Jordan – what a surprise!

10.-17.10.2023

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“Welcome to Jordan!” – I still remember this friendly, frequently repeated form of greeting well from my Silk Road tour when entering Iran. But the friendliness shown to us on the Jordanian side after the very strict and time-consuming, though by no means unfriendly, border control on the Israeli side far surpasses anything we have experienced so far. Not only the border officials, regardless of their function, or the money changer at the Westerni Union counter, no, even the road roller driver at the soon to be reached construction site calls out his welcome to us and leans far out of his driver’s cab, waving and laughing.

After the depressing ‘escape’ from Israel, this immediately captivating and charming friendliness instantly raises our mood barometer. The reception in the friendly Mina Hotel in Aqaba and almost every further encounter with the people who meet us with open faces strengthen this feeling of well-being even more.

So we enjoy the now involuntarily longer than originally planned stay and fill our days with

• planning and organising our onward journey
• snorkelling and chilling at the Berenice Beach Club
• a 2-day excursion to two UNESCO World Heritage sites: the rock city of Petra and Wadi Rum – both must-see destinations, but inaccessible by bike.

Petra was founded around 2,000 years ago – exact date unknown – by the Nabataeans as a trading centre for frankincense, myrrh and spices, later annexed and further developed by the Romans and largely destroyed by an earthquake in 363 AD. In addition, new trade routes caused its importance to wane, and so it was finally abandoned in the middle of the 7th century.

Today it is a centre of attraction for tourists from all over the world, especially popular with travellers from France, and captivates every visitor with its uniqueness of location and sensations. So we spend almost a whole day, walking more than 10 km, always stopping to marvel at the artistic testimonies of a highly developed past culture.

Completely different, but no less impressive and unique is Wadi Rum – a landscape, vast in scale and effect, enchanting and inspiring every visitor no matter whether explored on foot, on two or four wheels or on the back of a camel. The moonless, clear starry skies, which are only affected by a little extraneous light, or the almost dramatic scenario of the sunrise experienced in romantic solitude between the mighty rocks, as well as the interesting, nicely guided jeep safari to famous locations from the film ‘Lawrence of Arabia’, among others, remain as particularly lasting moments for us.

The snorkelling tour to Berenice Beach, on the other hand, is rather disappointing. While the glass-bottom boat ride with its view of an aircraft wreck and a shipwreck still offers a certain attraction, albeit not without a creepy effect, the diving on the reef is rather sad. Whereas the Red Sea was once considered one of the best, if not the best, diving sites in the world, this time, unlike my experience almost 40 years ago, I am more likely to cry tears of disappointment than of emotion. Instead of corals and sea anemones as well as countless species of fish in an overwhelming variety of colours and shapes, there are only grey dead corals in which you have to look for the occasional fish that have strayed into them.

But this sad experience is not suitable to diminish our enthusiasm for this country and its lovely people and to make it easier for us to say goodbye. We will definitely miss the special sunset atmosphere with the wistful view every evening over the Gulf of Aqaba over to Israel’s Eilat.