Today (Saturday) we said goodbye to Hakuk Balev as we left Galilee to begin our few days of travelling in Jordan. The crossing from Israel to Jordan was uneventful, but we still seemed to spend an unnecessarily long time in front of this sign while waiting to board the shuttle bus that takes people across the Sheik Hussein Bridge.
We then headed south along the eastern side of the Jordan River, through a series of Jordanian villages.
After driving south for about two hours we met up with the other nine people joining us for this next stage, and then went to Madaba where we visited the church with its ancient map of the Holy Land, including the earliest map of Jerusalem.
From there we went to Mt Nebo to overlook the promised land, while our guide (Sam) provided a good introduction to the land and the history of this place.
After visiting a nearby sheltered workshop where beautiful handcrafts are made and sold, we headed south. The drive to Petra required another three and a half hours driving, and took us deep into the desert.
Finally we arrived at our hotel were we will spend two nights: Beit Zaman. This is an authentic local village that was turned into a very nice resort, while the population used the income to build a new village nearby with more modern amenities. In any case, this is a delightful place to stay.
