Thursday 7th January - Amman to Madaba

We drove out of Amman via the Wild Jordan Centre, run by the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature in Jordan, which has created a number of nature reserves throughout the country.  We wanted to ask about camping opportunities but were disappointed to be told that “camping” was only allowed using the tented camps in the reserves, but these are shut October-March.  However, we consoled ourselves by booking a night in one of their cabins on the shores of the Dead Sea in the Wadi Mujib Nature Reserve, and two nights at the Feinan Eco-Lodge on the edge of the Dana Nature Reserve, accessible only by 4WD.  Whilst it’s been nice seeing lots of ruins and suchlike on our travels, we’ve been missing doing the more outdoor type stuff we enjoy, so are hoping to get some trekking done at the reserves.

We also stopped for our first fill of Jordanian fuel; a bit more expensive than Syria, but at 40p/litre we’re not complaining.  There are two traits we’ve noticed that fuel pump attendants in Syria and Jordan seem to exhibit; the first is that it appears to be a personal challenge to get your tank as full as possible, brimming your filler until overflowing; the second is the need to light a cigarette as soon as they start to refuel your vehicle (at least we take less flammable diesel rather than petrol).

Hitting the well labelled and maintained highways reminds you how comparatively bad the roads are in Syria, and we made good progress south west to Madaba, famous for its Byzantine mosaics.  We checked into a hotel five minutes’ walk from the centre and found that we had wireless in the room; we suddenly felt reconnected to the world after a week without the internet.  Blogger isn’t blocked in Jordan so we can take over update duties for the time being (thanks Tory, although we’ll need your services again when we return through Syria).

Lunch on our balcony in the sun was all very civilized before we went in search of the town’s mosaics, the most famous being the 560 AD masoic map in St. Georges Church, depicting all the major biblical sites in the Middle East from Egypt to Palestine.  Although much has been lost or destroyed, what remains conveys a sense of how the complete map would have looked.  Other mosaics are on show at the Archaeological Park, centred on those contained in the remains of a 6th century villa and 8th century church (the latter partially built over the earlier villa), and in the Church of the Apostles.

A coffee and donut perked up our sugar levels for the walk back, where we made full use of the internet until it was time to pop out for some local cuisine, in our case pizza!  It was another gloriously sunny day today, Anne’s been slapping on the suncream after having caught the sun on her nose a few days ago (although it doesn’t take much to burn her, most people probably wouldn’t need to bother with the factor 30!).  Sorry to rub in how good the weather’s been whilst you’re all buried in snow in the UK, we’ll be back in February to suffer along with you.