Friday 20-Mar-2009
I slept very well and walk next door to the Obelisk Restaurant for buffet breakfast. With the stone floors and metal-legged chairs, it's rather like an upmarket cafeteria but it's not too crowded and the staff are helpful so I take my usual menu which should set me up for the day. It's very overcast and a bit of a wind but with a pullover on, I can sit in the open air section watching the Dead Sea. As the sun tries to break through, the mountains on the other side (Israel) are visible for a while, then disappear. With limited time and a lower sea temperature, I decide a dip in the Dead Sea is too ambitious, but I did swim twice yesterday.
Today, it's a ten o'clock check-out and Mr. Mamoon will take me by car to Petra.
Checkout and departure from the Resort is very efficient. Then we pass through the gates, back into the real world. Then it strikes me what an improbable location this is for a series of resort hotels. It's green along the margins but this is a rather bleak, rocky coastline. We continue south along the coast road on the east bank of the Dead Sea. The road was built about twenty years ago and more construction is going on to create even more resorts.
On the way, we visit the Crusader castle at Karak and another castle at Shawbak.
At Petra I'm to stay two nights at the Movenpick Resort Petra, allowing Saturday for a visit to the famous Red Rose City of Petra.
Pictures from Dead Sea to Karak.
Pictures of Karak Castle.
Pictures of Shawbak Castle.
