We met with Ahmad, our driver, at 8:30 am and headed for Amman. He had agreed to drive us down the King's Highway, a most ancient route lined with archaeological sites and natural reserves, winding its way through the different ecological zones of Jordan, including forested highlands, open farm plateaus, deep ravines, and the desert's edge. The scenery was stunning, although some of it was obscured by unusual low clouds that even Ahmad took pictures of. We stopped at the crusader fortress of Shobak, a set of ruins perched high in the Jordanian Hills. It was built in 1115 as a key link in the chain of crusader outposts that guarded the lands between Jerusalem and Aqaba. Later, we looked down upon the Dana Wildlife Reserve, where wolves, hyenas, wild cats, ibex, gazelles and more live. Unfortunately, low cloud cover again obscured the view, but made for a great photo. As we travelled, we stopped for pictures at various viewpoints, including a great vista of the Dead Sea. At one point, our driver asked if we knew the story of Lot's wife, and then pointed out a geological formation overlooking the sea which is called "Lot's Wife" because of its shape and location. A short time later, we came to the Wadi al-Mujib Natural Reserve. This is the lowest natural reserve in the world, and a great site for adventure tourism where one can climb down the canyon walls to swim in the river and splash under a 15 meter waterfall. We didn't have time for all of this, but we walked over a bridge and down a ladder to wade through the warm, clear canyon stream. Next, we went to the biblical landmark of Mount Nebo, the point where Moses went to see all of the Holy Land before he died. Between the Reserve and Moses, we stopped at Amman Beach, a beautiful resort on the Dead Sea, to swim. It wasn't busy yet, as October is the start of high season and we had the entire beach to ourselves, besides 10 or so other people. It's very difficult to describe the experience of swimming in the Dead Sea. We walked down to the sea through hot, silky sand. When we reached the water, it was warm to the touch - not at all the temperature one would expect from such a large body of water. The sand was replaced by shelves of salt, smooth but slippery beneath the warm water. When the water reached waist high, the shelf dropped off but - no worries - the highly saturated sea lifted our bodies to the top of the water. Back, front, side, it didn't matter what position we were in, we floated. Connor brought a Reader's Digest to read until a carefree splash of water caused him to experience a burning pain in his eyes, cured by rinsing with bottled water. After, he continued to float and chatted up a girl from Montreal, while Barry dreamed of swim times he could get in a Dead Sea swimming pool. There was a price for Margaret to pay for this unique experience, however. Don't ever, EVER shave your legs with a dull razor, in a Petra shower with no water pressure, on the morning you are swimming in the Dead Sea!!! Afterwards, we ate from a buffet at the resort, which was a little pricy but worth it to see the kids fill up. We finally arrived in Amman and had flashbacks of Cairo. The traffic was insane and we felt bad for our poor driver. As he was Islamic and it was Ramadan, he had not had food or water since sunrise, and had spent 7 hours escorting us on our sightseeing tour, ending with over 40 minutes to get us 2 km into Amman to our hotel. Long day! We were very appreciative though and gave him more money than we'd agree upon only because he'd been attentive and thoughtful.

After checking into the Monsour Hotel in Amman, we wandered the neighbourhood until we found a little cafe where Connor and Tessa each had a half chicken with fries and an Arabian salad. We adults were still full from lunch, but travelling with teenagers is proving to be an exercise in scouting out food. Luckily, Egypt and Jordan have proved to be great producers of roast chicken and the kids are ALWAYS happy with chicken. This meal was no exception. We then headed back to the hotel to rest up before tackling border crossings and Jerusalem in the morning.