We again passed the turn off sign to the John the Baptist site and continued in our homeward drive .
As we neared Aqaba we noticed ironic scenes of lowly nomadic herders tents perched beside 20th century electricity towers. Ancient abodes which have no need of the electrical powerlines above them. Sure many nomadic herdsmen use generators to power lights and devices but they do and have lived without modern facilities for thousands of years. They are not restricted or controlled by the need for electricity and see it as a convenience not a necessity for life as they know it, to continue. I wonder how the next generation will far? We also saw may tent camps in fields where hay was being gathered. One surprising camp we passed was in the centre of a huge round about. The circular central area housed a Bedouin tent, a high hay stack with a young harvester on top and other workers resting below the stack. It seems that the bedouins are allowed to harvest grasses in paddocks and land areas that others see as wasteland. Any grazing land or grasslands awaiting resting is an opportunity too good to be missed by Bedouin herders.
As the sun began to set over the desert and night began to fall the temperature began to drop and across the ,a scale twinkling lights flickered as families gathered for their nightly medals. Along the highway police cars continued to check speedsters and heavy vehicles. Sometimes small wayside cafes appeared along the side of the road to meet the needs of the many night truckers and to provide another means of income for families who live in these isolated desert communities. What an enterprising people there are in Jordan!
Our last memories if this terrific excursion to the Dead Sea are of the sunset over the desert. Enjoy!
We arrived back tired but full of great memories at about 8.45pm. It had been a long and adventurous day. For each of us.
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