{"id":8697,"date":"2020-11-29T14:53:35","date_gmt":"2020-11-29T13:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=8697"},"modified":"2020-11-29T14:55:34","modified_gmt":"2020-11-29T13:55:34","slug":"8697","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=8697","title":{"rendered":"Overland to Jordan"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE ROAD TO PETRA<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

As a teenager, I remembered my father telling me about Petra \u201cthe rose-red city half as old as time\u201d. What a colourful description that was of the ruined city, carved out of rock in deepest Jordan that lay undiscovered until the 19th century. Years later in a long summer holiday, I found some friends from university who I persuaded to join me in a drive across Europe to visit Jordan and Petra.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ad-Deir (“The Monastery”)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This was in the late 1960 and international travel was not as it is today. So we bought an old Ford Zephyr, a reliable car and large enough to carry four friends and our gear. We were given masses of food by some sponsors we had approached and to an extent, this was more trouble than it was worth. I remember packing the boot with large green tins of Golden Syrup which we never felt like eating.<\/p>\n

The drive across Belgium, Germany, Austria and Yugoslavia all went reasonably well. The car flew along and we all took turns driving the long stretches of motorway. To save money we camped each night and one evening after a particularly long day we set up our tents and the duty cook has just about prepared a large stew for us all to share when it fell off the primus stove and was lost. I could have been the moment for anger and recrimination but he just said \u201coh well \u2013 these things happen\u201d and stated all over again. It was a great example of British sangfroid or composure.<\/p>\n

We had been warned that driving through Istanbul was a nightmare with mad Turkish truck drivers causing mayhem on the roads to cries of \u201cInshallah\u201d or if God wills it. However, we crossed the Bosphorous without incident and set off for the long haul of about a thousand miles across Turkey to the Mediterranean port of Iskenderun. The days were now very hot and our ancient car was seriously overheating so we began to drive by night when the air was cool and sleep during the heat of the day. One day we were parked off the side of the road and stretched out in the shade of some trees to sleep. I was woken by some sound or movement and sat up at once to see a figure skulking into the undergrowth. I feared we had been robbed and woke the others to see what had been taken but there \u2013 lying between us \u2013 was a wooden platter of figs and pomegranates which had been left as a gift. It was a most generous gesture by a local farmer and that act of kindness has stuck in my mind ever since.<\/p>\n

Crossing the border from Turkey to Syria was a slow business but there was no queue it was just a problem of language and bureaucracy. We were soon motoring on our way along dusty unmade roads when our engine spluttered and died. We had no idea what to do but it seemed that the radiator had burst as clouds of steam were coming from it. There was no AA or RAC or anyone to help us so two of us walked to a village where we found a man who was\u00a0willing to help. He walked back with us leading a large unwilling donkey. In no time at all he had hitched the car behind the donkey and the car was pulled to the village and the house of the blacksmith. Here the radiator was removed and a charcoal fire blown into life so the radiator could be patched up by brazing up the hole. This was a great success and having put it all back together we drove to Jordan.<\/p>\n

We stopped in Amman the capital as one of the team had a relative working in the British embassy there. We were entertained to a lavish supper and spent a couple of days at the Embassy swimming pool which was marvellous, but my real memory of that was getting very sunburnt.<\/p>\n

From Amman, it was a long desert drive to Petra where we exchanged our car for camels and rode through the siq, a cleft in the cliffs, to reach the massive buildings which had been carved out or rock a hundred years after the birth of Christ. We spent a hot day climbing around the temples and other ruins before heading back to our car. We had spent weeks reaching Petra and we were pleased to have reached our objective. Now our sights were on getting home as fast as possible. We retraced our route stopping only to visit the magnificent castle in Syria known as Crac des Chevaliers, which is a Crusader castle in Syria and one of the most important preserved medieval castles in the world.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Crac des Chevaliers<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

We stopped in Istanbul for the night in a cheap hotel and celebrated our success with a meal in a caf\u00e9. I drank some cool Ayran, a drink of curdled milk with mint, from a street vendor and became very ill. I spent the next days feeling wretched in the back of the car and was thankful to get home where a doctor kindly gave me some antibiotics and I was soon much better.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE ROAD TO PETRA As a teenager, I remembered my father telling me about Petra \u201cthe rose-red city half as old as time\u201d. What a colourful description that was of the ruined city, carved out of rock in deepest Jordan that lay undiscovered until the 19th century. Years later in a long summer holiday, I found some friends from university […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[125],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6cWjO-8697","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12097,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=12097","url_meta":{"origin":8697,"position":0},"title":"July 2022 Book Choice","author":"Alan Williams","date":"6th August 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cThe Songbirds\" By Christy Lefteri Nisha is from Sri Lanka. She is a nanny\/domestic help in Nicosia, sending money home to support her daughter. Nisha has disappeared and her story is written through the eyes of her lover Yannis, and her employer Petra. Petra struggles being a mother to Aliki\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Page Turners"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Page Turners","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=41"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4423,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=4423","url_meta":{"origin":8697,"position":1},"title":"February and March Events","author":"Alan Williams","date":"28th March 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 We had a relaxing musical afternoon on the 21st February when Mr. Joel Jordan played his guitar and sang to us. He sang songs from the 40's onward which were all well known to us, from the Beatles. Patsy Kline, etc. We had a delightful afternoon. On the 28th\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Leisure Group"","block_context":{"text":"Leisure Group","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=42"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8758,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=8758","url_meta":{"origin":8697,"position":2},"title":"Warning – Fake Mail Notifications","author":"Alan Williams","date":"29th November 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"BEWARE FAKE ROYAL MAIL NOTIFICATIONS PC Gareth Jordan from Dyfed Powys Police states that they have become aware of fake Royal Mail notifications being sent out via email. 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I was a young army officer in the Royal Regiment of Wales and our battalion was to train there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reader's Travel Tales"","block_context":{"text":"Reader's Travel Tales","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=125"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3706,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=3706","url_meta":{"origin":8697,"position":4},"title":"Llandow Air Disaster 12 March 1950","author":"Alan Williams","date":"27th September 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \u00a0 In the years after WWII there was a surge in demand for air travel. This was largely met with aircraft that had been sold off as surplus to requirements. People began to realise that travel by aeroplane was something available to everyone, not just the rich. A Cardiff\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reader's Travel Tales"","block_context":{"text":"Reader's Travel Tales","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=125"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9050,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=9050","url_meta":{"origin":8697,"position":5},"title":"Teacher’s Adventures In Mexico","author":"Alan Williams","date":"1st February 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"A Teacher's Adventures In Mexico Having read some of Mrs Jones\u2019s recollections of her teaching career in a recent What\u2019s On, it has prompted me to share some of my memories and experiences at the chalk face! In September 1985, I boarded a plane to fly to Mexico City, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reader's Travel Tales"","block_context":{"text":"Reader's Travel Tales","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=125"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Picture4.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8697"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8697"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8701,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8697\/revisions\/8701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}