Jordan / Petra

Today we visited the port of Aqaba in Jordan. Helen and I still remember our first cruise on the Noordam, we were meant to visit Israel but this was changed during our cruise because of conflicts in the area. This time, as we approached Jordan on this sunny morning we passed a small area of coastline that is part of Israel. So close, and yet so far.

The main drawcard at Aqaba is Petra and we were told nearly 1400 people from our ship were going there today. Also there were two other cruise ships in port so we expected Petra would be busy.

The forecast was 30+ degrees and sunny, and we were warned the visit to Petra would require walking 6km on uneven surfaces. We dressed in white shirts which we hoped would help keep us cool.

We were herded off the ships in groups, one per coach. Here we had over 30 coaches waiting for us, all lined up alongside our ship, an impressive sight to see!

The drive to Petra is 2 hours and we did this with only two short stops along the way. The first, a souvenir shop with restrooms. The second, a lookout over the mountains.

It took about 15 minutes to pass through Aqaba, the city is walled off and controlled by a large checkpoint run by military. The main purpose of this is for taxing goods passing through the border. The checkpoint was quiet this morning but had capacity for hundreds of cars plus trucks and buses. Being an organised tour, we passed through quickly with a quick conversation between our tour guide and the guards.

Petra is up in the mountains, about 1200 metres altitude, and our drive was through a mixture of mountainous roads and open highway. Many of the roads had two lanes. When going in a straight line, our bus driver sat on the centre line right in the middle of the road, unless passing other vehicles. On winding roads, he would cut every bend either left or right, to smooth out the ride. Stopping at compulsory stop signs was apparently optional. For all that, he always behaved for oncoming traffic and we noticed other vehicles driving in the same manner.

Jordan is a harsh and yet beautiful landscape. Lost of mountains, very rocky, and also very sandy with little greenery. The highway roadsides are absolutely covered with litter including plastic bottles, broken glass, and other packaging. It is just everywhere and impossible to miss. There are small unused houses dotted around.

Many people here are still nomads, herding goats and sheep in the mountains and also near the roads. For this reason, even main highway roads have occasional speed bumps that keep slowing the traffic down in case of wandering stock. Also we often saw tents which we guess is how many people still live here.

Once up in the mountains, the roads were narrow and more winding as we continued up. Here there are many small towns located on steep terrain. Many of the side roads were incredibly steep and had steps on each side for pedestrians.

Arriving at Petra, we suddenly noticed it is such a tourist hotspot, with hotels and restaurants everywhere. We parked in a massive coach parking lot and were guided to the Petra visitors centre where we sat in the shade whie we waited for some people to take a toilet stop.

Soon enough, as a group we were given tickets and walked through the turnstiles and our day really began.

The walk started with a sandy trail wide enough to drive a car on, through an open rocky landscape. The rock formations are incredible, as are the various hues of brown and red. Here, where was no shelter and we started to bake as we walked. Here we saw some wild goats alongside the track.

Next to the walking trail is another dirt road used by a mixture of camels, donkeys (some pulling carts) and horses. These modes of transport were all available for a price and there was plenty of encouragement for us to purchase. Only two people in our group took the opportunity, in hindsight a wise move on their part!

[photos]

Eventually we walked into a canyon that was incredibly tall and narrow. As we continued downhill, the canyon continued to narrow. Historically, this was the main path into Petra and along the way were various dams to trap water, and aqueducts along each side at shoulder height to carry water down into Petra.

Through this narrow canyon we had to share the way with the animal transports, the worse being the donkeys which had a mind of their own and ran at pace. All the drivers could do is yell at us to get out of the way.

We witnessed a donkey cut a corner, and the cart hit the side of the canyon, unfortunately a lady was walking there and got crushed between the two. She looked in pain and others gave her assistance. We had to continue to keep up with our guide, who was moving at pace despite stopping to show us things and tell us stories.

Suddenly through the canyon we got our first glimpse of The Treasury (known as The Treasury but actually isn't one) and were confronted with huge crowds of people taking photos. We were given 10 minutes to soak up the view, and told the background of The Treasury.

