It’s the beginning of the end

Saturday and Sunday, Sept 28 & 29th

On Saturday morning the start from our hotel in Aqaba was at a reasonable time even though we had a long day of travel back to Amman for the end of our tour.

The day was pretty uneventful other than getting to enjoy the changing scenery as we headed north from the Red Sea, through the desert areas, into the agricultural areas, along the Dead Sea, and north into Amman.

Our only stop aside from bathroom breaks today was for lunch at one of G Adventures projects supported by their Planeterra Foundation. Numeira Environmental Association is a not-for-profit working in Jordan to create a sustainable future for a small community south of the Dead Sea. They raise money from providing lunches for G Adventures tour groups to support their environmental education projects for children, and promote sustainable farming practices. They provide desperately needed jobs and training to people in the community.

We visited another Planeterra project in Morocco, at the beginning of this adventure where divorced women with children are supported through programs and assistance also funded by providing tourist lunches. Two of the best meals we’ve had have been at these stops. G Adventures has over 100 such initiatives all over the world, and this and the fact that they are so conscious of sustainable tourism make it an easy decision to decide to travel with them.

We arrived back at our hotel in Amman around 2 pm and spent the afternoon resting and getting re-packed for our long journey home. Then it was out for our Farewell Dinner at a really cool restaurant across the street from our hotel. The food was fabulous and it had a really nice atmosphere. I had a Jordanian specialty, Lemon-Mint juice, which I’ve come to really enjoy and for dinner I had a traditional meal of chicken and vegetables cooked in a pottery container and then broken apart at the table.

And then it was time to say goodbye to Hakam, our guide as he was headed home to Jarash to spend only one night with his family before heading out tomorrow with another group to do the trip all over again. But as he pointed out, “it’s only the beginning” of us knowing each other and he encouraged us to stay in touch and to let him know if we knew of anyone coming to the region and if he could be of any service.

And it was time to say goodbye to our fellow travellers. It has been a great group of people in Jordan, with no whiners, and no one chronically late. We’ve shared each other’s pictures on our What’s App group and by airdropping to each other, we’ve helped each other up the side of sand stone cliffs, we’ve challenged each other to jump off the top deck of our boat, and we’ve kept each other company on the bus drives. And now our little family are scattering all over the globe.

Nanci and I have made it to Frankfurt once again, on a red eye from Amman that went smoothly, and we’ll be here for another couple of hours before catching our flight to Ottawa.

I have to admit that after a month on the road, with changing locations most days, a pretty intense schedule and visiting countries where the culture is very different than our own, that I’ll be glad to be home. To sleep in my own bed, to have some quiet time to myself, to start to detox from so many carbs and too much food in general, and get back into my exercise routine, all sounds amazing. And of course to be able to hug Gill, Phyl and Benny………..

I’ll put together an epilogue post and add some pictures to the past week entries once I’m home and have had a chance to decompress a little. It’s been an amazing adventure. As always, thanks for your interest and coming along for the ride.