Ralph Nader where were you?



Shobak Castle



Monday (2^nd of May) was spent traveling back to Wadi Mousa from the Live Sea via Karak and The King’s Highway down through Tafila. It gave us an opportunity to visit the crusader castles at Karak and Shobak http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_(Crusader_castle)  Each withstood numerous sieges during the 12^th century only to eventually succumb to the logistical challenges of trying to maintain a long occupation in a land of inhabitants that don’t want you there. Hmmm… this might sound familiar. As we were walking and climbing through Shobak Castle (former population: 6,000) I found myself thinking: “I realize you’re the Pope, but you want us to do what? Where? You want to ‘free-the-Holy-lands’ so pilgrims can go there? Seems like we might not be successful if we had a 1,000-years…”  Can you picture the challenges of crowded military quarters, cold/hot, food, arms, sanitation, and throw in horses too. They had to be places of pestilence. It is enough to take the starch out of our kilt.

carved Nabataen stone re-used in Karak Castle

Tomorrow will be our last full day working with the Park Rangers in Petra. We will miss them. We are scheduled to have a meeting with PAP Director (Dr. Emad) at 8:30 and then tour the park. Tomorrow night we’ve been invited to Umm Sayhoun for a home cooked meal of “Upside Down” (inshallah).