Although the EMYR rally is now officially completed and behind us, there are still a lot of people who had taken part in the rally, whose boats remained in Herzliya marina. Meanwhile, all of theses people are now doing their own thing. Some are off taking part in excursions, some individually, others in groups. The four of us on Tucanon decided to take a four day excursion to Jordan so, at 7.30am on Friday, 20^th June, we again climbed aboard a coach. This time we were off to the Israeli/Jordanian border. There was a small delay as we went through the formalities, before walking through the duty free shop to the other side. The coach that had brought us this far had left but there was another coach, the one that had brought a party from the marina, who were doing the 3 day trip to Jordan. All of us crowded onto this remaining coach, to cross the border into Jordan.

We were met by a Jordanian tour guide who was to be with us while we were in Jordan. After having our passports checked we boarded another coach and were on our way. We went to Jerash, where we had lunch before visiting the roman city of Decapolis, with colonnaded streets, an ancient theatre,etc. From there we drove to Madaba, where we visited a church which happened to be in the home town of our guide, to see a mosaic map of the Holy land, made in 600AD. Unfortunately, a lot of the map been destroyed over the intervening years and was therefore not as enlightening as one might have wished. That night was spent in a hotel in Amman.

Next morning we left Amman early, to drive to Petra where we spent the entire day exploring “Sela Edom”, the red rock city, the ancient capital of the Nabateans from 3^rd century BC to 2^nd century AD, with its unique carved monuments. It was extremely hot but as we did not leave until the afternoon, the return to the coach, was thankfully in the shade. Some people made the return trip to the coach by horseback, camel or even horse and cart. We preferred to walk.

We did not have to leave the hotel until 9am on Sunday which was wonderful. No early morning calls just plenty of time to get it all together. We drove to Aqaba and explored the town, bought some lunch which we ate en-route to Wadi Rum, where Lawrence of Arabia fought with the Bedouins. We spent a couple of hours exploring the desert at Wadi Rum, in several 4X4 vehicles, one of which was driven by an 8 year old boy accompanied by a male pal of a similar age!

Leaving behind, those members of the party, who wished to spend the night at a Bedouin camp, in the desert, the rest of us boarded the coach and returned to our hotel in Petra, an hour and a half away. Sadly, we had stopped at too many craft shops during the day so, unlike yesterday, our arrival at the hotel was just a little too late for us to take advantage of the pool.

That evening, many of the happy campers embarked upon another 4X4 excursion, driving into the desert to watch the sun set and the changing colours as the light reflected on the rock.

Morning in the desert started at 4.30. It was dark and the air was full of mosquitoes. It took a while before the sun rose but because it was hidden behind a mountain, there was no glorious sunrise. It just became lighter and eventually the sun rose above the mountains.

The group that had spent the night at the desert camp, arrived at the hotel in Petra about 9am and we were soon on our way to the border crossing. The formalities on the Jordanian side of the border were quite unremarkable however, the crossing from Jordan to Israel was a joke. I cannot believe that these are the same people who saved the hostages at Entebbe. Of course, they are not the same people. Those heroes were the elite of the elite, these people are just ordinary, like the rest of us.

We had to hand 1 bag per person, with our passport, to a baggage handler, then wait for the return of our passport. Any further bags that we are carting remain with us. After some delay our passports are returned, in an ad hoc manner, with a sticker on the cover. I peel the sticker off the cover of my passport which I do not wish to be defaced so soon after its renewal. I stick the sticker onto the top of my left wrist and move on to the next section. We wait awhile and then pass through passport control. We move on to the next section where we put our possessions through a scanner while we move to another scanner through which we have to walk. We collect our bags, cameras etc from the other conveyor belt and have to deposit them on a chair while we walk into a machine which puffs air at us. The operator puts a blue sticker, with the date written onto it, on the cover of my passport. This sticker I transfer to the underside of my left wrist, collect my baggage from the chair and move on to the next section. While I wait in the queue, I transfer both stickers to a slip of paper I have received en-route through this parade. I reach a desk and the girl behind the desk types information from my white sticker, into her computer and lets me pass. A man tries to take from me the slip of paper which now has both of the stickers on it. I won’t let him have it. I need the sticker to collect my checked in luggage. After a bit of a gentle tug of war, he tears my slip of paper in half and gives it to me. I approach a pile of luggage dumped on the floor ahead. Searching through the luggage, I find our overnight bag, Dick’s rucksack and Lucy’s overnight bag. I wait until Dick and Lucy join me and we all walk out past another control station which asks for nothing. Outside we are directed to the coach which takes us back to the marina.