We were very aware that we had been walking for about an hour, and the whole time it was downhill. As we were getting closer to noon, the sun was high and very hot. I asked the guide what the altitude difference was between The Treasury and the visitors center where we started, he told me 150 metres. That's a big walk back!!!!

At this time we were given two options. We could make our own way back in our own time, or carry on with the guide to see more. Helen opted to walk back slowly, while I continued on with our guide.

As we walked further into Petra, we saw many more incredible sights, both natural and man made. The canyons were amazing with the rock formations and colours making a wonderful combination.

We walk down pasted the amphitheatre and after a while the city opened up to a lovely vista of the mountains. We were open, in the sun, and it was hotter still.

Conscious of the effort required to walk back, some of us departed company while our guide continued to tell more stories.

I had befriended an elderly lady named Ferne on the coach, she is from Vancouver. I offered to keep her company on the return trip and this meant I was walking at a leisurely pace. Once we got to The Treasury, the sun had moved and the light was better so I stopped to take photos and told Ferne I would catch up with her.

I walked faster now, and got very hot, and my water was running low. Through the canyon, we now had sections of shade, and less people to contend with, so the walk was OK but was still a constant incline.

Suddenly I reached the end of the canyon and into the open section. The sun was beating down and I knew I had 30 minutes at least to go. I hadn't caught up with Ferne yet which surprised me. I found a small seat in the shade so sat for a minute to cool down.

Once I got up and walked back into the run, I saw a Japanese couple on my right. The husband was standing up holding his wife in his arms, she looked very tired. I asked him if she was OK, and just as I did so she fainted. The pair of us grabbed her and without much talking we carried her back around the corner where I the shaded seat was. We cooled her down with water and she regained consciousness. A man with a camel came to help and call for medical assistance. The husband assured us she was OK and I continued my journey under his insistence. This was a reminder of how hot it was.

I had not eaten since 6am, and by now it was 3pm. I had not caught up to Helen or Ferne, and walked on but I was running on empty being hungry, hot and almost out of water. Eventually I found Helen sitting in the shade near the visitors centre. She was tired, hot and had no water or money either. I gave her the last of my water. She had no energy and we had about 0.5km to walk to get to lunch. We eventually made it.

We had lunch booked for us at the Movenpick Hotel, a very nice hotel. Interesting we observed the security for vehicles here was high, and we had to go through metal detectors to get into the hotel.

Inside, we found a beautiful buffet available in a nice air-conditioned restaurant. The food was amazing, especially a slow-roasted whole lamb sitting on a bed of aromatic rice. The waiter just pulled the meat straight off the bones and put it on our plates. Pure bliss after the walk we had today.

According to my Apple Watch, I walked 12km that day.

The ride back in the roach retraced the same route. As we approach Aqaba, the sun was getting low, into what photographers call the "golden hour" and we were treated to some lovely final scenes.

We had a wonderful day in Jordan, if not tiring, and were suitably wowed by Petra and the friendliness of the locals. This is one place I would recommend friends put on their bucket list.

Cruising Through Suez Canel

Today we went through Suez Canal. This was very exciting so I'll tell the whole story.

We spent the last two days at sea, sailing from Athens to the entrance to the canal. This is a relatively cruisy time (excuse the pun) because the sea days are a combination of eating, swimming, watching entertainment, having a snooze and watching some TV. Yesterday was different though, as we were scheduled to arrive near Port Said (Egypt) at 9pm to pick up a pilot and await further instuction. We were well ahead of schedule so spent most of yesterday crusing at less than 7 knots to arrive at our destination on time. This compares to our usual full speed ot 22 knots.

It was near sunset, around 6pm, when we arrived at Port Said and slowed down to pick up our pilot. From almost directly above, on Deck 14, I watched the pilot boat approach us and the pilot climbed on board.

