Another Long Walk: Day 14: Leaving Petra and Crazy for Scarves

March 14: The restaurant would open for breakfast at 6:30, but I didn't actually make it until closer to 7:00 because I had to pack. I had stuff spread out all over the place--drying out clothes I had washed in the bathtub, airing out gear and it took awhile to put it all together again.

I ate breakfast--which was delicious and I piled my plate high full of stuff that I hadn't been eating almost every day for two weeks (including little pancakes!)

I sent a bunch of postcards from here. So far as I know... not a single one of these arrived at their destination. If you did get a postcard from me, ironically, it probably featured Petra. I didn't write those until after I already passed through here and mailed them from Amman. The postcards I mailed from here mostly featured Wadi Rum. And look! I'm wearing a new scarf!

I wore one of my new scarves to breakfast to show off, but I was a little disappointed when nobody seemed to notice and told Karolina as much. "Why is nobody noticing my new scarf?! I look like a prince!"

We checked out of the hotel at 7:45, but ended up waiting around for others and didn't get moving until closer to 8:30 in the morning. That was okay, though--we had a relatively short 13 kilometer day today.

We lost quite a few people who had been hiking with us since Aqaba, but Ali and Lina rejoined us as well as several new faces who would hike with us for the next several days.

The weather had changed dramatically overnight and it was surprisingly cold and overcast. All day it looked like it might rain but happily, it never did.

I usually wore my floppy hat with the wide brim since it kept the sun out of my eyes and off my face, but today I wore a scarf for hiking because the sun wasn't an issue and the scarf is more fun and colorful. And it helped keep my head warmer than my hat would have done.

Our route would took us through Petra again, so we walked down to the entrance and through the Siq for the fourth time now. We veered off before reaching the Royal Tombs and followed the trail to the Monastery which involved a long climb up. On a hot day, it would have been miserable but a cool day like today it was refreshing. Got your blood pumping and helped keep us warm.
We finally arrived at the Monastery which was absolutely gorgeous! Once again I was amazed at the work the Nabateans were able to do two thousand years ago without power tools or hydraulic presses. Absolutely amazing.

The Monastery

Our group stopped for a break here--and what a wonderful place for a break! But it got fairly cold outside once we stopped hiking so many of us went into a small restaurant to escape the cold.

Karolina had seen some camel souvenirs that she was interested in so I volunteered to go to a nearby souvenir shop and attempt to acquire one. I wanted to get a closer look at the Monastery along the way and perhaps buy another scarf while I was there because three scarves was obviously not enough. ;o)

Karolina said to only buy the camels at a "good price", but the seller opened the negotiation at 5 JD and we didn't come to an agreement. However, the scarves were selling for a mere 3 JDs and I wound up buying two more bringing my total to five.

So many scarves to choose from!

As I turned around to head back to the rest of the group, Karolina ran up saying that the group was leaving and I had to go! Oh! Yikes! Usually Lama gave us a 10 minute warning before we started hiking again, but if she did that this time, I must have missed it. I hadn't been gone for very long.

I rushed back and caught up with the group which had only gotten a minute or two head start on me.

I didn't have any trash bags with me and my dealer, Puk, didn't have any to offer, so I didn't pick up any trash... at least not at first. Eventually a found a plastic bag that was in pretty good shape and started using that to pick up trash. Along the way, I told Karolina about my buying two more scarves.

"You bought two more?!" she exclaimed. "You're worse than a girl who goes shopping!"

Karolina, so far, had only purchased two scarves for herself. I was up to five and already thinking I needed two more. One for every day of the week seemed like the right number.

The Monastery marked the end of the main part of Petra, then we followed some dramatic cliff-side trails toward Little Petra. It's like Petra, except the monuments are smaller and not so world-renowned as the main city.

We walked passed the entrance for it, though. The Jordan Trail would enter the site, but that was for tomorrow. Today, we veered off trail to a permanent Bedouin camp. We were camped in tents, but a permanent tent made of heavy canvas rather than the usual lightweight pop-up tents we usually slept in.

The place provided flush toilets and showers. I skipped the shower having had one just that morning at the hotel, but the toilets was a nice amenity I was happy to use.

Inside the common area, we got a demonstration about how they make Bedouin coffee. Most of the time was just spent crushing the coffee beans in a container with a large stick which was hypnotic to listen to, like playing a percussion instrument.

I passed on trying the coffee--I really don't like coffee. I'm not a big fan of tea, but I truly hate the taste of coffee and can't even fake it if I tried.

But all-in-all, it was an interesting demonstration and another awesome day on the trail.