Eilat Princess

... in the desert, much like cops here hide behind buildings in the shadows.

After we returned from the 4x4 ride the camp was empty, and we had lunch all to ourselves, which was again amazing food. They had some pretty good tuna salad, but nothing too terribly special since all the food in Jordan was amazing [you'll see this trend]. We left at around 1:30 and headed off to Little Petra before hitting the main city the following day!

... you feel like you can just swim across. I often thought how scary it must have been to be here before we made peace. Cause it's there, right smack dab in front of you. They even have a massive Jordanian flag that they put right in the middle. You can clearly see it from the Israeli side. As if to say, "Weeeee're heeeeeerrrrre"
Looking across, the mountains are stunning. I turn around to see what they see and think they got the short end of the stick in terms of the view. It's like ...

... we scoffed it down the bedouin boys did some singing told some stories and then it was time to hit the sand. The awesome foursome decided we would sleep a wee bit away from the group out in the desert by ourselves under the stars. What a view we had when we woke up the next day the sun just starting to rise over the canyon walls and in front of us was the most beautiful panoramic view of the desert. Well we are off now to Petra, catch ya soon.

... to Andy's and I think his camel knew that it was too hard to pick up the pace dragging the other 2 behind so they were always trailing in the distance. After my poor riding skills on the horse in Giza (just a brief panic as the horse started trotting and bouncing me all over - but of course the kids won't let  me forget this loss of dignity) I felt I redeemed myself as a camel rider and was quite chuffed. All in all, the family agreed that the experience in ...

... and that meant that we weren't going to go flying over any dunes. All we managed was to slide down a dune with not speed. We stopped at another dune and everyone started to run up it. I tried but my feet sunk straight away and it was very soft sand. Then everyone decided to run down it and I thought I could do that but I absolutely stacked it - someone had to!!! I landed on the edge of the soft sand and the hard ground and smacked my fast ...

... we reluctantly had to leave, so we took quick showers and hopped back on the bus. However, we were all really excited for our next stop, which was Wadi Rum. As we drove north of the Red Sea to Wadi Rum around noon on Friday, the landscape changed dramatically. All of the sudden, we were in a region of giant sand dunes, colorful stone mountains, and entirely uninhabited areas. As we drove into the Wadi Rum national park, surrounding us were red and tan stone mountains ...

... is even less light pollution giving an incredible view of the stars. Louisa works in laundry and she was recalling our laundry numbers. These are the numbers we write on our clothes before we put them through the laundry, and they are supposed to be anonymous. 'I know everyone's number' she said 'its just a talent I have'. Freaky as it sounded, it wasn't all that surprising. Everyone knows everything on the kibbutz before ...

... the ride through the desert was very dusty. Shor seems like a nice guy and we're thinking that this is really going to be a good trip. We start in the Kibbutz Eilat fields that run right up to the Jordanian border. This area of the Arava Valley is well irrigated and everything is lush and green. We see melons, date palms and other crops being grown in the greenhouses. The agricultural area gives way to evaporation pools where we see a flock of ...

Nothing much to report for Eilat. As it's the middle of winter and the weather isn't all that great, things were very empty with a lot of places closed until spring. I stayed the night since it's easier to do the border crossing into Egypt in the morning than it would have been in the afternoon.

... for the bus to leave, two scruffy guys with wild hair and packs that looked bigger than they were came running onto the bus. Mum and I looked at each other and mouthed "Israelis?" We talked to one of them later about getting to Taba and they asked if we wanted to go to some markets, have a swim and then go up to the border crossing together. Mum and I declined because we were in a hurry and had too much luggage to wander around markets. At this the Israeli guy laughed and said his ...