JORDAN DAY 1

 DAY 80 — March 25, 2017 – Sailing the Gulf of Aden

Sailing in the heart of the Pirate Zone.  Didn’t see Captain Phillips.

Sailing past Yemen.

 DAY 81 — March 26, 2017 – Sailing the Red Sea

Sailing past Mecca.  I never thought I would travel anywhere near Mecca.

DAY 82 — March 27, 2017 – Sailing the Red Sea to Al Aqabah in Jordan

We are deep into the Middle East now.  Current events geography lesson:  Egypt to the west, Israel to the north, Iraq, Iran, and Syria to the right.

DAY 83 — March 28, 2017 – Aqaba, JORDAN

Jordan, surrounded by Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Israel, and Saudi Arabia sits on its own little plot of neutral territory in the northern part of the Arabian Peninsula.  An American woman, Lisa Hallaby, married Jordan’s King Hussein in 19__ and took on the title of Queen Noor.  Her reign ended when Hussein died at the age of 63 in 19__    She now divides her time between the USA and Jordan.

We docked at Aqaba, Jordan’s only seaport, located on the southern tip of Jordan on the Red Sea, and the gateway to some of the most amazing natural wonders of the world, like Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea.  In addition, the country is full of man-made archaeological sites from the Greco-Romans, Byzantines, and the local Nabateans.

With only two days allotted for our visit we opted for the two closest attractions:  Wadi Rum on the first day and Petra, the ancient city carved out of the mountains circa 312 BC that subsequently was “lost” for 1000 years.  The Dead Sea, appealing as that sounded, was just too far away for us to make the trip easily.

We started on the first day with a little “fun” trip by jeep into the desert.  Wadi Rum is a 720 square-meter protected desert landscape in the southern part of Jordan.  Some call it the Desert of Mountains because of the vast areas of sand abruptly punctuated by craggy mountains. The word Wadi means dry river bed.  If you saw the movie, Lawrence of Arabia, some of the photos below may look familiar.  The move was he story of T. E. Lawrence’s service with the British Secret Service during WWI, helping the Arabs defeat their Ottoman oppressors.

Impressive rock structures are everywhere you look in Wadi Rum.  We came across this one right away as we entered the area.  It looks like pillars of rock and was aptly nicknamed after one of T.E. Lawrence’s books, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

Bedouins and their camels have lived happily in this desert for centuries.  

These were the vehicles that took us around the desert on our “deluxe” JEEPS TOUR of Wadi Rum.  Basically, they were pick-up trucks with bench seats installed in the back.  We bounced around a bit but the scenery was so breathtakingly beautiful we did not mind.

Stopped for lunch at a Bedouin Camp.  Lamb, chicken, carrots, and potatoes, stacked on a 3-tiered grate and cooked for three hours over hot coals -- all of it buried in the sand.

Getting ready to dig up one of the best lunches we have had on this world cruise and not a grain of sand in to be found in any of it.

(left) Here we are entering the Khazali Canyon, a deep, NARROW fissure in the mountain side.

(Right)  Making our way along the narrow footpath was a bit “challenging” but exhilarating.  Everyone made it out alive.

At the end of the day we gathered to watch the change of colors on the rocks to the east as the sun sank below the horizon in the west.  Magical.