Camels at Sunrise

Another cold night in the desert. In Jordan, it gets dark very early (about 4:30), but that means that its also light very early, and on this cold, clear and bright morning, the plaintive cry of Ayman echoed through the desert camp. 'G Adventurers. The camels are here. We leave in 15 minutes. Get up!'. Leaving Mandy curled up in a heap under the blankets ("It's too camelly" I was told), I rolled out of bed, and layered up my clothes for our pre-dawn ride. Some of the girls has 2 pairs of pants, and 5 tops on to ward off the chills.

On to the waiting camels, and off over the desert sands to watch the sun rise. Really nice. Really chilly. The desert hills turned as red as they do at sunset. I'm not normally up to watch.

Eventually, after about an hour of rolling over sand dunes, we dismounted, and were picked up by the utes, and taken back to the big camp where we had spent New Years Eve. Another big group of Italian tourists were in residence, so if you ever want to know where Italians go for the Winter, the answer is Jordan. Joined them for breakfast, then picked up the packs we had left behind, loaded everything onto the bus, and headed south for the hour long trip to Aqaba, at the very south end of Jordan. Actually, it took most of the hour to thaw out, and everybody's hands were going tingly at different times in the bus.

Checked into our lovely hotel in Aqaba, and we all fled to our rooms. It was a toss up. People either wanted a hot shower and then the internet, or the internet then a hot shower. Either way was good news. They had both. Everybody seemed to emerge after an hour or so, looking clean and warm. Actually it was much warmer here anyway. Being on the gulf, Aqaba is the warmest part of Jordan, and it was a lovely, sunny day.

The only strange thing about Aqaba is that they use different power points to the rest of the country. Here it's British plugs. The rest of the country use European plugs. We had both, but it must drive some tourists nuts, to say nothing of people selling electrical goods in the country.

It was a free day, so we took a map of the city to the coffee shop next door to plan our sight seeing. Memo to self - never, ever order a cappuccino outside Europe and Australia. I've done it before, and vowed not to do it again, and we forgot.

Everything is really close by, so we set off to see the three main cultural influences on Aqaba over the years. The first main influence was from about 600AD when Mohammed offered an alliance with the Christians living in the region, and everybody lived in harmony in the town which was then called Ayla. We explored the ruins near the sea shore, in what was a very modest sized settlement - about the size of a football field, and a major stopping point for pilgrims going to Mecca.

We then saw the second main cultural influence at the Aqaba Castle, again in ruins, which was where the Hashemite's established their city just around the corner in about 1300AD, when the people outgrew Ayla. Next to the castle was the mosque, the heritage museum, the harbour (as the port city was a thriving fishing village), and The Great Arab Revolt Plaza dominated by a huge flagpole and Jordanian flag, no doubt to remind Israel on the other side of the bay that they are a great and proud nation. It was at this plaza that the revolt against the Ottomans germinated, which eventually led to the fall of the Ottoman Dynasty, which the Turks are still seething over today.

Then it was on to the third main cultural influence that came to prominence in Jordan in the 20th century - McDonalds. Lunch. The same pattern all over the known world. "Will that be a super size meal?", and then they serve half of it on to the tray to get cold while the rest is prepared. The Big Mac index in Jordan is AU$5.20, so food is quite cheap, as you will no doubt have remembered from our $3 meals in Amman.

Back to the hotel mid afternoon to rest, blog, read emails and relax before going out to dinner with the group. Megan and Ryan are leaving tomorrow, which is a shame, so it will be the last time we are all together. Went to a fish restaurant near the hotel, which had lovely meals, and spent more in one night that we have spent in the last week. Ok, so most food is cheap in Jordan, but you can still spend up big if you go to a flash restaurant.

Learned a little bit more about Ayman, our tour guide, over dinner. His mother is Croatian and his father is Jordanian. His parents met while studying in Kuwait, and Ayman was born there. He moved to Bosnia when the Gulf War broke out, then moved again to Croatia when the Yugoslav war broke out. He works half time in Jordan, and half time in Croatia, and his partner lives in Canada. And we think our lives are complicated. He is starting his own adventure touring company in Croatia, working in the former Yugoslav states. If you want a good guide in that region, contact aymanwi@yahoo.com.