Friday Flashback – December Camping Trip Part 5

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Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

It’s going to take me all year to get through one week of camping the rate I am going… I’m sorry, you’ll just have to bear with me or skip these posts 🙂

So after we got caught by the police, and “supervised” for lunch, they came and told us that we were not allowed to travel the rest of the Hijaz railway. It was quite disappointing, but we at least managed to see some of the old stations and forts, so we were thankful for what we did get to do.

Our DLF followed us right up to our next stop – a hotel where we took the staff by surprise by turning up a day early 🙂 Our DLF happily handed us over to the hotel staff and local police officer to be their responsibility rather than his anymore… and us ladies were sooooo happy to have a shower and a bed to sleep in that night! (Oh, and a toilet! I must admit, I was very happy to have a toilet rather than sand and a shovel!!!)

The second part of our trip was visiting Madain Saleh, which is the sister city of Petra in Jordan. I am sure many of you have heard of Petra – it is quite famous. What most people do not know is that the Nabateans also built a city in Saudi, and lots of tombs. The great thing about Madain Saleh is that it is relatively untouched…. we visited it before in 2005 on the way to Jordan to see Petra as well, and while Petra was FULL of tourists and hawkers, Madain Saleh was just us….. it was so nice.

When I say Madain Saleh is a sister “city”, actually, the “city” part is not there anymore. All that is left are the tombs. And once you have seen one tomb… really… you have seen them all:

Oh, but I am getting ahead of myself… first we saw yet more forts, this time with a guide, so we were “legally” allowed in through the gate:

Well, the guide said we could, so it’s ok….. right???!!!

Back to the tombs…

 

 

 

Like I said, seen one… seen them all…. they looked the same as back in 2005, only the kids have grown since then:

There were lots of interesting rock formations:

This one is awesome:

Our guide having a rest:

Dh trying to fit in the same “chair”:

Gave up and went in another one :

Oh, another tomb:

 

(This photo is for Grandma to see how much Matt has grown 🙂 He’s almost caught up to Dan!)

This tomb had a balcony….must have been for the wealthy 🙂 Matt climbed up through a hole to enjoy the sunshine:

Enough tombs I think…. oh, are you wondering what is in the tombs? Well, next time I’ll tell you… and we’ll make another stop along the railway….