Jordan Day 1

It was so sad to be leaving Egypt on 27th Jan. It's been even more wonderful than Russia. We left Cairo at 11.15 and flew over a desert area laid out with streets. Lots of empty sections, but houses in between with green lawns and swimming pools. It looked like a new subdivision.

The flight evened out at 17,000 feet, so the landscape was quite clear. It's exciting to fly over features you recognise - first the Red Sea, then desert, some quite rocky, with areas where the sand between the hills looked like rivers. The flight only took an hour and a quarter. When we entered the airport, there was Raed, the JD Tours rep, with an orange sign with my name on it as arranged. He took the passports and got the visa stamp for us. When he came back, he told us with a serious face, "I'm very sorry to have to tell you that Petra is shut for one month for maintenance." My rational brain said this couldn't be; my emotional brain almost blew a gasket! Then we saw the grin on his face.

Outside the airport, we set off on the drive to the city with our driver Ibrahim. Amman is called 'the white city' because all the houses are made of creamy white limestone blocks; no colour is allowed. It's very clean; we saw men picking up rubbish in the street. The population is 6 million, of whom 2 million live in Amman. Ibrahim says he knows 1 million of them. His family has 40,000 members. We think he means there are 40,000 people with the same surname.

We went to JD Tours to pay for our tour; it was great to meet Jasmine who had been my email contact; a beautiful Jordanian who had got married just before Christmas and was all smiles when we wished her well.

Off to the Citadel on the hill. It has been there since ancient times, but was particularly developed by the Romans. There's a bronze age cave on the way up among the Roman ruins! Inside the museum at the top, I was blown away! They have items dating back to 8000 BC, which is the early Neolithic period. But the most exciting thing was some pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls. They are dark green and came from Qumran, on the northwest of the Dead Sea, where they were found just a few km from the shoreline.

As the sun was sinking in the sky, there were fabulous photo opportunities, with houses and rows of flags gleaming in the sun. The Jordanians are very proud of what they have achieved with their tiny country. Ibrahim says it only takes 4.5 hours to drive from north to south; if that is correct, considering that the speed limit is 80 kph, it must be about as far as from Taupo to Wellington.