Hot stuff!

Yellowstone National Park sits atop a dormant volcano. Almost half the park’s surface area consists of a giant volcanic caldera almost 75kms across. It last erupted in an earth-shattering explosion more than 640,000 years ago. Its ash fell across half of the continental USA, while in the park itself the ash fell so thickly massive cliffs were created.

Today, geothermal activity can be found throughout the park. Perhaps the most famous of these hotspots is Old Faithful geyser. Garry and I are off to see this wonder tomorrow. Today we had to content ourselves with the less impressive Norris geyser basin.

It’s home to the park’s largest geyser, the Steamboat geyser. It erupts infrequently. When it does, its plume rises more than 91 metres into the air. It last erupted in 2005. That is, until two nights ago when it erupted again in a massive blast. When we arrived this morning, the vent was still blasting jets of superheated steam.

Nearby we also witnessed the Constant geyser in action. It erupted twice while we were there, albeit for 10-15 seconds at a time. We waited for some of its larger neighbours to burst into life. However, we were out of luck. The remained stubbornly silent. Although in a distant corner we did manage to see a small venting geyser roaring away.

While the geysers were a bit of a disappointment, our first sight of the day wasn’t. We visited the Grand Canyon’s north rim where you can walk right up to the rim of its iconic falls. We were lucky enough to have the brink of Upper Falls to ourselves for almost ten minutes. Without a doubt though, the highlight of the day was Lookout Point. This overlook offered a truly postcard-perfect view of Lower Falls in all its splendour.

Life in the Dead Sea

The final day of our organised tour through Jordan was spent visiting the Roman ruins in nearby Jerash, before heading off for a refreshing swim in the Dead Sea. Jerash was another awe-inspiring archaeological site. This city and its surrounding area have been inhabited since the Bronze Age. These days, on the edge of the modern city, you’ll find the remains of the Roman settlement of Gerasa. They're some of the world’s largest and best-preserved Roman ruins outside of Italy.

During its prime, historians estimate that Jerash had a population of 20,000. However, the city fell into decline during the 3rd century. It suffered several brutal invasions, first by the Persians and then by the Muslims. It was also devastated by multiple earthquakes, including a major quake in AD749 and a second two years later. The city was eventually abandoned.

Since 1925, the ruins have been progressively excavated and extensively studied. Today they’re a popular tourist attraction second only to Petra. We spent several hours exploring ancient Jersah from one end to the other. Sights that captivated us included the magnificent triumphal arch erected to commemorate a visit by Emperor Hadrian, rows of Corinthian columns in the Temple of Artemis, and an enormous oval Forum encircled by marble columns. It’s hard to comprehend that these ruins are considered relatively modern when compared with those in neighbouring Egypt.

The Dead Sea is quite something. The concentration of salt is such that you literally float on the surface of the water rather than sink into its depths. The sensation is unbelievable...and the salty brine eats at every nick and cut on your skin.

The salt crystals that precipitate on the shore are just as unreal. They form enormous rocks with deadly sharp edges that are surprisingly heavy. You can see me examining a relatively small crystal rock below. Trust me, it's not something you'd want to tread on while swimming.

Our last day in Jordan was spent wandering the city of Amman. The city is home to more than two million people and spreads itself across a series of ravines, or wadis, and hills referred to locally as citadels. We spent time exploring some of its Roman ruins. This included the Roman Theatre, a restored 6,000-seat amphitheatre; the forlorn Temple of Hercules standing guard on a nearby hilltop; and the temple's neighbour, the dome-capped Umayyad Palace, a largely ruined Islamic complex.

I was surprised to learn that despite these ruins, Amman is a relatively modern city. Over the centuries it has been abandoned and resettled several times. In more recent times, it was a relatively modest village until the Ottoman Empire began construction of the Hejaz Railway linking Damascus to Medina. The railway transformed the city almost overnight from a sleepy town of less than ten thousand to the sprawling metropolis it is today.

As we sat in the Roman Theatre, on our final evening in the Middle East, we reflected on two months of non-stop travel across three continents. We'd ticked so many things off our bucket list and experienced so much more than we could have imagined. I doubt we’ll ever do anything quite like it again. On December 13, Garry and I flew out of Amman ready to begin our new life in London.

UPDATE

Here's a little more about our time in the Middle East. One of our tour friends sent me some of her favourite photos.

The promised land

After visiting Petra we travelled up the King's Way, visiting Kerak Castle and the incredible floor mosaics of Madaba. Kerak Castle was our first stop of the day. As you approach Kerak, you're greeted by the striking silhouette of its Crusader castle towering over the surrounding Wadi Mujib Valley.

The castle was first built during the Crusader era in 1142 by Pagan the Butler, a Crusader lord from France. It was initially constructed as a small fortification to protect the area from Muslim forces. Over time, it grew into a much larger structure with multiple towers and walls designed to protect the city from attack.

Our group spent more than an hour exploring its numerous crumbling ramparts and dark maze of stone-vaulted halls and passageways. Hopefully, the images below give you a feel for the scale of this massive structure. I pulled the final image from the internet as all of the summit profiles I took from the bus were motion blurred.

Madaba proved to be an unexpected highlight. Its claim to fame is a series of stunning floor mosaics preserved throughout the town. The most famous of these is on the floor of St George's Chapel, an early Byzantine church sitting in the middle of town. 

The chapel floor includes a mosaic map of the Holy Lands, with a particular focus on Jerusalem. The Madaba Map as it's known, is the world's oldest known geographic floor mosaic. The first image below shows the Nile River delta. In the middle image, Jerusalem is represented by the oval section in the lower right, while the Dead Sea sits in the top right with the River Jordan flowing into it (Unfortunately, the sea is out of focus.).

Our group was given a rather brief, and all too hasty, tour of the main chapel before going for lunch. However, I was determined to see more of Madaba's mosaics. I decided to skip lunch and walked to a nearby museum called, oddly enough, the Archeological Park. The detour was well worth it.

The museum displays mosaics from a 6th-Century Byzantine villa that once stood in the same location, along with mosaics recovered from other sites around town. There was hardly anyone there when I walked in the door. A departing visitor recommended tipping the curator for an extra excursion. I followed their advice. After a little baksheesh exchanged hands, the friendly man took me on a personal tour of the site, including a close-up view of several impressive mosaics behind locked gates.

We finished our long day of travel with a stop at Mount Nebo. Here you can see the Dead Sea shimmering in the distance with the Jordan Valley disappearing out into a dusty haze. It's a surreal experience to stand where Moses stood surveying the same vista he saw 3000 years ago.

Mount Nebo is the place where Moses was granted a view of the Promised Land by the Lord before his death. Hence, as you'd expect, the ridge is crowned by an old chapel and a rather sculptural metallic cross. The chapel, while relatively modest, contained another series of impressive floor mosaics. 

I was surprised to see how many African animals were depicted. The menagerie included ostriches, antelopes, zebras, and other exotic creatures. It was another reminder of how Palestine has long been at the crossroads of human history

Follow this link as we take a dip in the Dead Sea.