24th May 2010

Some of us on the truck read the book "Married to a Bedouin, written by a New Zealand born nurse Marguerite van Geldermalsen who first visited the lost city Petra with her friend Elizabeth in 1978 on a sightseeing tour of the ancient world. Little did Maguerite know she was about to meet the man she would marry, Mohammad Abdallah Othman, a Bedouin craftsman of the Manajah tribe. Her story was inspirational and we were all hoping to meet her in Petra as she has a market stall there which she runs with her two sons.

We were all up at the crack of dawn and headed off to Petra. I was so dehydrated I had to go to the doctors and have the drip put in so I could not leave until 9.30am so the others had quite a head start and I wasn't sure I would even meet up with them.

Petra is situated between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea and inhabited since prehistoric times, the rock-cut capital city of the Nabateans, became during Hellenistic and Roman times a major caravan centre for the incense of Arabia, the silks of China and the spices of India, a crossroads between Arabia, Egypt and Syria-Phoenicia. Petra is half-built, half-carved into the rock, and is surrounded by mountains riddled with passages and gorges. An ingenious water management system allowed extensive settlement of an essentially arid area during the Nabataean, Roman and Byzantine periods. It is one of the world's richest and largest archaeological sites set in a dominating red sandstone landscape.

As I entered Petra I walked down a natural winding rocky cleft called the Siq which was over 1km in length. Along the rock walls of the Siq there was a succession of inscriptions, niches and small votive altars, but also reliefs and sculptures that depict a caravan of men and camels. Once inside, the Siq narrows to little more than 5 m in width, whereas the walls tower up hundreds of metres on either side. It was amazing. Then it opened up and right in front of me was the Treasury or Al Khazneh. It is one of the most elaborate temples in the ancient Jordanian city of Petra. The Khazneh el Faroun, or the Treasury of the Pharaoh, is an imposing facade standing some 40 m tall, cut directly from the rock of the mountainside. I continued down the Street of Facades, which is lined with tall, impressive tombs, with large facades or false faces on their fronts. This street eventually leads us down into the heart of Petra. I then got on a donkey and rode further into the site passing the Royal Tombs, Colannade Street and many temples. I then began the climb to the Monastery. I took it slow and easy. The temperature was hitting 40 degrees and the track was full of visitors. There were Bedouin ladies selling their wares along the track. I finally reached the top and heard my name being yelled out, it was the rest of the group, they were so glad to see me as I was them. I was absolutely amazed at the beauty of the Monastery. Louise, Zoe and I continued up further to Sacrifice View (or Top of the World) a 360-degree, panoramic photo of the High Place of Sacrifice in Petra. I could see the Palastine Mountains in the distance There was a Bedouin strumming his small guitar, humming in his language and it was the highlight of the day. It was magical. We offered him a tip and he refused, he said he sang and played for enjoyment not payment. We slowly made our way back to the centre of Petra and had some lunch. We met up with Gus and Nikki and tried to make our way back to our hotel. We were absolutely exhausted.

The streets were closed, there was a huge parade happening. Bedouins on horseback (beautiful sight to see), every vehicle in town was covered in Jordans' flag and every male in town marched in the parade. It was Independence day. There was lots of beeping of the horns, yelling, singing and dancing in the streets.

We could not find a taxi anywhere and the hotel was too far away to walk in the heat. We walked up to a pub and found Neil and Johan. We eventually got home very late and very tired, but what a day......................