Day 1 in Jordan: Mosaics of Madaba, Mount Nebo and the Dead Sea

After waving goodbye to Aleppo at sunrise, we landed in Jordan for a whirlwind tour of its treasures - we had a little under 4 days there. Nonno had it all mapped out, and after our Jordanian driver Ibrahim tweaked the itinerary a little, we were off. He was an older chap who seemed a bit stooped and gloomy, which meant that in true Aussie style he was soon dubbed 'Mr Happy'. Something must have rubbed off, because he did tell a few jokes on the last day....

So: we arrived in Amman, dropped our luggage, and piled into the comfy van.

The first stop was in Madaba, where on the floor of a Byzantine church there lies the oldest known map of the Holy Land, made in 600AD... it's a mosaic!

A section of the Madaba Map Mosaic, with place names in Greek

Tai wasn't impressed... no, just kidding - this is where Tai started to feel a bit dodgy, and it turned out to be gastro. So Tai didn't really get to enjoy this part of the trip very much. When we got back to the hotel the doctor prescribed some medicine, gave him a needle in the backside and declared that he must not miss Petra! So we were given the green light to travel another day. Before that, though, we had a look off the top of Mount Nebo. Apparently the Pope does that occasionally as well.

View from Mt. Nebo, down into Israel

Tai... not at his best

Off the top of Mt Nebo, it's not that far to all those places you hear about in the news all the time...

The landscape as we descended from Mt Nebo to the Dead Sea was some of the most desolate we'd ever seen. Still, Bedouin camps dotted the hillsides. Such tough people!

The road from Mt Nebo to down below sea level - the lowest point on Earth!

Roughing it

The brochure says that where we ended up going for a swim is the lowest point on Earth, 422m below sea level.

We watched Felix walk out along the sand flat, to the edge where you could see deep water, and then he stepped off, and completely failed to sink! The Dead Sea is 8 times more salty than normal seawater. We bobbed around giggling in disbelief, which is exactly what all the other people did as soon as they entered the water.