The border into Jordan went, well how can you describe it, organised. The kind people told us what we needed to get, where to get it and in what order. The border crossing took us one hour. The only bit that was worrying bit was when we were asked where we were heading and we replied Egypt the responses were, ‘No, it is very dangerous. You stay here for a while. Ok, but be very careful.’
We had GPS co-ordinates for a guest house that allowed camping in Madaba, south of Amman. We had been informed that there was a protest scheduled for Amman in Friday, so we skirted around the edge, but saw nothing, and headed straight for Madaba. Found out that Madaba had large ‘Christian’ population which was very obvious when we went out to a local restaurant for dinner and saw many women in ordinary clothes, no head scarves, smoking and many bottles of wine around.
The guest house we stayed in was connected to the orthodox church where the 1500 year old Mosaic map of the Middle East is located so before we packed up we went and saw that.
Madaba mosaic maps
We spent the rest of our free time reading about things in Egypt and generally worrying about it. We also phoned the ferry company who run the ferry from Aqaba, Jordan to Nuweiba, Egypt and they told us that the ferry was still running ‘every day, no set time’ and ‘not many people using, so no need to book’
We headed off from Madaba in search of the Dead Sea, drove crazy down hill hairpins to get to the edge. We spotted some holiday huts and tried asking if we could use their showers after we went for a swim. They replied no you can’t swim it is too cold! And then continued it would be 12 JD EACH to shower (1JD is roughly £1 GBP). So we decided to find another spot and use our bottled water to wash.
Floating in the Dead Sea
In the Dead Sea you float, it is the weirdest feeling to just lie back into the water and float. It also tastes really really bad and stings you eyes like crazy but all in all a great experience and not too cold. Hah! We’re from Scotland (& Ireland).
From the Dead Sea we headed for Petra, along amazing little back road which alternated between brand new tamac and really old dirt tracks. Found a hotel that allowed us to camp, in Wadi Musa, the town at the entrance to Petra. They had showers which didn’t really work and then ran out of hot water, so not much success in washing off the salt. We met another overlander here who had just come from Egypt saying the border was closed and overlanders were stacking up in Wadi Musa and Aqaba, not knowing what to do about Egypt. We saw at least 7 other overland trucks parked in Wadi Musa. We decided we should just head to the port and find out for ourselves what the situation was.
The next morning we went to the ticket office in the glorious sunshine, paid our 50 JD, quite expensive for the 4 hours we had to spare in our schedule.
It was differently worth the money, an amazing city just carved out of the stone. You could easily have spent two whole days exploring all the sites, but we were all glad to visit it in February when could comfortably walk around in jeans and a t-shirt, hate to think of the heat in mid-summer.
After Petra we drove the short distance to Wadi Rum and camped in the middle of the dessert, surrounded by large rock formations. Total silence all around and amazing views of the stars. Early to bed to attempt our way into Egypt in the morning.
As posted here, our current route was highly improvised in order to avoid Tunisia which, 2 weeks ago, descended into revolution. We instead decided to route through Eastern Europe and the Middle East to enter Egypt from the East, instead of the West.
We are now in Aqaba, the port city in Jordan, at the point of entering Egypt. It’s been a hard couple of weeks, covering enormous distances in countries we were totally unprepared for. But it’s been incredible. We’ve seen a lot of sights and places we were never planning on this trip, and met some fantastic people (like the Turkish farmers who hosted us for a night). Lunch beside the fortifications of Dubrovnik, a couple of days with Angela and Paul in Kosovo, visiting Istanbul, where Louise and I honeymooned, camping beside Crusader castles, climbing the height of Ben Nevis in 40 minutes through Jordainian desert, exploring the ancient rock-carved city of Petra, sleeping out in Wadi Rum – the days have been eventful to say the least!
Our camp site in Wadi Rum. Sunrise was spectacular.
The irony is that Tunisia is now relatively safe, and Egypt is in turmoil. We are booked on a ferry there tonight, but with no guarantee that we will be allowed into the country when we land. Assuming we are, we have a route planned to the Southern border with Sudan which should avoid all the trouble spots: Across Sinai from Nuweiba where we land, up towards (but not into) Suez to cross the canal, then South to Hurghada, where the de la Hayes fly home and we meet Lorraine and Frank. From there, we will travel down the coast as far as possible before crossing inland to Aswan, from where we can get the ferry to Sudan (if it is running).
Family back home have been in direct contact with the FCO, who have said that our route, in current circumstances, should be plausible. There are no internet and only dubious mobile connections in Egypt at the moment, so expect the site to be quiet for a few days. We will attempt to update Twitter via family back home if we can. See you soon!