Desert Highway South
Trip Start
Feb 24, 2008
1
4
14
Trip End
Mar 03, 2008
Aqaba,
Jordan
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
After breakfast we met our driver, Said, and set off to pick up Issa the guide en route to Aqaba.
The first half of the drive was quite uneventful, we saw some new views of Amman and then some fairly flat desert. About two hours later we stopped for a welcomed coffee and a toilet break.
About an hour after that was when the world changed dramatically
Desert Highway South
. We stopped to look at the views of the start of Wadi Rum and the Negev Deserts and where we started our descent to sea level. The road got really steep, at times it felt we were driving down at about a 45 degree decline!The weather started getting warmer and the scenery changed to the most amazing and beautiful deserts. On the one side we had sandstone desert and mountains, on the other side red granite. We tried taking photos but to do it justice you need to visit these deserts.
At one point we passed a number of villages. It turns out that these are homes the government has built for the Bedouin people. We saw that a number of them had still pitched their tents next to their homes so that, even though they are no longer nomadic, they felt they still have their traditional way of life around them.
We arrived in Aqaba and checked into our hotel. First we were given a really dark and dingy room at the back of the hotel. We were having none of this, we are at the sea and want to see it. We now have a great room; top floor corner room with double windows and a seating area with chairs and table and a fantastic view. We can even see the hotel we stayed at in Eilat in December
Desert Highway South
!We had the afternoon free so wandered along the beachfront promenade looking at and being looked at by the locals, watching a man picking radishes in his small allotment next to the promenade, had young kids trying to sell us their trinkets, being offered rides in glass bottomed boats and being invited into just about every beachfront café that line the promenade. We found a café that had tables along the jetty and settled in with some tea and coffee. It was great to have the sun on our faces.
The decent swimming beaches are either private ones at the swanky hotels or further out of town. There is an option to go snorkelling tomorrow morning so we will hopefully be doing that.
Later we wandered around the town and chilled out at the hotel awaiting the arrival of the rest of our group coming from Egypt. Their ferry leaves when it is full, it is due in sometime between 4 PM and midnight...
