Petra, Jordan

We landed at the Queen Alia Airport in Amman and rented a car to drive to Petra. It is about a three hour drive so we stopped at a little kiosk to pick up some water and snacks. Next door we bought a batch of the best falafels I have ever tasted. I should have taken a picture of the little hole in the wall where we got them (most people would never have even gone in, but we get more venturesome as we get hungrier!) Our hotel in Petra was lovely and we had a marvellous roast lamb dinner.

Tuesday we were up at 0600 for breakfast as we were anticipating heat and crowds. By 0730 we were saddling up for the trek to the Siq.

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/jordan/petra-siq

The handler of our horses convinced Dale that we should avoid the crowds and take the back route (supposedly only half the time/distance!?!?).

I was unsure of our decision until we (finally) reached the spot with the view looking down on the entrance to the Siq; then it was worth the hike.

We continued on with our 'guide' to the 'High Place of Sacrifice' as seen on 'Indiana Jones Last Crusade'. http://nabataea.net/highp.html

It was tough going, but once we started down the 700 steps I decided that it beat going up them.

We set off on our own after that to see the Street of Facades and the Theatre; past the Urn Tomb and the Royal Tombs; down the Colonnaded Street to the base of the steps to the Ad-Deir Monastery.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petra

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&expIds=17259,17315,23628,23670,23945,25646,25907,26761,26849,26869,27126,27365,27404,27445,27520,27582&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&q=petra+jordan&cp=6&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=60DgTPJflZHgBvKk8fIP&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CCsQsAQwAA&biw=1222&bih=684

Dale was definitely not keen on the 800 steps to get there. I finally acquiesced to taking a donkey, as that looked to be the only way to get him there. It was such fun that I can't believe I almost missed the opportunity. My donkey was such a lovely creature. He knew exactly where he was going and I just sat back and enjoyed the ride. The views were spectacular and we probably wouldn't have seen as much if we were climbing, as you would have to watch your step. The donkeys were sure-footed and went at a perfect pace. There is no doubt that we couldn't have made it without our adorable little beasts of burden, especially after our first trek of the morning. At least going down on foot was easy (again).

We were still exhausted though as we started our way out, but of course we weren't done yet! We detoured to see more recent discoveries of Roman Ruins and in such amazing shape. By now we were utterly out of steam and still at the far end of the site. One foot in front of the other, but so much to look at that we didn't focus entirely on our poor feet. The Treasury was still a couple of kilometres away, thank heaven we were mostly in the shade.

Once we were at the Siq we forgot all about our aches. I have been through our 300 photos a few times and have not been able to delete any. What a phenomenal sight.