We are taking a long driving tour of Jordan today to end up at the airport tonight for our 2AM flight (Wednesday AM). This is one way to do it.

We left the camp in Wadi Rum around 8 to meet our driver and guide. By the time the day is through we will have almost driven the entire length of the country with our northern most destination being Jarash. This is 5 hours from Wadi Rum.

We will stop in Madaba (City of Mosaics) for St George’s Church, a Greek Orthodox Church, with mosaics depicting Jerusalem and other holy sites. Madaba is about 50 miles from Jerusalem across the Jordan River. It is also near the site on the Jordan where John the Baptist baptized Jesus (which we will not see). We will make a stop at Mount Nebo, the purported burial place of Moses.

In Jerash, we will consume some final Greek and Roman ruins before turning back for Amman, dinner and the airport.

Our guide has provided much information about Jordan- it is a very peaceful country without oil so not rich like some Middle Eastern neighbors. It has received 2million refugees from Syria which has caused strain on housing, healthcare, etc. Jordan depends on outside support from the US and other nations for its economy and military. The main economic drivers are phosphates, potassium and tourism.

As a desert country the sources of water are few and in Amman the government turns on the taps only one day a week for households and businesses to fill their water tanks.

Although we have seen sheep, goats and camels, most meat for consumption is imported live for slaughter here. We have seen trucks full of cows being transported from the southern port of Aqaba moving north into Jordan, Syria, Turkey and on to Europe. According to our guide this is cheaper than going through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean.

Jordan also has many speed bumps- even on the highways!

My review of the luxury camp is that I would not go back. It was an experience, but a day trip to Wadi Rum is do-able from Petra if you want to get a desert tour in the back of a small Toyota truck and see the red sand and hieroglyphs. And Petra itself is not a place where you venture out at night to sit in a cafe. Our first night we ordered off a menu at the hotel, but all other meals have been buffet.

Update after visit to Madaba.

While Jordan is 93% Muslim overall, this city is over 20% Christian and there are a number of churches. The mosaic map on the floor in St Georges’s depicts the Holy Land.

Mount Nebo. Mount Nebo is a sacred mountain and very peaceful place – from which we can see The Dead Sea, the Jordan River, Bethlehem and even Jerusalem on a clear day (it was not clear enough to see either city today). Moses is said to have spent his final days here and viewed the promised land, which he would never enter. John Paul visited in 2000 and planted an olive tree.

Highlights from Jerash:

Jerash has 6500 years of an unbroken chain of human occupation. It is one of the best preserved Roman towns in the world with temples, theaters, colonnaded streets, towers and gates. We spent a couple of hours walking through the mile-long site. Now dinner, then airport.