Day 30 Aqaba

Day 30 – Aqaba, Jordan. Thursday 14/6/12

Weather – Fine and Sunny 31C - 41C

Sunrise – 4.49am

Sunset – 6.41pm

Time difference - minus - 7 hours ex Sydney. (Forward an hour last night – makes a change from going back).

Throughout the early hours of this morning Sun Princess headed on a northerly course through the Gulf of Aqaba. The pilot climbed on at about 8am and guided us to our berth in the port of Aqaba.

Written by Donna as I had to go off on this adventure on my own due to Steve being unable to go. Luckily I had lots of lovely people to share the day with. We headed off the ship to find the guide and our bus, we were ready to head off only to discover we had a couple of interlopers, which were soon off the bus. We set off on the 2 hour drive to Petra.

The drive was a little more interesting than to Luxor, Egypt as there were small towns, mountains, Bedouin camps and animals along the way. Not far from Petra we stopped at a small souvenir shop, where we discovered we had another interloper. His free shuttle, which is what he said he thought he was on, turned into not so free trip.

Once we had spent a bit money at the shop, we headed off to Petra. Petra turned out to be a large town set in a steep mountainous area with some amazing buildings and houses. Once near the site of the Lost City, we were off the bus and walking down to some market stalls where our guide bought our tickets and we proceeded through the gate. Some of our party caught the horse and carts down to the bottom of the site.

As we wandered down a very gravely road our guide explained to us about the formations in the rock which were obviously once buildings. Once we passed a few of these we entered a passageway which the sides were 100 to 200 metres high if not more. This passage meandered its way down quite a way and included man made guttering cobblestone paving and carving.

As I wandered along I could see that the passageway was coming to an end and then I could see what appeared to be large pillars. Coming out of the passageway was awe inspiring, a monstrous building was right there before me. This was the Treasury that I had heard people speak of. Then there was a whole lot more further down to see such as massive stairways, amphitheatre, buildings of all sorts. An amazing place.

The it was time to do the walk back up, it took an hour to come down so it was going to be a hard walk back up. Surprisingly I didnt find the trek through the passageway too bad at all. When I got back to the gravely road, the local people were offering a horse ride back to the top and being that I was back in the full sun and starting to feel worn out I jumped at the horse ride.

Once we back at the bus we were missing 3 people so we waited half an hour and then the guide and the wife of one of the missing people went off in search of them. The rest of us went to a restaurant for our lunch, which was delicious Jordanian food. We were almost finished our meal when our 3 missing people turned up and we were able to head back to the ship with everyone we came with, including our ring in.

After departure this evening Sun Princess set a south easterly course back through the Gulf of Aqaba. Early morning we will transit the straits of Tiran and three hours later alter course to starboard as we round Siani Peninsula then continue on a north-westerly course on our passage to the Suez Canal.

Hoofnote : The foot is responding to treatment. Today had another dose of the jungle juice thru the drip, with pills also. A bit more panel and paint work on it also. Swelling has gone down a lot, and pain subsided. Thanks for all the good wishes.

Akasha – We have not seen a mummy yet. We are hoping to do that in Cairo on Sunday, but we are not yet sure if we will be allowed near the museum as there are some demonstrations happening there. I hope we can, I will let you know.

Jarrell – This ship does not have a water slide, but it does have 3 swimming pools and 4 spas !! Now I have a puzzle for you, if I told you the ship is 852 feet long, how many metres is that? You will have to find out how many feet in a metre, and then calculate that. And another puzzle..Can you tell me, if you got lots and lots of cars, like mum's car, and parked them nose to tail, how many of them would you need for the line to be as long as what the ship is?

Sonja – So sorry to hear of your Mum. I had not heard of her collapse. I hope she is on the mend. I agree with her about Dubai vs other ports before and after.