Jordan March 30

Travel day today. I had a car and driver from Madaba to Petra. At one point, before I left I thought about renting a car; thankfully I didn't. The road signs are 99.9% Arabic only. It would have been Moses in the desert for 40 years, all over again .

There are two highways going from Madaba south, the King's Highway, and the Desert Highway. The first one is the old one that goes along the Dead Sea, and passes through all the towns and villages. The Desert Highway is new, and more direct, but less interesting. 

We took the one first, and it was much more scenic. We passes through Wadi Mujib, a spectacular canyon. (Wadi means valley or canyon). Wadi Mujib is 500 m deep, and 2,5 km across. It reminded me a lot of the American southwest. It took us over half an hour to go and back up, nothing but switchbacks, and great scenery. Very rugged country. In all the valleys there are springs or creeks and there are farms, and it is green.

We passed through a lot of villages and towns. 

Some observations. Garbage cleanup is a lost art in Jordan. You can tell when you get near a village, the garbage along the road increases linearly as you get closer. I saw a group of trees with large birds on them. It turned out to be black plastic bags blown there by the wind.

Sheep and goat herding is everywhere, from the outskirts of cities to the most remote mountain side, and right along the road. And they all had young kids herding them. This is not a dying profession, although my high school guidance teacher never mentioned it to me.

Back to the tourist bit.

One of the sites I wanted to see was the Crusader Castle at Karak. This was the largest of the Crusader castles in Jordan. It is on a peak, sharp drops on three sides, and overlooks the Dead Sea in the distance. It is large and was manned by 1000 soldiers, and sheltered 200 horses. It took Saladin several years before he finally starved out the defenders. After Saladin, the Ottoman and Muslims used the castle for several hundred years. 

I liked the well-equipped kitchen.

We also saw another, smaller castle, Shobak, on the way to Petra. This was also known as Montreal Castle.

I am very pleasantly surprised at my hotel in Petra. It's close to the entrance to Petra, and has all the anemities, even a fridge, and a safe.