Our captain had informed us that we would need to join a convoy of ships, and for most of the day we believed we may enter the canal at 11pm. However soon after the pilot boarded, we were informed we would enter the canal at 4:30am and would park up in the basin for the night.

We went to see a live show in the Royal Theatre, which seats 1200 people, and is located in levels 4 and 5 at the bow of the ship. While waiting for the show to start, around 8:30pm we felt a rumbling as the anchors being dropped and this confirmed we would be staying still for a while.

After the show, we returned to or cabin about 10am. The navigation station on TV in our room showed us doing 0 knots. It was dark, and we could see our ship surrounded by many other large ships. Presumably these were all waiting to join the convoy in the morning.

It was a beautiful night, no wind and a mild 18 degrees outside, so we slept with our balcony door open all night to get some fresh air.

Our cabin is near the stern and about 10:45pm we heard water churning outside. We look out, and noticed our propellers were running, and our room TV showed the ship was moving at 2 knots. We assumed if the ship was moving, the anchors must be up. Could we be going at 11:00pm after all? it was too late at night for the captain to give us announcements over the loudspeaker. We got all excited and with a rush of adrenalin, we were up for another hour before realising we weren't going anywhere, the ship was merely controlling its own position using the rear propellers.

We set the alarm for 4:00am and went back to bed. By 4:00am we were up and ready to see what happens. The answer is nothing. We didn't really start moving until about 6:00am and had three pilot boats visit us over the next 45 minutes dropping off important people. We entered the canal about 7:00am.

For the rest of the day, we had regular announcements over the intercom of what was happening. It turned out, we had two senior pilots on board, plus the Vice President of the Suez Canal, and other VIPs. Because this was a maiden voyage of a cruise ship, we were allowed to lead a convoy of 18 ships into the canal. The ships all followed with roughly one mile of distance between them. We had three tug boats to escort us, we assume in case something went wrong, and the other ships had tug boat escorts also.


We took the "left canal" which is further away from the city of Port Said and so we could not see the city so well.

I took 485 photos today, so here's a few highlights of what we saw during the nine hours it took to pass through.

The canal is largely surrounded by sand. The western side has plenty to see. There a few cities along the way, and each city is very green. There is also a road and railway right alongside the canal. There are also many farms here, irrigated and green. The eastern side is just plain desert, miles of sand, with the exception of one small settlement near Ismailia.

There are many car ferries along the way. Each ferry was busy transporting cars across the canal, although were all these cares came from was a mystery. Each ferry waited until we passed, then immediately crossed before the next ship came along.

There is the large Friendship Bridge which spans the canel near the northern end. It is around 90 metres high, and we cleared it with 6 metres to spare, standing on the top deck it looked to us like we would hit it with our funnel. Height can be deceptive!

Next we encountered the El Firdan Rail Bridge, this has a large swivelling section on each side of the canal, which swing and join together to let trains cross. This is now disused because after construction of the railway bridge, the canal was double-laned and the railway does not cross the other canal. So the railway lines are now removed and the bridge remains.

Ismailia is a nice looking city, and has several large monuments on both sides of the canal.

Eventually we entered the Great Bitter Lake which is a hafway point through the canal. Here we passed a convoy of 26 ships heading the other way. These were mainly oil tankers with a couple of huge container ships. Then we re-entered the southern section of the canal, again one way, and continued to Suez where we saw the city of Suez before heading into open sea at 4:00pm. But not before dropping off pilots and VIPs!

Most interesting was that the canal is heavily guarded on both sides. For almost the entire length, there is a wall, and also military guards stationed every few ship lengths. We were told this is in case someone attempts to jump ship and escape into Egypt. The military stations looked like very baron places, and it was very hot around 30 degrees, I don't imaging it would be fun being a soldier stationed there.

Overall this was a very interesting day. Considering we were up for 12 hours, it didn't seem anywhere near that long and it was amazing to see the canal in action.

As we were late entering and leaving the canal, tonight we're sailing at a speed of 21.4 knots to get to Jordan to berth tomorrow morning. We shall sleep well after today's excitement.