I don't normally do really personal blog posts, but thought I'd make an exception to update family and so on about what I've been doing.

Until now we've mainly been lazying around being entertained by the very hospitable Jordanian folk, but today I did more sightseeing. You can follow my route using this Google MyMap, or click the links below. We started off fairly early this morning from where we are staying in Hashemi, Amman.

For those who are interested, this is a representative photo of Amman, which is a large city of about 3 million inhabitants.

We then traveled an hour south to the Dead Sea (map of Dead Sea), which was great. Trying to swim in it is actually rather difficult – you have to keep your head out of the amazingly saline water, but the buoyancy forces your legs to the surface as soon as they deviate at all from vertically down! We then washed off in a waterfall fed from a naturally hot spring – and I mean hot. I couldn't keep my feet in it for more than a few minutes at a time. With the added pressure and volume that a waterfall provides, it was the best hot shower I've ever had.

After that, we went to Mount Nebo (map of Mount Nebo), stopping at a nicely – and necessarily – air conditioned restaurant for a good lunch. The views from Mount Nebo were impressive, but it would have been much better if had been less hazy (and if I'd had some sunglasses! it was rather bright).

That's all for now, though there is lots more I could say. Hopefully next week I'll visit Petra, among other places.