Mum didn't want to leave Wadi Rum so we spent a few hours relaxing, reading, and researching on rich red ochre carpeted sofas staring towards horizons. We also had to charge our phones and laptop because there was no electricity in the tents. The stars were amazing last night, and it didn't get as cold as we thought it would. Even though the sun's heat radiated out at night, it only got to about 19 degrees and because our tent was a sauna during the day, and only tiny flaps as windows, the heat insulated us.
The view from our tent door this morning (right)
We left Wadi Rum about midday and drove through a rugged mountain desert which fringes Aqaba. Jordan only has 26km of coastline and it's around Aqaba at the tip of the Red Sea which is very deep and it's a major port for Jordan, but also for Israel (Eilat) because the Red Sea leads to the Indian Ocean and is important for trade. It only took about an hour and a half to get to Aqaba.
Here are photos taken from the car of the rugged desert mountains surrounding Aqaba.
Aqaba was also part of Lawrence of Arabia's quest. Lawrence proposed that a troop of Arabs make their way across the desert and attack Aqaba — a port on a gulf of the Red Sea from the land side, not the heavily fortified sea side.
A victory would allow the British to ship supplies to the Arab forces and put added pressure on their joint enemy in the region during World War I: the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The Arabs were fighting for their freedom from the Turks. The British were struggling to defeat the Turks and their German and Austrian allies.
Lawrence was the only Brit attacking Aqaba, he said his superiors didn’t approve his plan. The Arab army crossed inhospitable territory, stopping occasionally to blow up Turkish railroad tracks or create diversions to confuse the Turks about their ultimate objective. With the help of the British gold, the Arabs paid tribes along the way to join them so they had 500 camels and horses attacking Aqaba.
The battle happened on July 2 2017 against outnumbered Turkish soldiers at an outpost outside of Akaba. . The Arabs had surrounded them and were firing down from the hills. These were the ‘hills’ we drove across.(photo below is of Lawrence walking to his camel)
The Turks surrendered and the Arab army rode in and in Lawrence’s words “splashed into the sea” on July 6, 1917. With thousands of mouths to feed and no food, Lawrence realized that he had to move swiftly. So Lawrence then traveled by camel across the Sinai desert to bring word of the Arabs’ (and his) triumph to the British in Egypt. The British were delighted and sent supplies and money to the Arab forces. They also sent naval ships which gave them easier access to fight the Ottoman Turks (photo of British Navy at Aqaba). The British used Aqaba as a supply centre from Egypt to support their assault on Damascus.
Aqaba is very different today. Below is a photo of Aqaba in 1917, and a photo today!
and today - the hotel's beach where we stayed!
Aqaba is mostly a holiday town and is a popular getway place for the locals. Because it's the Eid Il-Fitr holiday there were more people than we'd seen in all of Jordan.
Mum told the driver that we wanted to go snorkeling so he took us to a dive centre in the main town (about 40 minutes from our hotel). We booked for the next day. For the whole day including lunch it cost 30JD (Jordanian dinar) which is 60AUD, Mum said it cost 400AUD!
We woke up to the desert from our hotel room and will go to bed tonight to the Read Sea view from our hotel room!
After Wadi Rum we wanted to get into the water as quickly as possible. So we did.
Day 2 AQABA, I'm only using one post for each place (except for Gallipoli).
No one wanted to sit outside for breakfast, but we did so we had it alone. There was a lovely waitress, she was from the Philippines. We learned that there are a lot of Filipinos working in Jordan. The beach was so close and that's Egypt behind me - again!
This time I took my backpack with water and sunscreen!
We were the first at the wharf, so some photos were taken. It's a busy port for both Isreal (Eilat) and Jordan.
My left finger is pointing to Egypt, and my right finger is on Israel. After WW1 the border between Trans-Jordan and Saudi Arabia wasn't clear so the British drew a line a 15 kilometres south of Aqaba to mark the border (it was actually 3km from our hotel). Because Jordan has such a small coastline, in 1965 King Hussein traded 6000 sq km of Jordanian desert for another 12km of coastline with Saudi Arabia.
We snorkelled six times at different sites. Unlike the ribbon reef at the Great Barrier Reef, these are fringing reefs so are quite close to the shore. It's possible to snorkel from the shore but highly venonomous stone fish are in the waters and can be trodden on, and also it's a busy port so boats might miss a snorkellor!
The highlight of snorkelling in the Red Sea was going over the sunken American tank - M42 Duster from the Gulf War.
I think I've been spoiled with reefs because the Jordanian Red Sea reefs were disappointing compared to the Great Barrier Reef and around Lombok and Sabah. There was some excitement when another snorkler saw a very toxic lionfish, which Mum & I saw at the hotel beach.
After lunch we had about 15 minutes to do anything so I jumped. How often can I jump towards Egypt?
On the way back to Aqaba wharf. Mum asked what happened if the boat went on Egypt's side of the Red Sea? The dive leader pretended to be holding a gun !
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