Breakfast at the Feynan Eco Lodge is held outside on the terrace area adjacent to the dining room. Local cats are a pest and in an attempt to shoo away a cat from her table, one of the guests suddenly found a goat attempting to climb onto her chair and take her meal. Sinclair jumped to the rescue and drove a swift boot into the goat and then John grabbed the goat by the horns and quickly despatched it to the track. Bravo!
The drive from the Lodge back to the Reception area on the main road was undertaken once again in old dual cab utilities although this time there were three vehicles and hence the ride was much less crowded. The cars were so old, rattly and dilapidated it is surprising that they still managed to go and the door panels and windows were either rusted, missing or jammed.
Due to road closures and or bad roads we then drove by a convoluted pathway via the ancient village of Dana to Al-shawbak Castle.
Our first sight of this 12th century constructed castle high on the hill ahead was most impressive as elsewhere there was nothing but barren rocky hillsides and desert.
Shawbak or Montreal as it was known was constructed in 1115 by Baldwin as an outpost of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in Outrejordan. This is a Crusader Church with its high and prominent position giving it strategic value in times of warfare where boulders and hot oil could be poured from the towers onto intruders below.
Not much remains of the castle except for a few rooms, corridors and several archways. An internal and dark stairway leads down 300m to a spring below so water could be brought up even during times of external siege.
Shawbak was later taken over by Arab tribes of Ayyubids and Mamlukes who made extensive reconstructions some of which are recorded with Arabic inscriptions on the outer faces of the remaining towers.
In the afternoon we headed south towards Petra and made a stop at Little Petra or more correctly Siq al-barid. This is a magnificent collection of 2nd century tombs, temples, triclinia (dining areas), water channels, niches, staircases and other structures within a narrow sandstone gorge. In some places the siq (fissure) is only one metre wide and reminded us of Shipton’s Arch in the Slot Canyons near Kashgar in Western China. The temples and tombs are carved into the sandstone rock, a task that must have taken many thousands of hours as the facades are beautifully formed with Corinthian columns and fresco paintings on the ceilings. We were so lucky as our visit happened to occur when no other tourists were present and the whole area was peaceful and utterly serene. The whole vista at Little Petra is absolutely stunning and surely a hint of what we’ll see at Petra tomorrow.
Tonight we’re staying in Petra township at the Amra Palace Hotel (3star?) and our bedroom is 50m from the minaret of the local mosque so ‘calls to prayer’ are VERY noisy!! C’est la vie!