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Nubar Gulbenkian was once reported to have said that the ideal number for a perfect dinner party was two … ‘myself and a damn’ good head-waiter!’ That’s my idea of the ideal tour group, too … just me (or, in this case, me and Lorraine, my wife) and a damn’ good guide! It’s the ideal arrangement if you like to take photographs … you can stop when you like, and you don’t get the disapproving looks from the other 42 passengers when you’re last on the coach again, because you stayed behind to get pictures without silly hats, disgusting shirts or fat white legs in them. If you go to Jordan, you can set up a personal tour fairly easily … and you don’t need Mr. Gulbenkian’s income to pay for it. For a comprehensive list of operators, go to www.see-jordan.com/tour_operators.html ; we particularly recommend www.nyazi.com.jo and www.jitours.com We’ll start in the middle, at Petra, because that’s everyone’s image of Jordan. Maybe you’ve dismissed it as the stuff of Sunday supplement travelogues, but you can’t see Jordan without visiting Petra. The way into the rock city is through a narrow gorge called the siq. It’s 1.2 km. long, and its entrance is about as far again from the visitor centre. Various kinds of transportation were on offer; camels, horses, donkeys or horse-drawn carriages. But, Sami, our guide, advised that, to see the siq at its best, it’s better to walk. If you want to make some contribution to the local economy, save the ride for the return journey. You’ll probably need it by then, for we found that Petra was far bigger than we expected. The Nabataeans, who built Petra in the 6th Century BC, were rather unorthodox builders. Where anyone else would quarry blocks of stone and take them away to build a city, the Nabataeans simply hewed out caves for themselves in the soft sandstone of a narrow canyon in the Wadi Musa. Cave dwelling suggests a primitive way of life, but it wasn’t so in this case. Many of the buildings in Petra have facades as every bit as imposing as a Greek or Roman building, but these were carved from the rock itself. They even had a Royal Palace. One feature that Jordan has an ample supply of is canyons. We visited another site where dwellings were carved from the living rock of a canyon at Al-Beid, commonly known as ‘Little Petra’, about a half-hour drive north of Petra. It’s not as dramatic, but it didn’t cost anything to get in! And, there are many other canyons throughout the country, where the grandeur of Petra is equalled, without any help from Man, only water, wind, sand and God. You can see some examples of these when you visit another ‘must see’ site in Jordan, the Dead Sea. Although the sea itself is as sterile and lifeless as anything nature can produce, much of the high ground on the Jordanian bank is a Nature Reserve. The Reserve takes its name from Wadi Moujib, a superb gorge, sometimes referred to, with tongue in cheek, as ‘Jordan’s Grand Canyon’, through which runs a permanent river, with many waterfalls. Sadly, we had to take the guidebook’s word for this, as a dam was being built across its mouth, and easy access wasn’t possible. But, there are many others. The one we explored isn’t in any guidebook that I know of, although it deserves to be. We’ve been given alternative names, by different people, of Numeira and Khuthera … to make it absolutely clear, it’s near the southern end of the Dead Sea, and has a large boulder jammed between the walls near the entrance.
Even more spectacular examples of Nature’s rock sculpture are at hand in Wadi Rum, or the ‘Valley of the Moon’. This is the destination all the trekkers head for, and it’s possible to arrange expeditions with many local tour companies, either on foot, on horse-back or camel-back or by 4-wheel drive. The horse-riding expeditions are really only for experienced riders, but camels are available to all. If your experience of camel riding is confined to a ten-minute lurch around the Pyramids on a beast in less than prime condition, don’t let it put you off. These camels are on their home ground, and an afternoon, or longer, riding them is a ride to remember for the best reasons. Often, around mid-day, you’ll get some idea of the forces that produced the fantastic shapes on every hand. ‘We say the desert gets angry about this time’ said Adeeb, our guide. The wind started to get up, and the sand soon produced a whiteout to rival the wildest blizzard. All the windows of the Toyota went up, and, of course, all photographic equipment was wrapped in several plastic bags for the duration! Adeeb steered for the Rum railway station, near where his friends lived, where we were to go to sit out the storm. Although it seems like a down-side, if it wasn’t for that wind-blown sand, Wadi Rum wouldn’t be nearly as spectacular. This is where the Nabataeans lived before they built Petra. It’s also where Prince Faisal and ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ conducted their campaign against the Turks in World War I. The best rock features are natural bridges, and gigantic ‘flying buttresses’ on cliff sides. Most can be anything you want just by half-closing your eyes … or taking your glasses off. The Sphinx, Queen Victoria, Snoopy, the Mount Rushmore Memorial, the Kremlin and Morley Town Hall … we saw them all. The usual rule when travelling with a camera is ‘estimate how much film you need, then double it’. If you’re going to Wadi Rum, it’s sound advice to double it again! But, no matter how much film you take, and how good a photographer you are, you won’t get it all. The camera can only give an idea of the emptiness. And, it can’t give any idea of the silence of the night … no distant mutter of traffic, just silence. It won’t capture the taste of tea brewed in a smoke-blackened kettle on a fire of fragrant juniper twigs, or the music of the guides’ prayers echoing down a canyon. Pictures can only give you a fleeting taste … to savour it in full, you’ve got to go!
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