After an early breakfast, we joined the tour group for the drive, in the back of a jeep, to the border with Jordan, a few miles from downtown Eilat. The crossing was the same as at Taba, except expedited by virtue of us being with a tour group. You walk across a no-man's land to the Jordan side, where our guide awaited us. Our drive to Petra would take a couple of hours, and we were kind of packed in a rented minivan with minimal air conditioning. Still, it was cool to be in another country. Jordan was a little more organized than Egypt. We took a new, four lane divided highway (see above) which connects the port of Aqaba with Amman, the capital. The only thing odd about the highway was the speed bumps at each town we passed through, and the fact that there were few private cars -- just tractor-trailer trucks. (Below: a small town mosque.
We stopped for coffee at a little road-side cafe -- the cappucino was excellent. Next, we exited for the old two-lane highway, which wound through the mountains until we stopped at a place called "Moses Spring" which, it was explained, is the place where Moses hit the rock and water flowed out. Apparently, it still does.
PHOTOS: Below: Moses Spring, above a small market outside the Moses Spring, and the highway coffee stop. Atop post: Crossing the border, and the road North from Aqaba.
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