After the best night sleep I have had in a long time, I woke to a surprisingly loud dawn chorus from some small birds in the desert. It was at this point I realised that we'd planned the itinerary wrong. We needed to be back in Amman for 7pm, clean, shiny and ready for a cocktail party.
Currently I was dusty, dirty, and stank of wood smoke from the fire. Operation find and occupy shower began. Fortunately we were heading to one of the large tourist camps for breakfast. On arrival we were both relieved to find a shower block. I turned on the hot tap in a rather hopeful gesture, unsurprisingly no water came out. A hot shower in the desert seemed a bit much to hope for so I persevered with the cold. I arrived at breakfast to find a happy and rather smug Edd. His shower had had a working hot tap, as did the one next to mine.
It turns out that one of the greatest treat camels can receive is a piece of pitta bread. They were fed the left over pieces from breakfast on the edge of the camp, even the naughty camel who had removed his head collar and wondered off received some pitta.
We then began the long drive back to Amman. We drove up the desert highway, which rather did what it said on the tin. Our previous route south had been pretty, with small villages and spectacular mountain passes. The landscape on the drive back was flat and empty, it even looked like it was going to rain at one point.
Driving into Amman was chaotic, we hit rush hour at the souk with three lanes of traffic on a road only designed for the two. The driving style was best described as 'bargy'. When we finally found somewhere to park we began the hunt for food, specifically a recommended shawarma
Shop on Rainbow street. The shop was proving tricky to locate, and in a moment of particularly low blood sugar levels I reverted to a toddler and demanded food now. We ended up eating an amazingly good 'arrabbiata' pizza before proceeding to find the shawarma shop and having a second course of lamb/camel wraps.
We headed to a hotel to drop off the hire car and sneak into the loos to change for the cocktail party. We then hopped into a taxi and headed off Nikita's parents. The hotels taxi driver was also the man we dropped the hire car off with. He was quite a character, and spent a long time praising the English style of government, whilst moaning about Libyans and Italians. He then proceeded to tell us his biggest excitement of the week.
"There is a big English wedding happening at Crowne Plaza Dead Sea this week. Hundreds of lords and ladies are flying in from all over the world to it.."
We finally found Nikita's parents house, which was absolutely covered in multicoloured flashing fairy lights. We were handed exceptionally strong gin and tonics, and spent a fun evening getting to know the other guests over plenty of cocktails and curry.
The journey back to the hotel was in a large bus, with one particularly enthusiastic uncle singing karaoke the whole way home.
Currently I was dusty, dirty, and stank of wood smoke from the fire. Operation find and occupy shower began. Fortunately we were heading to one of the large tourist camps for breakfast. On arrival we were both relieved to find a shower block. I turned on the hot tap in a rather hopeful gesture, unsurprisingly no water came out. A hot shower in the desert seemed a bit much to hope for so I persevered with the cold. I arrived at breakfast to find a happy and rather smug Edd. His shower had had a working hot tap, as did the one next to mine.
It turns out that one of the greatest treat camels can receive is a piece of pitta bread. They were fed the left over pieces from breakfast on the edge of the camp, even the naughty camel who had removed his head collar and wondered off received some pitta.
We then began the long drive back to Amman. We drove up the desert highway, which rather did what it said on the tin. Our previous route south had been pretty, with small villages and spectacular mountain passes. The landscape on the drive back was flat and empty, it even looked like it was going to rain at one point.
Driving into Amman was chaotic, we hit rush hour at the souk with three lanes of traffic on a road only designed for the two. The driving style was best described as 'bargy'. When we finally found somewhere to park we began the hunt for food, specifically a recommended shawarma
Shop on Rainbow street. The shop was proving tricky to locate, and in a moment of particularly low blood sugar levels I reverted to a toddler and demanded food now. We ended up eating an amazingly good 'arrabbiata' pizza before proceeding to find the shawarma shop and having a second course of lamb/camel wraps.
We headed to a hotel to drop off the hire car and sneak into the loos to change for the cocktail party. We then hopped into a taxi and headed off Nikita's parents. The hotels taxi driver was also the man we dropped the hire car off with. He was quite a character, and spent a long time praising the English style of government, whilst moaning about Libyans and Italians. He then proceeded to tell us his biggest excitement of the week.
"There is a big English wedding happening at Crowne Plaza Dead Sea this week. Hundreds of lords and ladies are flying in from all over the world to it.."
We finally found Nikita's parents house, which was absolutely covered in multicoloured flashing fairy lights. We were handed exceptionally strong gin and tonics, and spent a fun evening getting to know the other guests over plenty of cocktails and curry.
The journey back to the hotel was in a large bus, with one particularly enthusiastic uncle singing karaoke the whole way home.
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