First thing, of course, was to disembark the cruise ship and since Crown Princess was at anchor in Geirangerfjord this meant the use of tender boats was required. As luck would have it we were able to sit up top on this occasion which on days as gorgeous as this one was turning out to be offered not only the benefit that we’d be allowed off the boat first on land (for safety reasons) but that we’d have some uninterrupted views of the staggeringly beautiful landscape around Geiranger.

The tender boat ride to shore allowed us to see the other ships visiting Geiranger that day – Celebrity Eclipse and P&O Adonia – plus some lovely departing views of our home for the week cruising around Norway, Crown Princess.

Geiranger is a small village, highly reliant on tourism and at constant threat of disaster should there be a large landslide anywhere along the fjord leading to it. Part of the port guide provided by Princess stated that Queen Sonja of Norway camped in the mountains around Geiranger and wrote a book about her experiences. She and future husband Crown Prince Harald dated secretly for nine years on account of her being a commoner and it was only the threat to his father that he would never wed at all and end the royal family dynasty that allowed Harald to marry Sonja in 1968.

All safely ashore we boarded the bus waiting for us. From the description of the excursion:

Your tour begins with a scenic drive through Geiranger, passing the small, octagonal Geiranger Church and the largest hotel, the Union, some 300 feet up the hillside. A series of hairpin bends brings you to Hole camping site.

This duly happened and we gathered at Hole to await the start of our hike. In the map below you can see Crown Princess at anchor (marker A) and Hole where the bus dropped us off (marker B) as well as the two destinations we would be making for on the hike, the waterfall (marker C) and farm (marker D).

There was plenty of opportunity for us to take some photos back along the fjord to where we could see Crown Princess and all around us at the rolling and jagged hills and mountains.

It’s at this point that I need to make an apology for the state of these photos. So, here’s what happened: We’d booked this cruise at fairly late notice for us and knowing that there would be a lot of incredible landscapes and vistas to photograph I thought it would make sense to put some effort into it. Landscape photography isn’t really my thing but you hope that nature can do most of the work for you in these situations. However, I’d seen some people recommending a graduated, neutral density filter when taking landscape pictures in order to get more saturation into the land colours without blowing out the white levels in the sky. This sounded sensible so I ordered some filters and an adapter for my camera and right before our holiday they turned up which meant I didn’t really get much of a chance to test them out. I tested them out on this trip and… ah.

Graduated filters work well when there is a mostly distinct line between the land and the sky. Mountains, though, especially when you’re close to them, form large peaks and troughs and what you end up with is sky that doesn’t have blown highlights (good) but rock that’s essentially all in shadow (crap). Recovering detail is an expensive waste of time afterwards and introduces noise into the picture, halos will inevitably form between light and dark areas of the image, and when your filter is the cheapest of the cheap you can also discover that far from being neutral you’re going to introduce horrible amounts of magenta and purple into the blue levels of the image. In short: yuk.

So, yes, the photos will look a bit weird. There may be purplish hues, the blues will look all kinds of wrong and will leak into the shadows in the middle third of pictures, and I really, really need to go back to the Norwegian fjords so I can take some better photos. A plan exists to do this in 2021 but the world has a way of tossing spanners around so we’ll just have to wait and see on this.

Back to the excursion description:

Now your adventure begins as you hike for Hole to Storseterfossen Waterfall. […] The hike to the fall is at times somewhat steep and strenuous and takes approximately one hour. Dress appropriately, sturdy footwear, layered dress and windproof jacket are recommended. Bring a bottle of water.

Right. Let’s start with the word strenuous. The Crown Princess Norwegian Fjords cruise was the second cruise we’d ever been on. Cruises had been recommended to us originally by my in-laws and my wife’s uncle and aunt. Our first cruise had been the staggeringly awesome Diamond Princess cruise in Asia. Our experience on that cruise was that, yes, we weren’t fit, but we still climbed steps and took part in the moderately active excursion events while most of the ship’s passengers, like our cruise-suggesting relatives, were all far older than us, less mobile, and in many cases asleep by early evening. We made a bit of an assumption that when a cruise line therefore says “strenuous” they really mean “might take the old folk a little longer” and we’d be fine. A terrible assumption as it turned out. We had our first suspicion things were not going to be quite how we’d anticipated when we’d met up in the Princess Theatre ahead of the excursion and spotted nearly everyone else with backpacks, hiking sticks, rugged boots, and the determined look of seasoned fell-walkers. We glanced at each other. We grimaced. We shrugged.

