Day 7 Petra to Petra

Friday 13 July (Day 7) Silk Road hotel, Petra, Jordan 0/3518 km
This was a day of pure sightseeing. No driving/gasoline required. Just own generated energy (in this case fuel by gallons of cola and water). At 10:00, after a VERY limited choice local buffet breakfast (no bread and jam), we wandered down the road to the entrance of the wadi/gorge of Petra. Since it was a Friday, which is the local public holiday, it was reasonably crowded with local day trippers. First you walked through a river bed that at one point narrows down to a slit in the rock. Along the way you see you’re first carved out tomb/mausoleum. This is what Petra is actually all about. Mausoleums cut out of the rock on the side of a wadi. In the narrow section of the gorge you have on both sides a falaj that flows water down into the Petra village which lies at the end of the narrow gorge. Of course before the gorge opens up, you have to take the classic picture of the mausoleum impressing upon you when you emerge in the bright daylight. The whole valley that you pass through is carved up on both sides with these impressive tombs. Some were used as churches once Christianity came in vogue. After about 5 km you come to the old town of Petra where you walk over a road paved by the Romans and there lies a large temple. There is a small path, beside the temple, leading up to another impressive rock cut-out on top of the mountain. Our team managed to do most of this walk up the mountain on foot, except Anton who is still not 100 percent recovered from his cold and thus did the climb on Donkey. Bernard on the other hand impressed us very much by his determination to keep on walking. It was a very tough climb. His energy came from a regular dozes of Coca Cola. At 17:00 we started our walk back. It was great. The temperature had dropped, the crowds disappeared and the lighting was perfect for pictures. We wanted to rent some donkeys on this return trip but unfortunately it seems that the donkey was only allowed to do part of the trek (not all the way back to the entrance). We would have to do several hiring’s. We opted for a pair of horses for the boys on the last stretch. They were both pretty tired after the long day walking through the ruins which Anton in particular found uninteresting but Jamaliah and I enjoyed so much that we may go back again tomorrow morning to see the rest of the park before driving to Wadi Rum and Aqaba (our next destination).