We slept well in our Mars pod. How I wished we had another night. But no, we were up for breakfast in the cave restaurant and then we had to pack up. The weather was not as good, very windy and the sand was blowing a bit. It even showered with rain at one point. We were so lucky to have toured the wadi in brilliant sun yesterday. I have included three short video clips from yesterday above which I have only had enough wifi today to load.
The jeep took us back to the carpark at 1030 and we loaded up and set off. We picked up the King’s Highway at Aqaba, heading north. It would take us straight back almost to Amman running alongside the Dead Sea a lot of the way. We hoped to spend an hour or so at the hot springs at Ma’in along the way.
The weather really deteriorated as we entered the desert again north of Aqaba. The wind was very strong and soon a full blown sandstorm was underway. We put our lights on and slowed down and luckily this road is pretty empty all the way, unlike the Desert Highway which is a trucking route. It was very hard to see at times and we had to be careful of sand buildups on the road itself. This went on for about 90 minutes and then the rain started in earnest.
By the time we reached the southern point of the Dead Sea, the sand storms stopped as we entered rock desert again, driving along great sandstone cliffs and canyons to our right and the blue Dead Sea to our left. We stopped to take a couple of photos but the bad weather had slowed us and it was 3pm by the time we got to the Ma’in Spa hotel. Which had closed the spa pools due to the weather. Next time…..
We drove on to Madaba hoping to see some of the mosaic churches there. One of them has a 6th century floor mosaiced with a map of the Mediterranean world. We parked up but the rain was extremely heavy and we would have been soaked so we went to a local restaurant instead. They were really nice and put fires on and fed us lovely hot food. Last soups and lamb dishes.
Soon enough it was time to drive to our meeting place near the airport to drop off the hire car. The car hire guy drove us to the airport and that was the end of our time in Jordan.
It has been an absolute joy. The Jordanian people have been overwhelmingly welcoming and kind, so happy to show us their country and customs. There is so much to see and do here and the scenery is stunning. Of course, there is a lot of history and depending on your interests you could build a whole tour around that. We would hope to come back another time to enjoy the hospitality of this wonderful place. If you are considering a holiday here, then don’t hesitate. We have only felt safe and welcomed at all times. Much safer than many other places in the world to be frank.