Yesterday’s Petra post was interrupted by the sudden realization that it’s almost Thanksgiving, which means it’s time to create my annual photo calendar that we send to the grandparents each Christmas. So I spent all day yesterday poring over pictures from this past year and trying to pick and choose the ones that best represent the last 12 months.
I was completely surprised by all the memories and sadness that surfaced when I opened the files containing our pictures from Egypt. I guess I’m still grieving that somewhere in the back of my mind. And then to see how much Camille has changed from the chubby cheeked infant who slept her way around the pyramids to the lanky toddler who hung off my back as we hiked Petra is somewhat unreal. I also think I look a lot less tired this time last year, but after looking back at all the places we’ve been over the last 12 months, it’s easy to see why.
Anyway, back to Petra. The previous post contained photos from our hike in to the Treasury. That temple-looking thing carved into the wall of rock is what everyone pictures when you say “Petra.” Now made even more recognizable by its appearances in the Indiana Jones (Holy Grail) and Transformers 2 movies. To get to the Treasury you have to walk through a long narrow gorge called the Siq (seek). When I say long, I mean almost a mile. Back when I was in Monterey in Arabic class, one of the students gave a presentation on Petra and when she said that it was a mile in and only accessible on foot or by donkey, I remember thinking, “I could never do that.” Not because of the strenuousness, but the claustrophobicness of being surrounded by rock on all sides. It ended up not being bad at all. Partly because we went in the late afternoon after the tour groups and crowds had died down and partly because Zoloft works.
Once we reached the Treasury (you can’t go inside so we just looked from afar and kept going) there are lots and lots of things carved into the rock. House looking things, cave looking things, temple looking things . . . great right? Well, it turns out that our boys have been spoiled by our trip to Turkey where there were caves and rock structures that they could climb on and in and around so this orderly way of looking at things without climbing on them sort of cramped their style. They were under the mistaken impression that when we said “hiking” that they’d be able to forge their own trails and scale mountains. Not here at Petra.
“My mom and dad took me to Petra and all I got to do was walk on the boring path!”
There were camels, donkeys, and horses available for hire for those who didn’t want to walk in or out. For $30, I’d have to be *really* tired, especially since some of the running and slipping animals looked a little scary.
There was a temple to see that looked very similar to the Treasury, just located halfway up the side of a mountain, accessible by several sets of stone steps.
The main event for us, once we were inside, was the hike up to the monastery. Everyone says it’s worth the walk, even though the guidebooks warn that it’s 800+ steps straight up. You can hire a donkey to take you up, but I was watching some of those donkeys slipping around on the rough hewn rock steps and I decided I would much rather take my chances on my own two feet.
Stopping for a quick rest — many more stairs to climb!
It turned out that I was the donkey that day as I carried Camille all the way up the mountain on my back. I should have known by the looks of sympathy and surprise that people cast my way as they encountered us on their way back down that I was in for a long trek. After half an hour I started trying to catch a friendly eye, hoping that someone would put me out of my misery by reporting, “You’re almost there!” No such luck. Over the span of 10 minutes I had 3 different people say, “Only 10 more minutes!” only to have the 4th one say, “15 more minutes to the top!” Good grief.
Actually, finally, almost to the top! It’s beautiful and peaceful and like everyone said, worth the trip. I think it was about 45 minutes up, but I didn’t keep track. Carter reported that there were only 643 steps, but he only counted the actual steps, not the stretches of inclined slope.
So I get to the top and think, “hmm, not too exciting. It looks kind of like a campground.” Until I look to my right and see this huge thing:
See two of the boys right at the opening? It’s that big.
It was the perfect time of day to see it. As the sun was setting it was the only thing illuminated while everything else had moved into the shadows.
Josh boosted the boys up and they were able to climb around inside.
Worth the trip!
The sun went down and it started to get chilly so we headed back down the mountain.
The 643/800+ steps were much easier going the other direction.
