The drive to Petra takes a few hours, so we did a quick drive through the eastern side of Akabah, and got to see Eilat and Egypt from a vantage point I never had seen it from before in my life. We then got on the King’s Road, a route that is (literally) 5,000 years old, although the pavement is much newer, and headed up north. As it was Friday, the holy day of rest, the roads weren’t as crowded as they would be normally. We also saw a lot of oil trucks – some of them from Iraq. Along the way, our guide was telling us about the history of the area – from the biblical times (land of Midean), to more recent events. We neared the turn-off for Wadi Rum, but we were not going to go there. Sadly, that is for another trip. Wadi Rum is the desert dune area where they filmed such classics as Lawrence of Arabia, and Red Planet (heh). Still, we could see the start of the area – with the red sandstone mesas popping out from the desert. It was quite stunning.
We stopped at a small store along the way for a break, had some tea, and continued onward. By the time we got to Petra, it was hot, but not as hot as it was in Eilat – as we had been rising in elevation for most of the drive.