Syrie - Jordanie 2001

August 10, 2001 – Wadi Rum – Aqaba

Early wake up to see the sunrise and another time the show is splendid. After some glasses of tea and a big Choukrane to the whole family. We have to leave quickly to catch the minibus to Aqaba. Goodbye and see you soon!

We arrive one hour later in Aqaba where we say goodbye to Marianne, Eric and Henri who are going to Amman and then they prepare a long week end in Jerusalem before going back to France. With Aurelien and Lydia, we are going to the Petra Hotel and his wonderful terrace. From the top of the hotel, we have an amazing view on the gulf of Aqaba: the city of Aqaba, Eilat (Israel) and the first parts of Egypt.

Once we chose our places on the terrace, we eat some hot sandwiches from a bakery and we take a taxi (1.5 JD) to go to Yemenieh beach in the south. The taxi leaves us near the Murjan club where we want to rent masks and scubas but they have rocket prices (5 JD for a mask and a scuba). We will only take one equipment.

On the beach there is a lot of wind and even under a giant beach umbrella the shadow is extremely hot. Access to the water is a little bit tricky and dangerous because there are a lot of sea urchins and the coral can cut you like a knife (my feet are still remembering this time!!!). Tomorrow we will move somewhere else.

We come back on our own from the club because I want to clean rapidly the cuttings. So I try to hitch on the road and a few minutes later a Jordan stops and drives me to Aqaba.

Tonight, we are going to eat some chicken chawarmas in a restaurant full of locals. The chawarmas are very good but I don’t feel well. It might be the consequence of the terrible heat (around 40° C at 8pm!!!!).