25th May 2010 Leaving Petra behind, we headed into the desert for the spectacular scenery of Wadi Rum. The unusual desert scenery of Wadi Rum is as impressive as when it humbled Lawrence of Arabia in 1917 and is virtually unspoilt. We hired four-wheel drive jeeps to go right out into the desert for a 3-hour excursion that visited impressive rock bridges as well as some of T E Lawrence's old hideaways. We saw Lawrences Springs where Lawrence of Arabia reput...

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 P...

23rd May 2010 We leave Amman and head down to the lowest place on earth - the Dead Sea. The high salinity of the sea makes swimming great fun and swallowing repulsive. The extra density provided by the salt means that it takes very little effort to stay afloat. The waters are said to have therapeutic properties Some people covered themselves in the Mud which is also reputed to have therapeutic qualities. Had lunch on the road and on the top of the distant m...

22nd May 2010 Up early and had a two hour drive cross the Jordan Border. We went to the ladies toilet and found a lady living in there. She had a bed, jars of pickles, a TV and a hot water service. After clearing immigration we drove to Amman via the impressive archaeological site of Jerash. Jerash is one of the impressive and best-preserved provincial Roman cities in the Middle East. The inhabitants were quite cultured and quite well off, resulting in la...

21st May 2010 Up early and off to Lebanon at 7am. It was a long crossing at the border. First stop was the Fertility Stone. Then to the Baalbek Ruins which have the tallest columns in the world and is Lebanon's greatest Roman treasure, counted among the wonders of the ancient world containing some of the largest and best preserved Roman ruins. Our lack of expectation made to the delight of Baalbek all the more astounding. We knew we'd be seeing 'some ruins...