The journey

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Wrexham, Wales, United Kingdom
For the past 5 years, me and my best friend Nathan have talked about the possibility of travelling around the world by land and sea, and so finally we have a route, savings and time to set off around the world. What we are doing is living out a dream, a dream we share with many people worldwide, a dream of travelling this vast, diverse, beautiful and interesting planet, but unlike the many others who keep it as a dream, we have the tenacity to make this dream a reality.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Days 21 & 22: Jordan

Day 21
0miles/0km

After a lie in for a change we spent an hour trying to fix the washer relay on the Landrover and then walked into the city centre to view the sites. The Roman amphitheatre was our first destination, and a really cool place to visit. The entrance cost only 1JD/£0.90/€1 for tourists and nothing for locals who used the concrete terraces throughout the day to chill out or to eat their lunch.

We then walked up one of the seven hills of Amman to the Citadel at the top which offered some amazing views over the city, but the sunshine of the morning was fading into the grey clouds and we decided to head back down and try to finish of the electrical system of the Landrover before it rained.

With the split charge battery now installed (4 weeks later than planned!) we were slowly ticking off the modifications left to do on the Landrover, and so hopefully by the time we get to Cape Town we should have completed everything!



Day 22
150miles/241km

We knew that there was a market every Friday on the car-park where we had parked and fixed the car the previous day, but we didn’t expect them to block us in at 7am with stalls covering the entire parking ground, with no access roads or paths at all. The only way out was to drive over a 30cm/1foot high concrete pavement. We first attempted it with the sand ladders that Nathan had made at work, but they wouldn’t support the weight of the Landrover to bridge something. We spent an hour gathering bricks and rocks to make a ramp, and with the help of a few of the market stall owners, we navigated the Landrover up and over the pavement, and back onto the road.

The drive out of the capital led us west to the lowest point on earth – The Dead Sea. The scenery was amazing as we descended to 400metres below sea level, with the Dead Sea stretching out beyond us, with Palestine on the horizon at the opposite shoreline. We took a dip in the salty sea and floated around for an hour before retreating back to the shore which was composed of what can only be described as icicles of washed up salt. With our skin feeling horrible and salty, and with no showers around, we headed for the small town of Karak to find a hotel where we could check in and shower.

Feeling refreshed again we took a tour of the castle there and then spent the afternoon installing the electrical feed for the fridge in the Landrover (another job which should have been done a month ago) to the intrigue of a few local children who had come over to watch. When we had finished we decided to get the football out and give them a game. The centre of Karak turned into carnage as we chased the football around the streets, with even passing Japanese tourists enthusiastically joining in our game, trying to tackle the local youngsters!

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