Day 19 - we rolled out of Wadi Rum at 8.10am after watching the sun come up over the desert from our tent (fancy one with a shower & toilet). I went and climbed a rock pile and Jeremy set out across the wadi as the sun crept over the nearby hills - very still, cool and calm. Three camels with riders up, padded past in the distance and I knew I wasn’t in Nelson. Once the sun came over the tops it was time to go. 4 hours later we were in Amman, looking for the C...

Day 18- up early at Petra and headed south for 2 hours to Wadi Rum. VERY dry country, real desert territory, fabulous location for many films such as Lawrence of Arabia, The Martian etc. We stopped off at the visitors centre for coffee and a crispy chicken filled roll (nice), registered at our tent campsite and then rolled on out for a desert 4 wheel drive. Wadi Rum is a spectacular array of sandstone hills randomly scattered around about a barren desert floor. ...

Day 17 - sunny, hot (32degC), dry as. It was up at 6.15, ablutions, breakfast etc and off walking 200m from hotel to the start of the spectacular historic sandstone city that is Petra. Heard and seen plenty about it over the years and it didn’t disappoint me - nor any of the 100s of tourists that went on the same day - even saw a couple of policemen on horseback - pingy decent size Arabs (16hhigh). It was downhill into the Siq (the narrow bit where all the fam...

Day 16 - hot (29degC) dry, windy Big road trip today - after a super size breakfast at the Dead Sea Holiday Inn. Started at Shunet in the east side of the Jordan Valley just in front of the Gilead Hills, where Bert and the NZMR struggled to clean out the Turks in 1918. Fertile, irrigated farmland now, still a small village. Couple of pics then onto Mt Nebo where Moses saw the Promised Land and then promptly died. He never made it over the River Jordan. Mt Nebo ar...

Day 15 - getting toughened up to traveling - finally. No snivels, coughs, diarrhoea, and all present and packed for the 8.00am start. We headed out into the Judean Hills (the Biblical Wilderness) and it quickly got VERY dry. Saw a few Bedouin tending their flocks of goats and living in ramshackle temporary shelters. The land looks like it could support only about 1 goat to 50 acres and there is always some kid with them. We plunged down and down well below sea le...