around the region, absolutely brought the place to life. He looked every bit of the retired archaelogical adventurer; a local Indiana Jones now content to take over-enthusiastic visitors through the passages and the past of this beautiful old place.

In the large banquet hall, a brilliant beam of light came in through an old chimney-hole; in the situation, I couldn't resist doing something I've never done before - I asked someone to pose (I hate that word...) for a photo. Ibrahim obliged, and I like to think I captured something of him and the place which will always remind me his amazing tales.

Keystone

The mark of the Order of St John of Jerusalem on a archway standing in the ruins of one of the desert castles we visited. Things like this definitely serve to remind you exactly how much has happened in this region, and how much it has meant to so many. It's pretty easy to forget when you are poking around ruins that these places were once homes and battlegrounds, in which men lived, fought and died a long, long way from their families and birthplaces.

Off the beaten track

The freedom granted by a car and the fact that we had no pressing schedule while in Jordan meant that we did quite a lot of random driving through the desert, in the vague hope that we'd stumble across the desert castles we knew had been left scattered around the region by the various powers that had at one point or another held a serious enough interest in this strip of sand to leave something for curious spirits to poke around in centuries (if not millenia) later.

The fairly casual relationship the Arabic nations seem to have with signage, and geography in general, didn't help; but it did give us an excuse to follow our noses and find all sorts of things (some of which looked like they were from the set of Mad Max...)

An alternative view

Mount Nebo is the place where, according to something of a popular collaboration by local authors published a while back now, a chap by the name of Moses looked down upon the land promised to his people.

He is said to have been buried here too; by none other than the Big Fella himself, making it the only funeral that I know of that the first sod was cast by God... I would have said not bad for bragging rights on the other side of the Pearly Gates.

All you need is... Fireworks!

I can't say my Arabic improved much while on this trip - but I'm pretty sure this said something celebratory.

On the topic, I don't think I've come across people more prone to throw a party. An excuse is barely needed (although interestingly birthdays are typically not celebrated). It could be anything; a promotion, a graduation, a particularly good hair day… anything is enough to send out an invite to everyone and their cousin to come along to chow down on a home made banquet and set off fireworks.

That’s not meant metaphorically – people here are literally mad about fireworks. On any given night I could stand on the roof and look out over the city at a vista of exploding colour. One theory on their popularity is due to a need to replace the now-illegal practice of pointing firearms skywards and firing. A slightly macabre scenario springs mind as to how this particular edict may have been reached – perhaps an ongoing series of funerals, each of which, having been celebrated with the traditional, indiscriminately-aimed salute, led to the unfortunate need for another burial, drawing more and more people into a chain of funerals that eventually brings the country to a grinding halt.

But I digress.