Desert

Desert Castles

From Amman there is a route East that takes you past several castles in the desert. We rented a car and instead of doing this as a day trip loop , did the trip and carried on to Jerash and based ourselves there. First castle we came across was Qasr Hraneh… built in the 8th century, about 710 they reckon… although scholars aren’t in agreement on what it was used for. The most likely scenario is that it was a khan (inn). Another 10 […]

Wadi Rum, Jordan

Wadi Rum is a 720 square kilometre desert area which has been inhabited by various human cultures since 10,000 BCE. These days it is home to many camels, 4WDs and Bedouin people, many involved in the blossoming tourism industry. T E Lawrence spent time in Wadi Rum in 1917 -18 during the Arab Revolt and when in 1962 the film ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ came out about his wartime efforts, Jordan’s tourism industry got a kick start. The place is particularly popular with trekkers and […]

Southern Israel

It’s more than two months after we left Israel and I am writing my last blog post about the country. We had so many experiences there and perhaps we saved the best for last… hard to compare of course as there were many wonderful and varied experiences. I’m not quite sure where the Negev desert or the Arava Valley starts and finishes but we enjoyed driving through this region anyway to get to Eilat, Israel’s southernmost city. The mountains just across the border in […]

Negev Desert, Israel

Leaving the city of Tel Aviv behind, our destination was Mitspe Ramon- a small town on the edge of the magnificent Makhtesh Ramon – the crater that’s not technically a crater. En route to Mitspe Ramon we stopped to explore the beautiful En Avdat National Park, located in Wadi Tsin. We had terrific views of this valley from above – where Ben Gurion has his tomb. We descended the hill, parked the car and walked into the canyon itself (where the white arrow is […]

Through the desert

Camel riding, Iran

From Yazd it is possible to do a few excellent day trips to nearby places of interest. Instead of doing this, we combined visits to these places with a longer drive into the desert past Garmeh for an overnight two day tour finishing up in our next destination- Esfahan. We took in some very cool little villages, camel riding, an overnight stay in a desert guest house, then the following day had a stop at Naiin. It was a lot of driving in the […]

Mystics, Sand Castles & Citadels.

Kaluts, Iran

Together with our couchsurf host Amir and the two German couchsurfers also staying with him, George & Leonie, we went on a fantastic day trip to three famous places in Kerman province: Mahan, Rayen & The Kaluts (desert). The first was Mahan, to see the Bagh-e Shahzde Gardens, built in 1873. Descriptions in the Lonely Planet say arriving here ‘is like being beamed onto a different planet… all flowing qanat water and tall green trees.’ We were, however, completely underwhelmed. The fountains which lead […]

Qeshm Highlights

Stars Valley, from above

Valentine’s Day this year was amazing! Not particularly romantic or anything but we had a day off workawaying and our host Annelie was kind enough to take us and two other volunteers (Milan & Eugene) on a fabulous tour of the major sights on Qeshm island. I’ll let the pictures do the talking in this post and provide a few bits of information on each place (thanks to the Lonely Planet Iran (2012) Persian Gulf section). Our first stop was a small shop near […]