Ramblers Holidays - Jewels of Jordan

In November this year I enjoyed a Ramblers holidays trip to Jordan. I'd selected this holiday as I didn't think I could manage to travel independently in Jordan due to language difficulties and internal transport. It also included the longest time in Petra of all of the comparable companies. I'm going to try and describe what we did to help people decide if this holiday is for them, but not get too involved about reviewing the accommodation as this can change.

Day 1

The flight to Jordan was with Royal Jordanian. The planes are new Airbus, with seat back media and movies on demand. We were greeted in the airport by Alaa, who had a 'Ramblers Holidays' sign and a big smile. He collected our passports and got them all stamped with the Visa for entry into Jordan. After that we were whisked off to our coach (operated by JET) and transported to our hotel in downtown Amman, The Amman Inn.

Day 2

We met our guide for the holiday this morning - Mahdi. Whilst Ramblers provided their own guide, he wasn't needed as Mahdi spoke such great English, knew exactly where we were going and looked after our needs so thoroughly. We had a driving tour around the city, and then we went to look at a model of the city to bring it all into context. After that we had a walk into the city, past many shops selling everything from bedouin coffee pots to herbs to traditional headscarves.

We drank our first cup of arabic tea (Shay) from a man walking around with a giant copper tea pot. Sweet, minty and delicious. From there we visited the 'Citadel' above the city, which has Roman ruins and a small museum, sadly the museum no longer has a dead sea scroll.Mahdi explained the Call to Prayers, and how it was the same broadcast throughout Amman. When we heard this from the citadel, it was an amazing experience, hearing it bouncing around the city.  As we'd arrived very late the night before we were 'owed' a meal. Mahdi took us to a shawarma restaurant where we had a delicious chicken kebab and some freshly made felafel.

Day 3

We awake to heavy rain, which was really unexpected. We board our bus, driven by the very capable Mehrab, who would be our driver until Petra. We drive through the busy streets of Amman, stopping en route to buy things from a bakery for our picnic. When we arrive in Jerash the weather is terrible, so Mahdi decides to take us to Aljoun Castle as we would be mostly undercover. We tried Bedouin coffee with cardamom, which was hot sweet and delicious. There were many interesting features in Aljoun Castle, as it was designed by Izz al-Din Usama who had been held captive in a Crusader castle and used his experience to improve things such as the design of the arrow slits. The castle was used for carrier pigeons, and pictures of pigeons are on the doorway into the castle.

We also made a visit to an olive pressing facility, again the people were very welcoming, allowing us to walk through the factory and see the different processes.

We returned to Jerash, which is a fantastically preserved Roman City. After an earthquake the city had been buried in sand, which protected it from the elements and theft. Sadly it was still raining, and as we walked around the site there were several men selling umbrellas (once it stopped raining they were a discount price). The site of Jerash was huge, there was a long collonaded street with many temples and civic buildings that were described by Mahdi. There were two ampitheatres on the site, both of which had been restored and were very impressive. Whilst walking round the site I kept hearing bagpipes, which seemed really odd, until we see there were Jordanians playing Scottish bagpipes , celebrating the influence of the British military.

Day 4

This was our first 'real' walking day, a walk in the river gorge of Ibm Hammad. There was a lot of trepidation about this walk as the rain had been so strong on the previous day that we would be up to our waists in the water, so people did defensive packing, putting cameras in the tops of backpacks, clean clothes in a separate bag.

We drive south to near the town of Kerak. We transfer to a smaller local bus as our bus would not be able to get round the twisty road down to the gorge. After about an hour of driving (and listening to our driver be phoned all the way down), our local bus driver drops us at the bottom of the gorge and we prepare for our walk.

The water was surprisingly warm and milky white, as it was fed from a hot spring. It was quite fast flowing, and generally only went up to knee height, but my hiking poles were really useful in helping me balance in the water and test whether I'd found unexpected depths. We walked for about an hour until we reached a small waterfall - if we had kept walking we'd have eventually reached the Dead Sea. We returned, walking upstream until we met our local bus again.

