Saturday 3.7.2010- Sunday 4.7.2010
We made our final preparations and headed off to the Qatari border post with David, Tijm and Sara. I donned my abaya and the car got a covering with washing up liquid. For those of you that don't know this, the washing up liquid protects the car from abrasive, sand particles damaging the paintwork. However, the cheeky guy in the photo tried to charge us 50 riyals for his 5 minutes of handiwork! Meanwhile, David was only being charged 15 riyals for the privilege! We stayed in sleepy Hafr- Al- Bittin (Holiday Inn) which is halfway to Jordan. In Hafr we hardly saw any women and those we did see were completely covered including the face. Even with my abaya on everyone glared at us as I am with 4 blonde children and 2 tall men! Marije(David's wife) is meeting us in Petra in a few days. What can I say, teachers get amazing holidays!
The drive in Saudi is a monotonous desert interrupted by sand dunes, oil pipelines, black scorched camels and eroded rocks. The sand swallows the road at regular intervals and the road is cracked and old. Lorries are a danger and erratic drivers with no patience are the norm.We drove across a flat featureless plain on a never ending road for hours. Eventually, we began to see the Jordanian hills in the distance. After miles of sand it was an inspiring sight believe me!
We arrived at the border to be greeted by very friendly Jordanians who commented on Antoine's orange shirt. "Holland good, Holland good!" Football fever is everywhere. A spectacular sunset and a short drive led us to Azraq( blue in Arabic) lodge. The restaurant was closed but they still rustled up some dinner for us. The hospitality in Jordan is amazing.
