Jordan

At the border I met with two Austrians, Chris and Katrin - travelling to Africa in a Mercedes Unimog, quite a vehicle. The coincidences started with our journeys, a similar route, although I can’t enter Egypt due to the crazy 800% carnet requirements.  Chris works in a similar field to me, plays guitar badly and is also contemplating driving home via the West Africa route by December.

After the border we decided to camp together in the nearest national park. Here are a few pictures of our dinner and our first camp in Jordan.

Chris and Katrin’s Unimog is quite a beast. Built from scratch by Chris (with the help of two friends) it has everything – toilet, shower, kitchen, double bed, and even a small dining area – large enough for 3 people. I’m very envious.

The national park was beautiful, being Friday however it was only just starting to quieten down at 8pm after the throngs of people had left. We were greeted by a ranger named Mohammed, who not only insisted on giving us tea, made with some herbs collected from the forest but also I found out in the morning had checked on us every hour until dawn. They seem to really care in the middle east that visitors are made to feel welcome and to ensure that nothing bad happens – Mohammed insisted it was safe, but he “just wanted to make sure”!

Chris, Katrin and I chatted about routes, exchanged contact details and in the morning (well late afternoon) I was off to Amman, to find a hotel for Daniel and I to stay in that night.
After negotiating the city as best I could with a poor Lonely planet map I eventually found the hotel I was looking for – recommended by the American Daniel back in Syria. I sat down at around 6, contemplated sleeping, but was conscious that after the last few days haring around I may well not wake up again in time for Daniels flight, so reading it was for a few hours.