A quick stop at a corner shop to buy a packed lunch and we head to Kerak castle. It was interesting to see the differing styles of construction - the crusader parts had very rough hewn walls, which would have been quite easy to scale, whereas the arabic portions had smooth walls.

Back into our coach again, for a drive alongside the dead sea, passing mineral extraction plants until we reach the visitor centre for Feynan Eco Lodge. We transfer into pickup trucks and SUVs to drive through the dark to the Lodge. My jeep broke down, running out of diesel, so our driver had to flag down someone with a jerry can. It felt pretty strange sitting in the jeep in the dark, waiting to see if it would restart. The Lodge itself was great, lit by candlelight, with great vegetarian food. It also had hot showers heated by solar power. The Lodge had a great story, helping the Bedouin learn sustainable trades and become involved in the tourist industry.

Day 5

We rise bright and early, and head off to walk through the Dana nature reserve to the town of Dana. The walk rose gradually for most of the 14km distance, but the last section was a steep switch-backing trail to bring us up to 1400m. We saw many things along the route, bedouin camps with flocks of goats,

spoil heaps from ancient copper mines and spectacular views along the valley.

We reach the town of Dana to a warm welcome from Mehrab, and we then stop for a cup of sage tea at the Dana Hotel. Back on our bus again, travelling towards Wadi Rum.We transferred into Jeeps and were driven through the desert at night to the Milky Way camp. Our tents were simple, with 2 single beds, covered in warm blankets. A vase with a candle provided the illumination. The evening meal was great, the chicken, rice and vegetables was slow cooked in an underground oven. We sat on long low couches, with camel saddles to act as arm rests.

Day 6

We walk to the natural bridge near to the camp, and take  group photos.

We get on board the pickups and SUVs for a tour round the desert. Our driver was a bit of a boy racer, lagging back and then speeding up to the other vans. We stopped to look at a Siq with Nabatean carvings and another wall showing carvings made by caravans.

We stopped at a giant dune, and the fitter amongst us climbed the steep side to the top. I sneaked up the slightly less steep side.  Our drivers showed us how quickly they could both run up and down the hill.

We stopped for lunch which was prepared by the jeep drivers, eaten in a picnic style under a shady overhang. Next we visit a large natural arch, and one of the drivers ran up to the top and walked along the top on his hands. My heart was in my mouth and I couldn't even take a photo I was so shaky. We were joined by the dog that lived in our camp. She was so sweet natured and loped behind the jeeps as we made our way to different stops in the desert.

We stopped to watch the sunset from a rocky outcrop, marvelling at how the light changed the colour of the rock formations.

Back at the camp we look we try star gazing, the Milky Way was so clear, but sometimes the constellations were hard to spot as there were so many other stars visible.

Day 7

We bid a sad goodbye to the Milky Way camp, it was such a lovely experience there and I saw so many great things. We drove to Shobak castle, which had some interesting features like an escape tunnel that lead outside the walls. The rock around Shobak castle was really unusual, with dwellings built into the hillside to take advantage of the rock formations.

After this we travelled to Petra, to stay at the Petra Palace hotel. A relaxing afternoon sat near the pool (unfortunately it was too cold for swimming). Some of the group decided to make the Petra by night tour. We walked down the candle lit path, through the Siq to the treasury. A short performance of local music was given and then there was a speech about the history and the bedouin way of life. I must have misheard some of it as I could have sworn he said 'first you give the coffee to the horse' and spent many minutes trying to work out how you'd get a horse to drink coffee. Eventually I realised he mean host. Doh! It was a great experience to see the treasury in the dark, but it was difficult to take photos without a tripod.







Day 8

We make our first official visit to Petra. The site is HUGE, and I can't even include a tiny fraction of the photos I took in this blog. The sellers of postcards were polite and did not pester too much, and respected Mahdi so that they did not interrupt as he described the tombs, the water management features, and the Djinn blocks.

