Month: September 2010

There are advantages, drivers merge from side streets or join roads not by stopping and waiting for a break but by kinda nudging out and driving beside you until you give in or you both collide, but at least the traffic flows. At traffic lights cars do stop, but don’t queue in anything like an orderly fashion, a two lane road would normally have at least 3 to 5 different queues, and the left hand side is set to do a quick U-turn, because as is the case in the UAE there are few ways to across to a street on the other side. Tooting is so common it is meaningless. Another problem is that drivers seem to want to use the mobile phone, just like everywhere, even texting one suspects. The end result is a very slow moving car with a person looking towards and from observation this is often a young lady, sorry but this seems to be the case. The guys don’t slow down!

However, in general the road seems safe but you need to be on your guard. It is a mistake to drive in what we would call the safety lane, in Jordan a thick yellow line marks its boundary, but it is often home to kids selling fruit, or other merchants, the odd broken down car and metal waste disposal units which have obviously been banged around by unsuspecting drivers.

The trip started in Amman, went down via the Dead Sea, to Petra across the mountains and back up highway 15/35 from Petra to Amman. I had allocated Sunday to drive down to the Dead Sea, Monday to drive to Petra and Wednesday to drive back, in the end I came back on Tuesday afternoon.

The turn off to the Dead Sea, is in my opinion well consealled – ask Cathie, I am considered hopeless with road signs. But to me if you are on a fast moving highway, even if there are road works, and Jordan like the UK love a good road-work, it is helpful to put the metres or kilometres on the sign so you have some idea what part of the road it applies to, otherwise I am prone to head of up the goat track the sign actually points to. There is a nice little sign to the Dead Sea, but it takes you on a road through the back streets with no further signs. The real turn-off is from the airport road onto the M40, but it does not say Dead Sea if you are travelling towards the airport – but if you come back the other way, from the airport towards Amman there is a beautiful BROWN TOURIST sign directing you to turn onto the M40! Boy, I got lost and have since driven over the same part of the road and have just about worked it out. But there is one other part that has given me grief. My neck of the woods is easy to get to, so it seems by looking on the map. It is certainly easy to get onto the M35, but on return it somehow splits, there are road works to confound me, but what you need to see is the LITTLE sign to Jerash, which gets you back onto the M35 – which I never thought I had left in the first place. Ok, I have the start and end of the various possible journeys north or south worked, what about the middle parts.

I am pleased to say the rest of Jordan is extremely easy to navigate.

The decent down to the Dead Sea is impressive. You basically drop 1000m in about 15klms, maybe a bit more, but the Dead Sea is only about 30mins or so from Amman i.e. close, maybe about 20 to 30klms to the start of the Dead Sea.

I stayed at the Movenpick Resort for one night and what a night, it is Ramadan so the resort was much cheaper – it is fantastic and not something I could normally afford. The day temperature was about 40C and humid, but the evening and mornings were wonderful. I bobbed up and down in the Dead Sea at the private beach, sat in the open air restaurant on my own (I am going to write about this as it seems to interest people) with three waiters and discussed the merits of Jordanian wine and the Australian wine on the list. The waiters didn’t drink! But they seem pleased I liked the wine, and provided great service. The sunset was worth the stay and the black of the night reveled a star lit sky – the biblical sky, but with a large light in the sky which was not the famous star but an Israeli satellite – ‘It is a machine’ I was told by one of the waiters. Across the Sea you could see that there was a large town on the foreshore, ‘they are all Palestinian, up on the top part are the Israeli towns you can see’ said the waiter. A very interesting discussion ensured, and of course what you see across the water is the West Bank, this is considered to be occupied land.

In the morning I departed at about 10.30am to drive down the along the rest of the Dead Sea. The area is bordered on the left by high and heavily eroded cliffs of conglomerate rock and maybe sandstone. It was clear that when it rains vast torrents flood down and flow into the sea, causing erosion and also providing water for crops. At intervals there were large areas of plastic covered land with small black irrigation pipes snaking across the land. Housing is rudimentary, white cement square shaped blocks can seen everywhere and the odd tend or humpy  is home to the less well off – some with satellite dishes though!

I past by the Mujib Nature Reserve and it looked like there were a number of interesting but difficult walks up the gullies, I did not stop and was also pleased I had not booked the Chalets as they are described, as they appeared to be just wooden boxes on the edge of the water, I guess the view would be ok, but there did not seem much resemblance to the pictures on the brochure.

Onward past the left hand turn to Karakyou come to the vast salt pans which is home to the Arab Potash Company as well – I wonder if BHP have their eye on it if the Canadian venture fails.The Dead Sea is clearly important to Jordan and no doubt to Israel. But water is high demand in this parched place and one report I read claimed that there would be no water left in the Dead Sea by 2050 if the upstream usage continues at the current rate. Water is a problem here as it is in Australia – I am hopeful that this will prompt discussion at school with the year 9’s went I introduce databases.

