We arrived at Petra and found ourselves a hotel that had camping in the grounds, well in the car park!!

Petra is magnificent. It is basically a huge rock carved out of multi coloured sandstone. Few buildings are free standing, the bulk are chiselled out of the rock face. You enter via the siq a 1.2k path which feels like a gorge and walking down the patch the sunlight bouncing off the rocks is awesome. At the the end of the siq is the Treasury and this is where lots of visitors fall in love with Petra. It is such a fantastic sight you simply stand staring with your mouth open. We also took a hike up 800 steps cut out of the rock to the Monastry. It is possible to take a donkey but this looked more perilous than walking.

Two days exploring Petra is a hot, dirty, tiring experience but well worth it. On the way out it is possible to take a horse and cart but the drivers drive the carts over the cobbles like something out of Ben Hur. It was hilarious watching the Japeanese tourists thinking they were in for a leisurely drive with their gloves on and masks either for the dust or to combat the combined smell of donkey, camel and horse pee. As soon as the cart hit the cobbles, with terror in their eyes they were hanging on for grim death the little mask forgotten.