Adventures in Asia: on the way to Wadi Musa, Jordan

From the Dead Sea Spa Resort, we drove south this morning, along the Dead Sea for an hour or so. This was more or less straight driving, with the Dead Sea to our right and colourful cliffs to our left. We passed through a few villages, but the Dead Sea shoreline seems sparsely inhabited. 

We turned eastward and began climbing. It was here that I found the scenery especially spectacular. I decided to pull over for a couple of photos and to take my sweater off.

We continued climbing and then, around a bend, was this little roadside cafe, run by a couple of Bedouin boys.

Apparently they live next door.

They had couches overlooking the mountains we had just climbed up, so we enjoyed coffee with what must surely be one of the most epic cafe views in the world. 

The little boy had a small toy car I found fun to photograph, for some reason . . .

As you get further into the highlands there are more villages, which are interesting, but also provide opportunities to take wrong turns! I went the wrong way, once. 

About 45 minutes from Wadi Musa we stopped for lunch at village restaurant, where we enjoyed some shawarma. Actually, what had really motivated our stop was Diana's need to use the washroom. Unfortunately, their facilities were not quite what she had in mind!

While you do see pit toilets in Jordan, that is not all you see, and anyway, that level of cleanliness (or lack thereof) is rare, at least in the tourist spots.

Further along, now on the King's Highway, the terrain opened up and I felt compelled to pull over again for a few photos. 

We reached Wadi Musa around 13:00. At Wadi Musa you are back in the mountains, and our hotel, the Petra Moon, is nearly at the very bottom of the town. We parked the car at the hotel, but did not even bother checking in; instead, we headed straight to Petra!