With a fond farewell to Sami we headed slowly out of the valley.
The climb wasn't really that bad, although rather unfairly the wind was a lot stronger than it had been yesterday. While on the climb the wind wasn't really a factor, but when we came out onto the plateau it started to play its part. It may have been only a crosswind but with no shelter, it still managed to slowly sap our strength.
Originally we had planned to stop in al-Karak and maybe have a look at the castle. As we had stayed in the valley though, we had revised our plans to go a bit further and find a free camp. Karak's castle may be stunning, but we have seen a few over recent weeks and we feel that we could probably afford to miss one. With the wind slowing our average right down, the chances of us getting far looked slim. The original plan started to look like a good one.
Sadly the beauty of the road through the valley didn't continue and we were joined by a lot more traffic. Jordanians aren't the best drivers we have ever encountered; they stop randomly in the middle of the road, frequently pull out without looking, and in one incident earlier, clearly think it's funny to deliberately open their car door on Debs while she was riding along. For the first time on the trip, we can honestly say that we have found a country where we don't enjoy cycling. When a group of lads through a rock at you, in the middle of a town, in front of an army base, you begin to wonder. We have met some terrific hospitable people, which seems so at odds to the behaviour we are encountering on the road. Gone are the friendly, waving, smiling children of Syria, to be replaced by money demanding, rock throwing shits. In fairness we had read other peoples blogs regarding the stone throwing tendencies, but you always hope that it isn't true. A small pebble I could just about understand, but this was a rock, thrown with real force and the intention to harm. At this rate we will be glad to leave the country which would be a terrible shame.
Via several more hills, including a very steep one through al-Karak we made it to a hotel. We have a pretty good view of the castle, but have very little desire to visit. Hopefully our journey tomorrow won't be marred by any more incidents like today.
On a lighter note we passed the 6000km mark today, so go us!
Plus we had a really nice, cheap dinner in a local restaurant. A whole BBQ chicken, salad, bread, two drinks and a huge plate of flavoured rice for about £5 was a bargain.
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