Day 2 Desert Storm!

Sunday February 20th.

Well now I'm in a land where they drive on the right side of the road again, but now they read from back to front and right to left!

The weather in the morning was terrible. The temperature was about 10 and it was really windy! There was sand blowing in the wind.

We had a breakfast get together and then headed out for the first Intrepid adventure. Because of the reorganization of the trip (cutting out Egypt) we start with a free day in Amman. So, Jess who knows the area organized an excursion for into the desert to see two ancient castles, or forts. We set off in a taxi and a mini van.

The first one was called Qasr Al-Haraana, and was probably built in the 700's. It's a ruin now but interesting to walk around. There are two floors with an inner courtyard. The halls are maze like and full of little rooms and dead ends.

On the way to the second one, we stopped at the sign for Iraq and I took a photo of the three guides for this trip. Left to right, they are Jess, Celim (my roommate) and Megan.

The second castle was called Quseir Amra and it is a World Heritage Site, because of the fresco paintings inside depicting hunting scenes and bathing nudes. It too was built in the 700's. The paintings inside are old and hard to see, probably from being sandblasted over the years.

When we finished there we had a tea in a bedouin tent. It was very sweet and minty. We had some fun talking to the young man serving it.

When we were leaving the wind and sand had really picked up. As we drove on the highway back (about 70kms) we were blasted by the sandstorm. Visibility was almost nil and traffic stopped. We were behind a truck that stopped and we tried to go around it on the right, but found more cars stopped. We were stuck. Visibility out the windows at times was down to a couple of feet! The skies became really dark and dust was seeping into the car. At first it was a novelty and everyone enjoyed the new experience, but we were there an hour and a half. There were eight of us in the mini van, little water and no food. I had heard that sandstorms can go on for days! I started to think of things like water, washrooms, night time, getting on each others nerves.... As you are reading this, you are probably thinking over reaction, but I found it a pretty scary scenario. I kept it to myself, although I heard from others afterwards, they were thinking the same things.

When it started to clear a bit lots of cars started to move around us, horns beeping and using both lanes and both shoulders. We managed to get into a convoy and slowly move past a bunch of trunks and then gradually it cleared enough so we could see the road and traffic began to move again. All the while I was thinking why is there no traffic coming the other way? Well about ten kilometres down the road we found that police had blocked off the other lane, probably to avoid head on crashes!

We drove back to Amman, only to find that in the city it was pouring! Sandstorms and rainstorms! When we got back to the hotel about 4:00, most people wanted to head out to eat, but I stayed here and ate my leftover dinner from last night.

The rest of the afternoon and evening I hung out at the hotel e-mailing and blogging. Enough excitement for the day.

In addition to our three guides the group is:

Krys from London, Ontario
Kieran from Cork, Ireland
Jackie and her son Connor from Alice Springs, Australia
Stamati from Greece
and Graham and Tess from Sussex, England
and me.