We arrived Tel Aviv March 9 very tired.  We had been traveling since 10am March 8 from Knysna, South Africa.  We had to recover quickly as the agenda for visiting Jordan and Israel would be jam-packed.

As is our practice now, when we arrive in a new country we make two key airport purchases.  First stop, ATM for cash.  Some charge a small fee and others charge fees that are down right criminal.  Second stop, and this one can take a while, we get new SIM cards.  Andy and I have second phones for which we need local phone SIMs and then we get a data only SIM with 3-5 Gig capacity for our MiFi (portable wifi).  This is key because the girls have to keep up with their school work (a subject for another post but in short, they are maintaining high scores and working very hard).  Anyway, sometimes this is a painful process and other times not so much.  The girls have become used to the extra hour in each airport as these essential items are procured.  Lauren is adept at finding free wifi and settling down for the wait. Our Israeli SIMs took a long time but the staff at Cell C couldn’t have been nicer.  I left with a suggested driving route from Tel Aviv to Jordan; a list of restaurants in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem; and the name of an area, far from the hostilities, where young Israelis and Palestinians share natural springs and swim spots in peace.

One night in Tel Aviv meant that we wouldn’t see much but we did our best to see the old fort; walk one of the hip shopping streets; and enjoy an excellent Tel Aviv bakery.  We followed our Cell C recommendations and drove from Tel Aviv to Eilat by way of Mizpe Ramon (making a stop to lay a stone at Ben Gurion’s grave) and the great crater area (Israel’s mini Grand Canyon).  One night in Eilat (which I hope to never repeat) and then a seamless crossing into Jordan at 7am on March 11.  Ahhh.  From here we will slow our pace and take in the amazing landscape and history of Jordan and Israel.

Petra

This is the beginning of the Rift Valley.  Go ahead, open Google Maps and take a look.  Or, here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_African_Rift   See in the insert the line that runs through Jordan and the Arabian plate and then the valley that is created down to East Africa?  The breaking apart of the three plates has created a valley that runs from Petra to Tanzania!  I find this especially interesting.

So here we are in Petra for two days.  To enter Petra (the “Lost City”, the “Rose Red City”) we must pass through the Siq – this is that fault line.  So cool.

On our first day, we saw the Treasury and then took the moderate hike to see the Monastery.  On our second, we hiked to the High Place of Sacrifice.  This is where people came to offer animal sacrifice.  On our leisurely walk back down, we visited various tombs and even got lost.  The Bedouin children are quick to the rescue with directions, for a dinar.  If it hadn’t been snowing, we might have hiked up to see the Royal Tombs as well.  But alas, we were cold and the rocks are slippery when wet.

Wadi Rum

Wadi means valley and Rum means mountains.  It’s an accurate naming of this place. We left Petra at 9am and were sand-boarding by 11am.  I took a really funny video of the girls going down together with a full tumble at the end that you might have seen on my Instagram!  Our guide, Adil is sweet young man of only 20 years.  Most of our guides on our trips have been older, some with PhD’s.  It was fun to be out with this young man and his jerry-rigged car stereo. He sang full out with his stereo blasting as he drove us from site to site in this great valley.  We were in the desert with near freezing temperatures but his youthful attitude was warm indeed.  We roamed the valley taking in various sites, made lunch in a walled cave, hiked through valleys, and then Rose drove the jeep. She did well and we survived.

That night we joined with six others at our tented camp to drink lots of tea by the fire and hear stories passed from grandfathers to sons over many generations.  The Wadi Rum was a key passageway in ancient times and the people who lived here were wealthy from trading with the caravans as they passed from Damascus to Mecca.  We saw rock carvings of the people from that time, Lawrence of Arabia’s home, the fresh water spring that watered camels as they passed, and families still living the Bedouin lifestyle in the valley (somehow, I don’t have any photos of them).

We left early March 14 for Israel.  The border crossing was equally easy, though Lauren and I both had our bags thoroughly inspected by the Israeli soldiers.  (Note to self:  lingerie should always be in its own bag.)  From here we would make our way to Jerusalem…