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Day 17 - sunny, hot (32degC), dry as. It was up at 6.15, ablutions, breakfast etc and off walking 200m from hotel to the start of the spectacular historic sandstone city that is Petra. Heard and seen plenty about it over the years and it didn’t disappoint me - nor any of the 100s of tourists that went on the same day - even saw a couple of policemen on horseback - pingy decent size Arabs (16hhigh).
It was downhill into the Siq (the narrow bit where all the famous carved into the rock facades and cave are) and the heat kicked in immediately. It was like Florida in the middle of summer, real dehydration and sunstroke country. Sure enough later in the day we saw an ambulance taking out some poor tourist who’d probably got too much sun. I became a shade- seeker and sought out the caves, found all the way through the walk, were cool and dark - a sanctuary from the heat-blast outside.
It was a real circus at the Treasury (the most famous facade), 100s of people, kids charging round on donkeys, camel,and mule rides, not to mention the golf carts that transport all those unable to walk the distance. No doubt about it though, the Treasury facade (see pic) was spectacular. We wandered on past all the curio sellers for another km or so, heaps of different rick carved facades - which they say mostly were for tombs. Majdi Zacker, our Jordanian Tour Guide, walked with us and was a fount of info about details of Petra culture, history, architecture etc. We ended up down at the Great Temple area and mercifully they was a cafe, lunch and a rest. Jeremy shot off on a mule up to a monastery about 1km up the side of the valley. I just sat and rehydrated.
After an hour or so Jeremy returned and we did a non-stop route march back all the way to the hotel - about 17,000 steps total for the day. I was knackered, drank enough water to sink a ship, showered, had a siesta and then a couple of beers. Good day
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