Jewels of Jordan

Jewels of Jordan – 16th – 29th March 2012

I have just returned from my 28th trip with Ramblers Worldwide, which as usual was well organised and well led.

The highlight was as expected, the city of Petra, which was wonderful and really does need the four nights spent at the very good Petra Palace Hotel, as this enabled the group to fully explore the vast site.

Whilst I enjoyed the whole holiday, I will just emphasise two other “wow” factors – one cultural and one scenic.

The cultural experience, which I did not expect to be as good as it was, was the visit to the old Roman city of Jerash, which quite rightly is compared to Pompeii. Although not perhaps quite as good as Pompeii, the site is very large and contains some magnificent ruins, some of which have been partly restored in a very sympathetic way.

The scenic experience was the fairly short walk into the Wadi (gorge) of Ibn Hammad. This was one of two walks where much of the walking was in the water running through the gorge. Surprise number one: the water was WARM.

Surprise number two: the rock colours, the constant change of scenery as the gorge twisted this way and that, and the vegetation, some of which hung down the sides of the gorge. The walk was a delightful experience and should hold no fears for anyone.

Hazel was our very good Ramblers Worldwide Holidays leader, and Mahdi was our very knowledgeable local guide, who oozed information about the country which he obviously loves. A great holiday.