For the next 20ks or so you travel with flat land on the right and mountains on the left – it is a somewhat desolate place, the lack of water obvious. On the flat areas there are treed areas – manb Gum trees (I am going to do some research on why they are here). Farming thrives on the flat, although it looks a tough life, and I am not sure what is grown. Interestingly, Bananas are widely grown – well it certainly hot and humid along the Dead Sea.

Quickly I am upon the turn-off to At-Taflia. This is only a short distance, maybe 20klms away (for those who want specific distances, I guess these are available and yes, I could have read the odometer, but I didn’t), and it must be one of the drives of the world. The grades are steep, but the turns well constructed, which makes driving fun and passing easy without the need to add additional lanes. Trucks literally look like they are not moving, it is so steep in parts. But, the views are fantastic and there are plenty of places to stop and take them in, there are even enterprising locals who have setup somewhat run down looking places to stop and get a drink – its Ramadan, so most are closed! This is a must do when in Jordan.

The remainder of the trip to Petra traverses across the high plateau, it is cool outside, maybe on 20C. there is some grass cover, although the predominant colour is a light burnt mustard. Some pine trees can be seen and what appear to be camps of shepperd’s looking after sheep and goats. One thing you do need to be careful of are the many humps in the road, used to slow traffic as nothing else would work, I assume. There are also plenty of police hiding along the way, but unlike the ones on the main highway don’t appear to be equipped with radar.

There are some worrying moments looking for a petrol station. I stopped and asked a group of locals who where stacking a truck – ‘straight ahead’, no worries, and the same message from a young guy sitting outside a shop in a small town. Sure enought one turned up and I had a nice chat with a local who fortunately for me he spoke good English. It snows up in the highlands area and the air is crisp and clean – it looked like a quiet place, if that was what you wanted.

Petra loomed and I had heard a lot about it – one of the man-made wonders of the world, in fact ranked 7th in a UNESCO competion for the title of ‘Best Man Made Wonder…:, I made that last bit up but you get the picture. Capitalism’s competition is finding its way into everything, possibly we are missing something – does it really matter whose man made ancient structure is ‘better’ than someone else’s, does it, of course not. In fact there is a bloody committee touring the world, what a bloody gravy train, to assess the winner – I ask you, is this money and time well spent.

I had booked a cheap hotel – will I ever learn, at least it had a bed and there was free wireless in the lobby, but really it was not great, but it was cheap. From my window I could see that the hotel next door was another Movenpick, I went inside, the difference was stark – so was the price.

The reason for booking the hotel was that it was only 200m from the entrance. The entry cost is 33JD and you can enter at 7am and buy your ticket anytime after 6.30, possibly 6am, but so it seemed not the day before. If you did that it cost 38JD ie today and tomorrow. In a few months it will cost me only 1JD when I get my card. The walk in via the cavernous Siq is easily graded and there are horse drawn buggies, donkeys, horses, the odd camel – take your pick for your conveyence. Personally, if you don’t want to walk the buggies looked the go and cheap, the added advantage is that they can bring you back. And, I reckon you could do a deal with the driver to take you on a little tour, pay him 10 to 15 JDs and he would be able to look after you. I am going to try that next time.

Like a lot of famous tourist attractions there are the peddlers, probably the odd scammer and sundry children begging you to buy something – most made in China (the products not the children)! Nothing against souvees but I am here to see those big thingees over there – bugger off mate! Alright, alright keep you beads on I am just trying to earn a living – ok, here is a tenner, leave me alone.

 Some pics are shown below. The Brown Universities excavation of the Temple area is worth spending some time in, and if you are able climb up the back to the path above – there is solitary column up there, no doubt with a story to tell, and great views. Like any large thing you need to get perspective and getting up as high as you can helps. Just standing in front and hurting your neck coming to the conclusion f…. that is big and pink, and taking a few pics is often not that instructive. The rock walls and temples are located on the Eastern mountain walls and really they are, there is only one word -HUGHE, one wonders if the early Nabataeans might just have had other things they could have spent there inventiveness on. The Southern end is about 800m away and it is flat in between and is predominantly a Roman build, much like the street in Ephesus in Turkey but not as grand. Despite pleadings to ‘take a donkey, it is 20mins to the top’ I did not take the plunge to try and make it up to the Monastery, but I encourage you to – take a donkey and keep the current locals happy.

 Really, these pesters make things difficult, I know be tolerant!

 Well Petra was good, the weather fine, the walk easy enough and the Siq was full of great rock formations.

But the hotel was depressing so I booked out and returned back to Amman up the dual highway from Aquba to Amman – the famous 35 then 15 then you get lost becasue there are road works or it is just not obvious when you reach Amman where the 35 actually goes – the trick, watch the signs to Jerash which is north of Amman, the road goes right past my turn-off. Next time, but this time I got lost!

But lets not dwell Andrew, this was a great trip – oh, and before I forget, the highway from Petra to Amman travels through some of the most desolate waterless terrain you are likely to ever see so close to civilization.

 I recommend it, get a car, a good car, and have a go.