The harsh and beautiful land

Farming in Jordan can be a tough game

We headed east toward the Iraq border; the landscape became stony and unforgiving.  I'm never going to complain it's dry again. How people make a living from such a tough environment with as little as 50mm of rain a year is beyond me. I can see why livestock play a big roll out there, growing crops is out of the question without irrigation and even then it's saline ground water.

I was having trouble getting hold of my other contacts and so I cut my losses and headed south for Petra. I've always wanted to see it and the experience didn't let me down. I planned to go down to

Wadi Rum as well so I only had the day there. So, up early, I dropped into Karak and Shobak en route, both sites with Crusader castles. Sitting high upon a steep mountain their sheer faces would have presented a daunting task to any would be attacker. I'm amazed they still stand after more than eight hundred years. Petra was busy with people everywhere wanting to see the mighty buildings carved out of stone. It was a thrill to walk through the narrow chasm that opens out to reveal the Treasury building, one of the most famous buildings in the Petra Valley. I could rattle on and on about how great it was but I think I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. One tip if you go, stay late, bring a torch and walk out in the dark. I had the place virtually to myself after 5pm.