Early starts were becoming a common theme for this trip. We all needed to be ready with our bags in the lobby for 06:00. Again, this run streak meant it’d be another early start with getting up for a two mile run at 04:30. This time I did the reverse of the route I’d done a few days ago when I was last here, but this time a dog followed me for most of it, all the way back to the hotel. It then sat there and waited whilst I had breakfast and showered, and was still outside waiting when I started to help with loading the luggage onto the bus.

The bus then took us down to the Petra visitor centre, and the sun had not yet risen at this point. As I’d already used my Jordan Pass to get in once, I had to pay 50 JOD to get in again. It would be worth it for another visit though, and this time we’d have around eight hours to spend there. It’s amazing how quickly that time passes; a place like this gives you a warped sense of time. The first light was in the sky when we arrived, and as the guide started to tell us about the place it got lighter and lighter.

I think I may have annoyed the guide a few times; he was being paid to do a job, and I kept wandering too far ahead and being asked to stop by him. I just wanted to get to The Treasury as quickly as possible. I could tell Nick (Impact) was eager to get there too. This time it wasn’t quite as busy as before, and we spent plenty of time there getting photos.

The guide took us past the tombs, and after some deliberation I stopped to buy some sand that had been compressed in a bottle to form a picture of Al-Khazneh and some camels. After he’d taken us to the theatre ruins I told Mark I was leaving the group behind so I could look around the royal tombs. I quickly climbed up, and from the top I could see the others had moved on to the corner of the colonnaded street and would be there for a while. I planned on catching up with them before The Monastery. I saw JJ wave, so I waved back, but apparently at this point the guide thought he’d lost someone.

The royal tombs really are quite large. I was absolutely sure that at least of these were bigger than Al-Khazneh and Ad-Deir. I took my time, and then moved swiftly on towards the Byzantine church, though I was unsure at first whether I was going the right way.

I crossed a metal bridge with large holes in, and looked down into the gorge below. It looked like this may have had water once, during the time of the Nabateans at least. Now it was barren. The path continued past that, and I saw where I thought I may need to be, and sure enough, underneath the metal structure there was an entrance to the church. It has a reconstructed floor based on what survived of the original following an earthquake, and also some original mosaics. It was very different from everything else in Petra.

I then found my way to some more pillars, and passed the Temple of the Winged Lion. I’d seen everything I’d wanted to see now, but it was still nice to find unexpected things to photograph. Whilst I’d been in the church I’d lost sight of the group, and had assumed they’d moved on considerably after the sights that followed. I saw a few people that from a distance looked like they might have been from the group, so I rushed back down to the basin so I could look back along the Roman road. Nope. It wasn’t them. It seemed clear that I’d taken longer than I’d thought, so started walking at pace towards Ad-Deir.

About halfway along the trail there are some switchbacks where I was pretty sure they wouldn’t be beyond if they were ahead of me. When I got there I couldn’t see them, but I lingered for a few minutes, deciding what to do. I felt the best option now was to head back down to the basin, and use the Wi-Fi at the restaurant to use the group WhatsApp in the hope someone would have data and a signal in order to reply with where they were.

Not long after starting back I saw a donkey stumble, something I’ve never seen happen before, and the woman on its back came tumbling down with one leg still attached to it. I dropped my water bottle, and went over to make sure she was okay. Her guide had reacted just as quickly and was trying to help her out of the stirrups that were holding her upside down. Realising I didn’t need to help, I turned around and got going again.

“Is everyone on their way up the stairs to the monastery? If so heading there now,” I messaged the group as soon as I’d got a signal. Within seconds I got a reply.

“Yes. Heading down the yellow brick road now…”

That was a relief - it meant they were slightly ahead of where I expected, but if I moved quickly I could arrive at The Monastery just after them. It was hard work, but I got there as quickly as I could. Nobody was there. I checked the cafe, and nobody was there either. I thought maybe they’d gone up to the viewpoints, or had started a hike to Little Petra instead. I had to think logically now - I couldn’t be certain they’d gone that way and if I walked to try and catch-up I might still miss them. I walked up to the one viewpoint I hadn’t yet gone up, thinking I could see some of the path from there. Nothing.

It made more sense sadly to sit and wait for them at the cafe. I knew I needed to be back at the main entrance for 14:30 so the worst case scenario would be to see them there. That would be nice and easy, and all would be good. Instead though, I turned on data roaming and got a 4G connection, but no data was working. So I sat and waited some more. After a while I realised the cafe had Wi-Fi, so I bought a bottle of water to replace the one that had been leaking since I’d dropped it, and that was enough to get the password.

I found the guided tour had ended at the basin, and that they were actually behind me and on their way. Right now they were about halfway up. I took this time to relax, so my legs could be in better shape for Saturday. Eventually a number of them arrived in small groups, and after a chat I was then a tour guide for two of them, taking them back to see the church and the tombs.

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Once we’d seen it all, I stopped by the sand bottle stall to pick mine up, and continued on past Al-Khazneh, knowing I’d never see it in person again after this time. For this last glance I could try to take in every detail, such as the carving of a goblet that was an incredibly convenient detail considering its use in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

This journey back to the entrance was far more relaxed than last time, and we’d even got time for the three of us to sit down and have the packed lunch the hotel had provided. Even with that stop we got back with plenty of time to spare, so sat and ate an ice cream whilst I waited.

There was then a wait for the bus, but soon we were on our way to Wadi Rum. This journey took about two hours with a stop for people to use an ATM, and at a viewpoint which was to give the rental vehicle a chance to catch-up too. Before entering the protected part of Wadi Rum, we had to stop to have our Jordan Pass stamped. Sometimes this can require them to check your passport too, just as they sometimes do with Petra.

When we got into the town we left the buses behind and loaded our bags onto two jeeps, and they headed off into the desert towards the sunset. It took thirty minutes of bouncing around at speed across the sand to reach the Starlight Camp, and the temperature had already dropped. We then stood on the mound near the tents and watched the sunset until the keys for the tents were given out.

The tent seemed to be a timber frame with material on the outside and more on the inside, with a tiled floor that is covered with rugs. The bed pretty much filled the room, as you’d expect, but what is incredible is that not only does it have electricity via solar power, it also had its own en-suite shower room. I expected this would still be cold water though.

Food was served at 19:00, and we got to see them remove the cooked food from a hole in the ground outside where it’d been buried to cook throughout the afternoon. There was a fantastic selection of food, and it was an enjoyable evening. I sat and talked and laughed with different groups until 22:00, but decided after such a long day and with an early start tomorrow it was time to sleep.