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We said goodbye to Ken & Judi this morning. They left to go down to Aqaba, then through Israel (Eilat) and into Egypt (Taba) before going down to Dahab and relative luxury. We were off on the bus to Karak to see the crusader castle. We arrived at the bus station to find there was no bus to Karak (we thought this may be the case) so hopped on the bus to Amman. About 2 hours later, the bus dropped us at the turnoff from the highway to Karak . We were supposed to find another minibus from there (about 30km). As we were walking up the road, a repair truck stopped and asked if we wanted a lift. He didn't take us all the way but dropped us 10km short of Karak - at a police car! The policeman was pleased to show off his Audi A6 - quite flash for a Jordanian police car.. The policeman stopped a couple of cars whilst we were waiting - we assumed this was in the line of duty, but the second one he said was giving us a lift!
Karak castle was built on top of a hill and dominates the town and the surrounding countryside. We could see the castle clearly as we came into the town. We were dropped at the entrance to the castle, conveniently closely to the hotels in town. We checked in one and were off round the castle.
The castle was mostly ruins and was not very impressive inside - lots of grim under ground passages. The castle is best seen from afar as then it looks impressive. After the visit, we walked round the town - the first time we had seen an ordinary Jordanian town. Certainly more prosperous then Egypt, but everything is cheaper than Petra.
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