salt encrusted dead sea

One of the Mosaics near Madaba

Our Campsite at Madaba

11th April Madaba, Jordan

Along the Dead Sea coast yesterday we came upon the stragglers of the Dead Sea Marathon that appears to be an annual event. These were the walkers, sweaters and intermittent joggers. This morning we met the winner of the women’s section, an American studying in Amman. We had decided to go around the gorge to the village of Dana where the views were once more quite amazing. She is the girl in one of the Dana photos on the blog. Appears she made the equivalent of 2 months wages by winning. We also got talking to a girl from Brisbane who was visiting for the 3^rd time. This time she was staying for 5 weeks at Dana, doing a bit of trekking, reading and just veging out. It was that type of place.

Looking forward to catching up with Emma on Wednesday. There are now 3 border crossings between Israel and Jordan, she will come over on the Allenby Bridge crossing near Jerusalem and go back across the one in the south of the country at Aqaba. We still have 3 days up our sleeve before meeting her which is great as it gives us both a chance to have a breather before the onslaught of Africa. We were going to head to Sharm el Sheik on the Sinai Peninsula for a break but having it here gives us a couple more days to get to Cairo to organize our Sudan visas. At the moment the only deadline we have on the trip is to be at Aswan by the 28^th April to catch that boat.

13^th April

Madaba has an amazing number of mosaics dating back to the 6^th century. Every ancient Byzantine Church has intricate mosaic designs. Even the Persian invasion in 614AD did not destroy them all with the ones depicting humans & animals, which were forbidden, being covered by other ones containing geometric designs only. The material used were not tiles but tesserae made from local stone. The variety of colours shows the range of coloured rock around. We were witness to some of them driving along the Dead Sea the other day. There is now a school here in Madaba teaching young Jordanians the art.

The VW crowd has advised us to get new brake linings on the vehicle. I would normally not bother as it has only done 61,000kms but we are carrying quite a load and might need the extra efficiency if some dirty big bull elephant steps out in front of us.

Dana Panorama

The Wadi at Dana, Southern Jordan

10-11 April. Madaba, Jordan

Border crossings are starting to become a major expense on this trip- $300 all up going into Syria with visas, diesel tax, carnets etc taken into consideration. And a further $200 getting in to Jordan yesterday. Not so bad if you’re spending a couple of weeks in each but we are doing a lot less than that.
The Jordanian side of the border were well organised, no need for ‘helpers’ and such.
We made it to Jerash in the dark last night. A town famed for its well preserved Roman ruins. Then on to Amman and Mabada, 40kms further south this morning. Madaba is a smaller town and a good central point to visit the different attractions around here. The St George Greek Orthodox Church has kindly allowed us to camp in their grounds for the night. It’s the map mosaic, originally 16mX6m, the draws the visitors to the church. Not much left now, but enough to make it a major attraction. I don’t think you have to be a believer to stay here but they did mention that at the tourist bureau.
I am enjoying driving in this country. Jordanians seem to be better drivers than I have experienced of late: more considerate and travel at a slower speed.
Our van is due for a service. We spent a frustrating 4 hours driving around Amman looking for the VW crowd. I was waiting until we got to Cairo but we are going to be busy getting our Sudan visa there. Having it done here, when we have a couple of spare days up our sleeve, will ease the pressure in Egypt. I wanted to wait until we reached this area as with servicing due every 15,000kms it would’ve meant it was going to be well overdue before we reached the next country that sells VWs which is Sth Africa.
I am able to do my own blog postings once more. The censorship was unexpected and a bit frustrating. At least I know what I can do to get around the problem though Adam did have trouble getting the images uploaded.
11th April.
Jordan is quite an amazing country. The barren scenery is quite breathtaking. It was a day of sightseeing. Firstly Mt Nebo where Moses saw the Promised Land then died at the ripe old age of 120, then on to the Dead Sea as you all will know is 400 metres below sea level. We travelled along it for 60 odd kilometres then climbed inland to Karak where another of the Crusader castles stands. Was funny to read that although the Muslims and the Christians were at war in the time of the Crusades, the two sides were still trading with each other. Bit like England selling coal to Germany during the war and at the same time bombing the shit out of them.
From Karak we travelled south along the Kings Highway to the Dana Wildlife Refuge where we are camped. The panorama below us is spectacular with barren rugged cliffs smoothly falling thousands of feet to the Dead Sea Valley.