We walk round the site, learning about the burial practices and how Petra was 'rediscovered'. After lunch we climb to the High Place of Sacrifice, which had blood collection pools (they really should have learned to make black pudding!). Like everywhere in Petra, there were small souvenier stalls en route, and also semi-feral cats.

Day 9 

Today we visited 'Little Petra', a small settlement above the main area of Petra where the caravans would stay. From there we walked through the countryside into Petra, near where the steps lead to the Monastery. On this walk we joined up with a group of French tourists who had also been at the Milky Way camp. Their guide gave so much less information about the things we passed, and it  made me appreciate the knowledge of Mahdi all the more. We walked up the many, steep steps to the monastery and admired the view from a cafe at the top.

Day 10

This was the longest walk on the holiday, up to Jebel Haroun. Mahdi had arranged things to make the walk easier, such as a donkey to carry the water bottles so peoples' packs were lighter. However, I'd been feeling a bit under the weather so decided to take advantage of the 3 day ticket to Petra and was able to take photographs without feeling like I was slowing down the group.

Mark and I went for lunch in the Movenpick hotel. There is a small coffee bar called the 'Caravan Stop' which had delicious sandwiches and cakes. The weather turned dark and ominous, and we had a thunderstorm, luckily the long walk had finished by this point and they only had to walk a short distance in the rain.

Day 11

We leave Petra and start heading north. On our way we stopped for a walk in a wadi. This was different from our first Wadi walk, the water was much colder and the area was less unspoilt. There were large scrambles over boulders to progress along the valley.

After this we went to the Dead Sea for a float. This was a strange experience, as the water is so buoyant it was difficult to stand upright or swim in any way. There were buckets of mud so that you could make a full spa treatment of your float.  After this we had a sunset at the hotel near the sea. In some ways it reminded me of Ibiza, it was a beautiful sunset over the sea, with music in the background and a huge bar bill. We missed the opening times to Mount Nebo, but I wasn't too upset.

We call at a mosaic workshop, which made spectacular mosaic tabletops and faux-mosaic vases, and then arrive in Madeba

Day 11

Our final day on holiday, and I was feeling both happy to soon be home, but also sad that our break was ending. We made a tour of Madeba, which has a famous mosaic map of the region.

After a walk around the city, seeing a recently uncovered Roman mosaic and looking in local shops. Mahdi bought us freshly made felafel on the street, which was great to watch them being prepared, moulded in a little scoop and quickly fried before they were served. The afternoon was free to allow us to finish off our souvenir shopping.  Our final meal was a delicious meal in a local restaurant where we said our thanks to Mahdi and the other members of the group.











Final Thoughts

The holiday information warned that we would be separated from our main luggage for some of the holiday, but Mahdi arranged things otherwise. This was great! We still needed our small holdall for days when we needed to change into dry clothes after wadi walks, but knowing that we didn't have to plan our clothes for several days in advance was great.

The walking was very mixed, several days were 'sightseeing' walking (though that doesn't stop your feet from feeling tired at the end). Other days were quite tough. We also had long days travelling round the country in the bus - Mahdi tried to break this up as much as possible, by stopping at sights on the road, but at the end of the day, the miles had to be covered. This is not a holiday for you if you enjoy the consistency of 6-8 miles every day.

The majority of the places where we stayed did not serve alchohol. Major towns and cities have bottle shops to allow the purchase of beer and spirits, so if you do enjoy an occasional G and T on an evening I would suggest that you visit one of these in Amman (or even in Amman airport, there is a duty free  shop next to the baggage reclaim - though this may change when the airport is upgraded soon).

There were a lot of semi-domesticated cats around, I did feel so sorry for them as their welfare was not really cared for. The donkeys and horses in Petra seem to be treated  mostly ok, as a horse or donkey is an expensive investment, but still I saw drivers whipping them with pieces of electrical flex, which horrified me.

Mahdi was a great local guide, and ran things so efficiently and kept us so informed that the Ramblers guide was unnecessary. He arranged stops to buy packed lunches every day they were needed, and he always counted us in and out of places.

I met some great people on this holiday, and I hope I'll run into them on another Ramblers holiday soon.