World Jordan Petra

A short trip around the highlights of Jordan

Petra Nov 9, 2004

How wonderful to wake up in the dark at 4am and see the stars above me! I got up as soon as it was light and had a walk around. Climbed some rocks and sat watching the sun rise over the hills - it was so quiet and tranquil. When I arrived back to camp everyone else was up and we had breakfast. After we'd eaten we set off on to hike to the main Petra site. The walk was fantastic with a bit of scrambling and quite a few ledges with steep drops (poor Sue). After a couple of hours we stopped for a rest and suddenly realised that a few hundred metres away we could see the Monastery! The rest stop was forgotten about as we set off for a closer look. We then descended the 800 steps down into the main part of Petra. It covers a much bigger area than I expected and consists of the ruins of free standing buildings as well as the tombs carved into the rock. The rest of the day was spent exploring part of the site and we saw the city centre (including the mosaic floor in the Byzantine Church), Royal Tombs, and large amphitheatre. On the way to the Royal Tombs a Bedouin woman proudly showed us one of her goats that had just given birth to a kid and then insisted on charging us 500 fils (around 40p) when we wanted to take a photo! On the way back to the camp a little black and white dog insisted on accompaning the group on the 2 hour walk back. She then stayed with us for the evening, even following Yvonne and I and sitting with us as we climbed up some rocks to watch the sunset. She then spent the curled up in the sand next to Yvonne's bed!

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