Offering some of the most extraordinary desert scenery Wadi Rym is a definite highlight. The dramatic colours of the desert sand change colour with the changing angle of the sun. We drove in through the village and after 100 yards the road ended and only tracks in the sand remained. At first we were a bit wary of becoming stuck in the sand and needing our sand ladders to get out but after a while Peter got the hang of it and when I had a go I really enjoyed drivi...

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 ...

We drove down to the Dead Sea which is actually just over 1000 BELOW sea level. As you descend into the Rif Valley the air gets warmer, thicker and muggier and the scenery turns barren brown and a spectacular blue lake opens up before your eyes. There are only large usual chain hotels along the Dead Sea and we chose the Marriott. Again luxury for us, a nice break with a bit of sun and swimming. The hotel was right on the beach and we wandered down to the shore an...

Amman is a modern Arab city rather than one of the great cultural centres of the Middle East. There are really two Ammans, Eastern Amman is Islamic and home to the urbanised poor and Western Amman a world apart with leafy residential districts, trendy cafes and bars and the two are totally different. We went down into the old city and wandered around the market stalls where they were selling live rabbits, chickens and Turkey as well as Saddam Hussein memorabilia!...

Leaving Syria without a problem we arrived at the Jordan border. We joined the queue for a vehicle search but the guard only had a cursory look in the camper probably more out of curiosity than anything. We wento on to purchase vehicle insurance and have our visa validated and then had the carnet de passage (temp import for vehicle) completed for the first time. The whole process was very civilised and amiable. Immediately upon entering Jordan it was obvious...