26 April 2007
Two new red bits
Time was when I had the desire to visit at least 100 countries before I died, but now I'd much rather know a few countries better. There are now only three trips left I really want to do, and then I think I'd be happy to stay at home with a pile of good books and a comfortable sofa on which to sit and read them. I'm becoming a more reluctant travel writer all the time.
And I've very much fallen back in love with the English countryside over the last few weeks, having spent time in Somerset, Cornwall, Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, and Shropshire, much of it not doing any work at all, but simply pleasing myself (and friends and family). Travel without taking a single note is bliss indeed.
But I rose early this morning and by 6.30am was on my way to Petra, to walk through the Siq unaccompanied by any creature except birds, their calls amplified by the narrow chasm. Yesterday afternoon the route was a sea of tourists returning from the key sights, and walking through the winding passage by myself felt like the cultural equivalent of royalty (or Hollywood star) visiting a department store that has been temporarily closed to all other shoppers. And, of course, I took the picture that everyone is supposed to take, or my version of it at least, cack-handed with a camera as I am.
Most visitors to Petra will only spend a single night here, whereas I have the leisure of three days, and can go where and when I choose, not feeling that I'm using up precious moments of my 14 days' holiday by dithering when I've all of Egypt to fit into the same trip.
But will diligence and a sense of duty to future readers of the articles that result from this visit force me to climb the thousand steps to one Petra high point for the purpose of giving a fair account of it? Given the afternoon temperatures here it's an unattractive prospect, especially both following and preceding a 4km walk, but I think it must be done. I'll just have to think of all the (rather more serious) Chinese mountains I've climbed, of trekking in Nepal, of going up and down Hokkaido volcanoes (only last year), and hope the flab acquired during a year of mostly being at the keyboard doesn't hold me back.
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