While Tim and I had walked around different tombs and pathways before heading up to the Monastery, Audi waited patiently for us. It was a slow day for the various vendors, including the men who have camels and donkeys that you can ride. Only the donkeys (as opposed to the horses or the camels) can make it up the 850+ steps up to the Monastery. A person can walk it, with no problem.
But being a slow day, Audi and his two donkeys trailed along with Tim and I until we were ready for the trek up those particular stairs.
Kate with Audi guiding alongside:
Meet Captain Jack Sparrow (Tim's ride) and William Shakespeare (my ride).
William has made the trek many times. This was Jack's first trip to the Monastery. William has a path. A (= one) path. As a rider, you have no control. You aren't holding on to any reins. The donkey knows what he's doing, and you let him do it.
Pedestrians are coming down the path as you are going up, and I just keep saying "I have no control and he has a path" and they'd move out of the way. Or Audi, our guide, would let pedestrians know 'people on the left, donkeys on the right'.
Oh, the the right hand side was usually the side where there is a drop, and the donkeys like to live dangerously and walk along the very edge. I just trusted William and flowed with it.
Here's some video from the back of William Shakespeare. It cuts abruptly at the end, simply because my camera battery said 'enough'!
You walk the last few dozen stairs, and you see a snack and coffee vendor, and a small white building up on the next hill. (Shrine to Aaron, from the Bible.) Then you turn to your right, and oh my goodness ... there's the Monastery. And getting there with the light of the afternoon sun, well, it's another stunning place.
In the middle photo (above), you can see a person in the opening ... had to include that so you can see the scale of the place.
On our way down, I found walking William by the lead was easier for me. Otherwise it was clunk, clunk, clunk and felt a bit jarring. Audi guided Tim on Jack Sparrow ahead of us, because Jack hadn't navigated this before. And on the way up, we knew without a doubt that William is accustomed to being the lead donkey. But he seemed okay with walking with me coming down.
Audi had us stop at one of the vendors along the pathway. (2 separate six-foot tables, covered with jewelry and other small wares.) Turns out that this was his family's stall.
Behind one of the tables was a small tent, where his mother sits and makes tea. His sister sells their wares. We were invited to sit and share his mom's home-brewed bedouin tea. A little sweet, and a little bit of sage. It was delicious. Made over a small fire, and a small cast-iron teapot. Her hands were dark and must be calloused, because she touched that tea pot and briefly handled the coals, with bare hands. And never flinched.
Audi and his family. (Audi is in the orange sweatshirt.)
I now want to learn to make a similar tea! The brew ... not the method of making it over the open fire ;-)
Audi and his family were some of the hundred or so bedouins who lived in the caves of Petra for years. An interesting read is "Married to a Bedouin" by Marguerite van Geldermalsen. She describes living in the caves with her Petra-born husband, as well as the transition from the caves to the housing on the hill sponsored by the government. The tourism ministry, if I understand correctly, wanted to boost up the tourism industry and not have folks living in the caves. But those same bedouins and their families continue to be the lovely people who have the donkeys and the vendor stalls.
I'll do another post of other sites in Petra next!
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