We had a great nights sleep, which we clearly needed. After breakfast we grabbed our packed lunches and set off early down the hill towards the Petra entrance gates.
Whichever way you look at it, the entrance fee of 50JD (£43.50) for a one day pass is a lot of money. The two and three day passes of 55JD and 60JD respectively make for better value, but cheap it certainly isn't. As we are here for two days we opted for the two day pass, not because we think that we need it, just that it is nice to be able to take things easier.
By the time we were walking through the entrance gate at approx 8:30am it was already warm. Fortunately the tour parties were only just starting to arrive, so we had a relatively quiet walk into the main site.
It is worth mentioning that the first and one of the most spectacular, certainly the most famous monuments, the Treasury, involves a near 2km walk. I can't think of anywhere else that you have to walk so far just to get into the main site. Perhaps the people who take a horse or horse drawn carriage aren't lazy, just sensible!
I won't attempt to describe the sheer scale and just how staggering the monuments carved into the rock faces are. Instead we will just let the photos do the talking. The site is huge and is certainly challenging if you don't have a reasonable degree of fitness. We like to think that we are pretty fit, but by the time we had climbed the 800 steps up to the awesome Monastery and then returned through the Siq to the entrance gates we were ready to drop.
Having a couple of days to have a look round seems like a good call. It is certainly possible to see just about everything in the main site in one day, if you are prepared to put the effort in though.
Later that evening we were invited by the hoteliers to have a BBQ on the roof terrace. It was a lovely end to a tiring but great day. Plus the clouds lifted so we could see the largest full moon for nearly 20 years.
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