got up at 7:45 for 8:30 lobby meeting. grabbed a quick shower. then it was down to the restaurant for a quicker bite, a hard boiled egg, some cheese, grapefruit, sardine and some danish. we gathered in the lobby and made our way out of the hotel, a short walk had us at the entrance of the park. you'll have to look at the pictures to get a feel for what this place is like although they, don't even do it justice. you really need some good shoes and a few days to really soak it in. our tour was mi- represented as a three day. we had two days of travel and one day in the park. i wanted to make the most of my day in the park, so when the tour guide we had, brought us into a tent where they wanted to give us tea and get us to shop, i saw this and an opportunity to wander off up a mountain side. i guess the signs they have warning that climbing alone is dangerous are true. these people had cut everything into the slopes of the cliffs. i was conscious that my wandering off might be delaying the group, but i had also been running off to anything i'd found interesting, i knew they would push on and i'd catch up. and there seemed to be a peak up ahead that promised a commanding view, well peaks can be deceiving so when i discovered there was yet another to be scaled i left the trail to climb a rock, hoping for a good vantage point. didn't find it, but as i made my way down i caught the edge of my shoe and tripped off the ledge of the rock i was on . . . . that fact that i wrote this and you’re reading it should indicate it survived, but i don't know how, i went from a head first fall, to getting my foot in-front of me to catch the ledge of the rock below i was expecting to smash into and then slide off (some 15 or 20 feet). i instantly knew, i'd been protected. that fall may not have killed me but it would have left me damaged and in a remote place off the trail. surprisingly, i didn't walk away in that shaky ball of adrenaline that i've had in other circumstances, instead i felt comforted and protected.
i ran down the stairs to meet up with the group, a ways down the road. we had a buffet lunch and most of the group returned via camels to the entrance, but i wanted to explore more of the park (when will i get back to jordan?) so glen, bridget and myself proceeded up the path of 1200 steps to the monastery and eventually to a peak that offered that commanding view i was looking for, we could see out to the valley where israel is nestled between jordan and egypt. then i saw this guy climbing atop the monastery and i wanted to do the same, so i found my way up. when i saw what he was climbing around i thought better than venturing that way, considering the earlier mishap, i thought better not to test to much.
i made my way back down and down to the road leading back, caught up with glen and bridget who were on camels, but they didn't look like they were going to be moving with any kind of pace that i needed in order to get out and back to the hotel to go to the turkish bath that everyone was raving about. so i pressed on. once i got ito where i was about 2/3 of the way back these kids were trying to get me to take a donkey ride, they offered to take me the rest of the way for two dollars, so i figured okay that's pretty cheap and it will be and experience. he pulled it up near a rock ledge and i got on this thing that wasn't much larger than a pony, but he said it was strong. so i got my feet in the stirrups and as he moved forward his left front leg went out from underneath him, then the right stirrup broke on me, i somehow got my left foot out of the stirrup before he rolled over on my foot. at that point i was over the idea of riding anything out of that park. this other kid was trying to get me on his donkey, stay tuned to flickr for photos of the bruise on my inner thigh.
i made it back to the hotel, but they were less than helpful in getting me in-touch with out tour guide, these 5 star hotels are over rated, actually saw a piece on the news i found very topical with my own experience. customers are complaining that the high end hotels are charging $25-30 for full access to the wireless internet. i was helping one of the women on the tour get on-line and was really upset to find they were charging $7 for and hour of use, and the hour begins the moment you log in and the timer runs even if you log off.
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