Faded glory hotel produced a line of insects in the bathroom in the a.m. so hastily packed up and went for early breakfast. All the washing including jeans from yesterday dried overnight.
8 a.m. trip meeting. well Okay, 8:15 we are introduced to our tour guide Ibrahim and the other 17 members of the tour. One Yank studying in London, 5 Aussies and the rest are Brits, with a predominance of teachers in the occupation dept. Varying ages between grey hair to uni age. Our medical insurance details are taken (hmm) and we load a large tour bus to head out to Jerash, a Roman ruin near the Syrian border. Yes, it’s safe. We stop to take a picture of the sign towards Syria and wind our way up the hills towards Jerash. Weather is supposed to be 22C up there and 27-28C in the valley where we were cycling but I’d say it was reversed – it was quite hot in Jerash and I was wishing I’d brought my hat. But an incredible site, found buried by earthquakes and very well preserved – an entire walled city, some still not unearthed. Greek like in places and the amphitheatre and Senate were astounding. As Morag predicted, there was an Arab duo playing bagpipes and drums in the amphitheatre though not “Scotland the Brave”, clearly they have a varied repertoire. Quite incongruous though – apparently a Scottish regiment was posted there at one time and the bagpipes were taken up?
After a couple of hours of wandering around and getting an idea of the history and perhaps what it looked like at its peak (with multitudes of other tourists – the parking lot was just jammed with similar sized tour buses as ours) we sallied forth. We wiggled onto the main road to pick up fresh fruit from a stall, and our hot lunches – ginormous – which we tackled while the bus drove to our rendezvous with the bikes. On some random hill in the back country there were parked 20 or so bikes and our bike company – the leader in full biking kit, cleats, and sporting a Pinarello. Bikes had been selected by our provided heights, but the frame I was presented with was waaayy too small. Happily there was a larger spare which quickly got stripped of its saddle and frantic adjustments were being done all over the area – eventually we set off down a steep hill (not sure that was a good choice for folk getting accustomed to their bikes?) and then onto some fairly potholed side streets – little uphill, mostly down or rolling and through small villages. Traffic was pretty tolerant on the whole as the roads were narrow and it was hard to pass – reception in the villages was mixed with lots of “hallo” from the kids but one teenager lobbed rocks at the cyclists passing from a terrace (hitting my bike, happily not in the spokes but by the group behind us he had apparently graduated to bricks – one of the older riders got off his bike and chased him but unfortunately didn’t catch up to him). I’m pretty sure I got called a “tomato” by someone else I went by, not untruthfully as I was sporting red and orange clothes. Although this tour group does almost weekly tours, we garnered a lot of interest in general as we rode by. The mechanical support and bus followed at the rear, and there are of course the fast group, the middle (mine) and the rear peletons, but generally we stayed in visual contact and stopped and waited several times for all to get together.
Anyway most folk seemed quite friendly and the roads became progressively less potholed as we worked our way down and around (and yes up!) the hills. Olive groves, some vineyards and lots of forest, goat herds, some sheep – mostly farming country and pretty green. One hill proved a real challenge with at least half getting off their bikes and hoofing it – happy to say I puffed my way to the top using the sidewinder technique :-). Then a lovely downhill towards the Dead Sea and the Jordan River Valley on new pavement – not steep so you could just “let ‘er rip”. At the bottom at the intersection of two roads the light refused to change so a passing police car put on its lights and sat at the intersection so we could turn left. A few km later the bike trailer passed us and we stopped to pass over our bikes – 38 km, mostly downhill, in a very pleasant temperature and pace.
After a WC stop at a gas station (expecting horrors but it was very clean) the bus headed out to Maddaba, past Mt. Nebo which we will visit tomorrow. There is intense agriculture under plastic greenhouses (which come off in the summer) in the Jordan Valley with everything imaginable underneath, and acres of very healthy looking date trees (which are incidentally delicious…). Water is a big problem in Jordan and each area gets water 2d per week which they store in rooftop tanks – they pay an escalating price depending on use much like BC’s two tier electricity prices. 71% of Jordan is desert and the Jordan River and the Dead Sea are dropping levels yearly, due to both overuse and climate change. Millions of Syrian refugees have crossed the border, and are still schooled and medical care provided in certain areas by the UN. Although the border in the north has re-opened recently, only 40 are allowed through a day – officially. The impact on water has been significant as the population burgeons.
A long climb up a winding road past Mt. Nebo took us to our hotel, where we thankfully showered, did the daily hand washing and tested the ac (this one works!). Today’s hotel room oddity is the toilet which rocks on its foundations and crashes whenever you sit on it……We walked en masse to dinner at a restaurant close by with lovely mezze to start then a meh main course. They served both local craft beer and wine as 30% of this town is Christian so alcohol is not frowned upon – the wine was touted as good but I elected to pass after a sip and saved considerable dinar as it was extremely pricey ($9 + for a beer and $12 for a glass of wine). Very loud at dinner with everyone talking but interesting to get to know some of the people around. Two other singles apart from myself and almost everyone else has done an Exodus tour before, many having done cycling tours.
Tomorrow apparently we are cycling DOWN the long hill we drove up today – Dead Sea swim on the menu as well in the middle.
Memories of the day: Unexpectedly large and impressive ruins at Jerash; wheeee – going downhill on bikes; garbage everywhere.
Bon nuit.
