Desert romance

Go Honeymoon:Honeymooners Deniseand Mark Duffield-Thomas– winners of the 'Ultimate Job in Ireland' – continue their trip to exotic spots around the world with a visit to Jordan

SWEET mint tea, easy smiles and proffered handshakes. Jordan, officially the Hashemite Arab Kingdom of Jordan, was the scene of our most adventurous honeymoon testing so far. Our 20 days were a whirlwind of some of the most historically important cultural and religious sites in the world, followed by our biggest personal challenge . . . with no personal butlers in sight.

We arrived in the blinding heat of Amman, easily 45 degrees Celsius, ready to explore.

Jerash, an ancient Greco-Roman city, part of the famous Decapolis (the chain of 10 magnificent Roman cities through the Middle East) is easily one of the most stunning sites we’ve visited on our trips around the world.

Our local guide has watched the city slowly emerge during each excavation, and shows us each monument as if he personally unearthed it – the incredibly well-preserved mosaic floor from the early Christian church, the chariot groove marks in the limestone paved roads and the open-air forum surrounded by 63 evenly spaced columns.

Jerash moves me in unexpected ways, and I desperately want to experience a day as a citizen. Instead I squint my eyes and imagine arriving through Hadrian’s Arch as a newcomer, stunned by the sights and sounds of the beautifully designed city. The two theatres are virtually unchanged, the incredible acoustics still heard from my seat and I try to transport myself back 2, 000 years to a night of song and dance.

Of course, no trip to Jordan is complete without a visit to the fabled Rose City, Petra. It was the capital city of the Nabataeans, an ancient group of engineers and visionaries who settled in the area around 37-100AD, and created an entire city carved into the rocks, complete with water irrigation system and a theatre carved out of the cliff face.

The famous and elaborate ruin Al Khazneh, the Treasury, is unbelievable to behold. Perfectly symmetrical and towering 150ft in the air, it was famously used in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and sparked the fantasy of many travellers.

We round off the sightseeing with Mount Nebo, overlooking the Promised Land and the final resting place of Moses, the famous mosaic map in St George’s Church in Madaba and the medieval castles of Ajlun and Kerak.

After our history-laden tour, we move to Aqaba for a honeymoon test of the five-star hotels in the region. A chance to chill out and smoke shisha, eat good local food and swim in the Red Sea. This area is famous for diving and snorkelling, with probably the cleanest beaches we've seen so far. From here, you can get the ferry across to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt and Eilat in Israel.

Our next assignment was a horseriding camping tour into the Wadi Rum desert, also known as the Valley of the Moon. Strictly experienced riders only, so to avoid broken collar bones and saddle sores, wed be riding in a jeep with the chef, Mohammed, and helping to set up camp.

We meet up with our group, nine of us all together, from Germany, Austria and France. For some, this is a fulfilment of a 20-year dream to see Jordan, others a chance to indulge their passion for horses away from their daily lives.

On the first day, I’m shocked to discover there are no toilets. In fact, we’re camping right in the desert, a different place each night. I stare blankly at the toilet paper and lighter I’ve been given, the latter printed with a picture of Frank Lampard. Help me Frank, what do I do? I’m so traumatised by the reality of doing my personal business in the open air, that I hold off . . . for four days.

The first night we sleep in a small tent, but sweat through the stagnant air, so we decide thereafter to sleep under the stars. We put our mattresses straight on the red sand and gaze up at a sky undiluted by pollution. The moon is as bright as any city streetlamp, but the only sound is the occasional snort from the horses and by the end of the trip I’m sleeping like a Bedouin. In the morning, I can see hundreds of little scarab beetle tracks around us, but no creepy crawlies venture into my sleeping bag.

The camp rises early to avoid the sun and to prepare the horses for the morning ride. The rest of us pack up camp and drive across the sands to find the lunch spot, usually a shaded gorge, once memorably on the side of a mountain under a vast fruit tree. We get over our initial shyness at first and become true roadies, flinging backpacks off the truck and setting up tents.

The 45-degree weather necessitates a large break in the middle of the day, where the group lounges around drinking spicy tea and chatting about life and horses, keeping cool with our own version of Bedouin turbans. There’s another shorter ride in the afternoon, and the team comes back jubilant about galloping across the sands, or racing each other in pairs. Showers are sun-warmed buckets of water and dinner is tasty meat and rice, houmous, yoghurt and bread washed down with obligatory sugary tea.

We have a hilarious time in the jeep. Mohammed even lets Mark drive and offers to teach me, but I settle for just holding the wheel occasionally. He has a collection of Arabic music on cassette, and it becomes the soundtrack to the breathtaking scenery of the arid dusty landscape; rolling dunes, sheer cliffs, meandering dirt tracks and the occasional ancient fig tree. The minerals made the mountains multicoloured and the rocks seem to be melting in the sun.

We make up for missing the horseriding with a camel ride, keeping up with the horses from our vast height and the perfectly designed feet of the camels. After 30 minutes, trotting alongside the group, I’m happy to escape back into the jeep!

The trip seems to be profound for everyone. When we say goodbye at the stables, there is real emotion. The riders come away more in love with horses than ever, and Mark and I have been stretched way out of our five-star comfort zone. My fondest memory is sitting in the jeep writing in my notebook, my hair like straw, the smell of horse dung in the air, covered in rolls of dirt and having this unexpected thought – “bliss, bliss, bliss”.

One skill that will stay with me for life, I can now poop in the desert like a champ.

Contrasts and new experiences – that is how we will remember Jordan. The incredibly friendly people, the romance and history of its cultural sites and the stunning beauty of its pristine seas. It’s an adventure into the unexpected well worth exploring.

Our cultural tour of Jordan was organised by destination wedding and honeymoon company RunawayBrideandGroom.com; our desert horseriding adventure by adventure holiday specialists ZarasPlanet.ie and our flights to Jordan were courtesy of BMI.