RELAXING IN AQABA
A Well Deserved Rest
1st October - 6th October | 2023
The next day, my mum got picked up at noon and I left then to meet Nouri at the Biker Village (Google Maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/4sK4vuN155W3HwB48). Whilst I was waiting for Nouri and his friend, it happened that I spoke to one of the owners of the complex. The Biker Village has a training centre for beginners, a huge Harley Davidson dealer with a garage and some restaurants and cafes. Obviously, about 18h00, it gets jam-packed with bikers, especially at weekends. Pity I only found out when leaving, but it is good to know for the future :-D.
When taking our pictures, it happened to be the girl from social media and I ended up in a photoshoot and interview. How cool is that!! Due to this, I only made it to Dana, where I arrived just in the dark.
My room was not the best, but the place was interesting as it was built into the existing walls of the ancient houses. Obviously, it is a project for the community, very interesting.
The next morning, after breakfast, I investigated the hotel area a bit better and found a stunning view over the stunning valley of Dana. This is a place to come back another day, maybe even for a day hiking, but today I want to arrive in Wadi Rum but enter from the other side.
In Ma'an I encountered again my Revolut problem, not transferring money in real time. That is no good! I have only €1.20 on my card and only about €1.00 in cash after I paid last night's hotel, but I desperately need fuel and book accommodation in Wadi Rum. As an emergency solution, I transferred some money from my Portuguese bank account for today. I was hoping it would arrive in a couple of hours - wrong!! It took 24hrs to arrive!! In the meantime my mum, being again my emergency help, transferred me in real time some money that I could carry on! That is stressing that problem with the topping up and I am not sure where the problem is yet. I suspect the protocol of my German bank…
After fueling up and booking accommodation in Wadi Rum I was on the road again! It was a boring stretch down to the 'back entrance' of Wadi Rum. Once entering the area it started to get again panoramic, even though it was still vast.
Arriving at the entrance village of Wadi Rum I tried to find the location of the booked accommodation. Nothing made sense, google or booking, as I was in a private urbanisation. I asked around, but nobody seemed to know where to send me. I finally figured out that somewhere there must be the private house of the owner, where he would meet you to leave your vehicle behind. Well, that doesn't work for me.
I tried my luck sending a message via booking and got even an immediate reply. Unluckily the place had burned down that afternoon so I had to cancel my booking ... As I couldn't face myself trying my luck via booking as no websites were even indicated, I changed my mind! It would have been nice to stay in a camp once again, but as I had done it with my mum last week, I decided to go to Aqaba instead already. Still sufficient time to arrive and look for a hotel in the daytime - so off to Aqaba, bye, bye Wadi Rum!
I had booked a hotel in Aqaba, but on arrival, the reception gave me such a great price per night without booking, I cancelled (again) my accommodation for tonight. Only as I had the opportunity to do so! I booked for 2 nights but with the option to extend as I felt a bit tired.
The next day I took it easy and checked a place close by for some snorkelling. I booked myself in for the next morning, which means also extending my stay. The rest of the day I was just chilling under the A/C ;-)
The next morning I went to the Hammerhead Diving Centre (www.hammerheadaqaba.com) for the booked snorkelling trip. It turned out, it would be going out by car. The guy yesterday hardly spoke any English. So I waited as more clients for snorkelling and diving turned up. In the end, they took me with them on the boat trip as they didn't have anybody to look after me; lucky me! It was a small nice group of all sorts of nationalities, some for diving and some for snorkelling. Oh, and this trip is a good 7 hours including lunch. Wow, I was not expecting that!
The drive to the 1st area was very smooth even though it was still wavy. They care for their clients!! As too many waves at the first spot, we went to another one first. As I said, they take care of their clients, it was 2 guides going down with 4 people diving (of which 2 were experienced). In the meantime, the rest of us went out snorkelling. Unfortunately, my goggles misted up terribly and I couldn't get hold of the guide to sort it out, so I missed out a lot of the underwater beauty! When we got back onboard we got each of us a towel!
The ones who want to try a first-time dive got their instruction on the equipment. I was listening too, but with all the tubes I would get mixed up down there! However, it was great to see how they looked after that bunch of 1st time divers, to make it an unforgettable event!!
Once everybody was back onboard, we headed to another spot for diving and snorkelling. There was a plane to visit - I didn't see it ;-) And at the 3rd time, it was all really beautiful but the water temperature didn't feel any more pleasant, so I was back on the boat pretty fast to get warm again. As I originally had booked only a 2-hour event, I had packed like that. So it took me a while to warm up again with the little bit I got with me. After all were back on board the staff prepared us a delicious lunch, including grilled chicken breast! We came back with the start of the sunset. What an unforgettable day!! Once dropped off at the office of Hammerhead Diving Centre I waited nearly half an hour to pay them the difference, but as nobody yet come, I left!
The next day I planned to leave but as a Friday, I changed my mind. Now I have to get used to Fridays being their weekend, so not much happening on that day. The telephone shops in Haql in Saudi Arabia only open after 16h00 and by 18h00 it will be dark. That doesn't give me much time to sort out a camping spot for the night. So I extended for another night and had another rest day.
I hope you also enjoyed these relaxing days as I did. In the next blog, we will start to ride into the unknown, into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In the meantime have a nice avocado smoothie.
Places | Cities:
Dana, Aqaba.
Driven km | Trip:
Total | Steffi: 23550 km
Information Border Crossings:
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Maintenance | Breakdown:
./.
Health issues:
./.
Special thanks to:
Red Sea to be so beautiful!