the magis' way

The accommodation near Petra at Taybet Zaman was amazing for being as old and traditional as anything in East Jerusalem It was high up, with a wild wind whipping over the hillside. The Hammam (Turkish bath and massage) was pretty good too! One year on, I went up Aaron's mountain at Petra to the tomb there. I met up with Atala who had gone with me there twelve months before (found his name and then him by checking back on my blog). He brought his donkey 'Lawrence' this time and I brought a good friend from the group!

The Magi would have almost certainly come through this incense tax and control point en route to Bethlehem, and so our group imitated that. We travelled on from Petra, by an Exodus style detour, through the desert at Wadi Rum. This diversion only lasted one night rather than 40 years. The drama of mountain peaks sticking out above the flat sandscape was brought close by a wild jeep ride between the hills in the late afternoon light. The tented accommodation close to thundering trains carrying phosphate for agricultural export was oddly reminiscent of huge camel trains, just appreciably noisier.

Then we headed back north via the 1000 year old Desert Highway which runs all the way up to Istanbul, turning off at Madaba to the guesstimated death location for Moses at Mount Nebo. We crossed into the West Bank at the Allenby / King Hussein Bridge to stay with families in Bethelehem. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (Orthodox calendar) saw us celebrating with the pilgrims from all over the world, in probably one hundredth of the numbers there would be if there was no wall, and there was peace here. Our group was moved in many ways, inspired and provoked in good measure. Just landed back in the UK Saturday night. London today, Durham then York tomorrow.