Aqaba is a small port town at the top of the a 112 nm inlet to the Red Sea. It is positioned just next to the Israeli border town of Eilat, Israel. In fact there is a very active pedestrian border. This is Jordan's only sea access and it was evident in the port. We arrived early in the morning to find about 50 tour buses lined up in orderly fashion to take our ships passengers on the daily excursions There were two, a 10 hour excursion to the ancient ruins of the historic city of Petra(Raiders of the Lost Ark) fame and the much shorter 5 hour trip to the Wadi Rum(Lawrence of Arabia fame), a mountainous valley in the Jordanian desert full of Bedouins, camels and beautiful scenery. John and I choose the shorter trip. We were at the Wadi Rum tourist center in just under an hour where I purchased my head gear for the 2 1/2 hr ride through the desert. We had tea and dates with the native bedouins and rode their camels. It really wasn't as hot as i thought it might be and it was definitely a new experience. We pulled away at sunset and began our week long sail through the troubled waters of the Africa and the Middle East.
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