Petra to Wadi Rum - Jordan  -  
Our journey starts in Amman and a visit to Petra - the "Rose-Red city half as old as time". It was carved from rock over 2,000 years ago by the Nabateans and is one of the architectural wonders of Antiquity. You reach it on foot through a narrow defile or "siq" flanked by towering cliffs. The sudden view of Petra's most spectacular monument, the "Khazneh" at the end of the siq is a dramatic sight. We then meet the horses and ride across sandy trails to the rock formations of Wadi Rum, Jordan's answer to the Grand Canyon and undoubtedly the largest and most magnificent of Jordan's desert landscapes. It is like a moonscape of ancient valleys and towering, weathered sandstone mountains rising out of the white and pink colored sands - a place where you feel that the world belongs to you. Wadi Rum was the scene of the exploits of "Lawrence of Arabia" and the setting for the film that carried his name. Along the way you have many opportunities for long canters across the high plateau and through one of the most beautiful desert regions in the world. You will travel old caravan roads and encounter an altogether different world with possible personal invites by the desert dwelling Bedouins. The ride ends at the seaport of Aqaba, a well-known beach and diving resort area on the Red Sea. Aqaba is warm, sunny and inviting; fringed with palm trees; lapped by the crystal clear water of the gulf of Aqaba; cooled by a steady northerly breeze and ringed by mountains that change in color with the change of the hour. On the way back you stop at the Dead Sea for a swim before returning to Amman.

PG-JOPE
Rates: All incl. from Amman, meals, 4 nights in **** hotels, 5 nights in tents, transfers, 6 riding days
10 Days/9 Nights $ 2,295  
Single: room/tent $ 185
-- based on € 1,980 / € 165
2006 Dates: 
05/05-05/14   09/22-10/01
  see availability

Meeting: Amman 
Airport: Amman 
Level:  Strong Intermediate
Tack:  English 
Horses:  Purebred Arab and Arab cross
Pace: Moderate to fast, trots and fast canters, 5-6 hours of riding per day
Min/Max Riders:  5-10
Note: on two days lunch is not included

Itinerary
Day 1: Arrival in Amman and transfer to the hotel. You get together with your guides for dinner to go over the tour details.
Day 2: Petra, the pink city, was carved into the sandstone. On foot, you visit the sights such as Khasneh and royal graves, the graves of Ed Dair, and the 'Supreme Shrine'. Dinner and overnight in a local hotel near Petra.
Day 3: A long ascent in direction of Dlagha, crossing old caravan routes, take you a high plateau. Above Rajiv, a mountain village, enjoy the spectacular view as far as Wadi Arabe and the winding canyons of Petra. This sight will take you back to the beginnings of humanity, when Moses and his people were on their way to the Holy Country. The route partly follows old caravan routes to Wadi Musa, the Valley of Moses. Dinner and overnight in camp.
Day 4: Riding along the edge of the plateau with its countless canyons.  You cross the 'desert highway', the arterial route of the country, and the railroad line Aqaba-Amman, which was built by early colonial powers and is still in use. You ride along the foothills of the plateau in a lowland plain with numerous little canyons. This is the old caravan route, leading from the Arabian desert to Palestine. You are leaving the rocky region and ride west through large valleys. Overnight in camp.
Day 5: You are riding towards the plateau of Raas an Naqab between the mountains to the east and the arid region of Houmaimeh. During the day you ride closer and closer to the famous sandstone relieves. The mountainous desert with its large plateaus offers great canters! Enjoy the spectacular view over the Hasma. The mountains seem to swim like islands in a sea of sand. Strange rock formations line the trail. Dinner and overnight in camp. Some riders, though, prefer to sleep outside under the huge sky full of stars like you can experience the sky only in the desert!
Day 6: Along the northern boundaries of the picturesque Barrah Canyon you ride near the Bedouine villages of Disi and Manshir. Here great expanses of watering systems have created a green valley – a great contrast to the dry landscapes you just came from. You cross the mountains until you reach Wadi Rum. Dinner and overnight in camp.
Day 7-8 : Unforgettable rides take you to some of the most impressive viewpoints in the Wadi for the next 2 days. Wadi Rum is hauntingly beautiful, and always privately moving -- a marvel of God's enduring creation, against which the measure of humankind seems so small and fleeting. Its moonscape-like surface takes on subtly different hues throughout the day and night, changing with the seasons of the year. Here is an un-spoilt natural beauty forged by millions of years of geological formation, erosion and evolution. Fifty million years ago, earth movements brought the bottom of the sea up to the surface. Erosion transformed it into the most impressive landscape. At an elevation of 2,700 ft. the 30 mile-long Wadi is characterized by dark, granite rocks and bizarre mountains of sandstone in all shades of red. You ride on some of the best riding routes – of course always looking out for water holes to freshen up horse and rider. Wadi Rum is a vast house of clues from the past -- for almost every valley, mountainside or large fallen boulder has some vestige or hint of human activity that took place here during the past several thousand years. Everywhere there are Thamudic, Safaitic, Nabataean, Greek and Arabic graffiti and some formal inscriptions. Enjoy unforgettable gallops over firm sand. In-between, you see Bedouin tents, relicts from another world. You are not very far from the Saudi Arabian border and the campsites have exotic names like Burdah and Barrah. In the afternoon of day 8 you leave your horses behind and drive to Aqaba for a dinner and overnight at a local hotel.
Day 9:  Breakfast and the day free to relax in Aqaba where you can do some last minute shopping or arrange snorkeling or diving in the Red Sea.  Around noon you transfer to the Dead Sea (1200 ft below Sea Level – 3 hrs)  Afternoon free for beach and swimming - transfer to your hotel in Amman in the late afternoon (45 min). Dinner & night in hotel
Day 10: Breakfast and then transfer to the airport in Amman for your flight home.

Petra - the Rose City

 
Wadi Rum