Secondly, our day before this stop in Geiranger had seen us arrive in rain in Bergen. It hadn’t been warm. Norway is not known for being warm. We would be hiking into the mountains. Mountains are not known for being warm either. It had been recommended we wear windproof layers. On the day of our visit it was ridiculously warm; it was seven degrees warmer than Bergen had been and the hiking guides who met us at Hole remarked just how lucky we all were to be getting such lovely weather with blazing sunshine to accompany us all the way. Well, lovely weather unless you’re just about to exert yourself far more strenuously than you’d thought up a mountain.

We started the hike.

If you’ve read other travelogues on this site where we’ve gone off on a hike – we do it more often than we should – then you’ll probably already know that my wife has a long-standing set of injuries to her ankles and knees that make certain angles of walking painful. She perseveres because life is about experiences and just putting up with discomfort is part of the package. This did mean, though, that we very quickly started to lag behind the main group of hikers. I would frequently stop to take some photos of the Norwegian landscape and to check with my wife that she was okay (she wasn’t but showing concern infuriates her to the point of continuing anyway) and offering to turn around and head back on our own (and if looks could kill I’d have been blasted into atoms on a hill in Norway in 2013).

There were a couple of stops on the hike which mostly served to just let those who’d romped ahead have a break while we would clamber up a few minutes behind for a handful of seconds’ respite until the group all set off again.

We weren’t the only couple who were holding up the pace, though, and one couple had already realised the Geiranger hike was going to be too much for them and had notified the guides they’d head back to the ship. Since we had two guides and there was a core of hikers who could ascend with no difficulty at all one lot went on ahead with one guide while the rest of us took more time heading up behind them.

Almost exactly one hour after being dropped off at Hole (marker B on the map up the page) we caught our first sight of Storseterfossen Waterfall (marker C) across a narrow gorge. We could also see people above and walking behind it down a ledge to give it a sense of scale. We would soon be doing the same thing.

We had to walk a little farther up before crossing over the gorge and coming back down towards the waterfall. It was here that we caught up with the rest of our fellow hiking tourists from the cruise ship, sitting around on the grass and admiring the view. As numbers of people who could get behind the waterfall were limited and there were other hiking groups ahead of them it wasn’t us who’d held them up which was something of a relief. “Well, that was worth you all hurtling up the hillside at a breakneck pace then!” I thought, but didn’t say out loud because I don’t like talking to strangers – especially fit, active ones – and I was still a little bit out of breath.

My wife very much appreciated the chance to sit still and reduce the pain in her legs while I snapped photos from this high point of the hike, of the tree-covered hills, of the rocky peaks, of a mountain stream feeding the waterfall, and of the people we’d joined on this strenuous trek.

We finally got the signal from our guides and took the chance to head behind the waterfall. This involved a walk down a narrow and rocky ledge, not too tricky, not too steep, and with poles and a chain to prevent anyone from getting too close to the edge. Behind Storseterfossen there was a shallow cave, large enough to get a decent number of people in at once, and incredibly noisy as you can tell from the video below. It was also quite shocking just how fast and powerful the torrent of water cascading down the mountain at Geiranger was; when you see waterfalls at a distance they can mislead you as to how much force they hold.

From the hiking excursion description one last time:

After taking in the view, you’ll head downhill towards Westerås Farm, perched on a ledge above Geiranger. You’ll take a break at the farm for complimentary coffee or tea and waffles before your return hike to Hole where your bus awaits for your drive back to the pier.

We started on the downward return leg of the hike, covering part of the same route up. This was not considerably easier than it had been on the upward leg simply because my wife’s old injuries are actually more affected by downward angles when walking. In addition, the steps that we were able to use at points, which had been laid by Sherpas from Nepal (a task only completed the year after our visit to Norway), seemed to be at just that awkward height that makes every step down slightly jarring.

We eventually angled away on a different trail and it wasn’t too long before we came to Westerås Farm (marker D on the map). This was a small grouping of attractive, wooden buildings and plenty of sheep grazing on the hillside. One of the buildings housed a restaurant in which we could get the drink and snack we’d been promised, rest our feet for a bit, and take the obligatory handful of photos of the surroundings.

The “hike” back to Hole and our bus meeting point was, I’m happy to report, more aptly described as just a “walk” with the ground being mostly flat and only slightly downhill. Perfect for the end of a more-strenuous-than-anticipated excursion in our opinion.

I snapped a few photos on the walk back and a few more as we waited for the bus in our spectacular surroundings with its lovely views down onto Geiranger and along Geirangerfjord.

Reflecting on this excursion, we had a wonderful time and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it. Yes, it was harder than we’d thought and that’s certainly something you should consider if you’re thinking of booking this during a cruise to Geiranger yourself, but it was all worth it. If you’re fit and you like hikes and you don’t have any impediments then you’ll love the views, and if you’ve never stood behind a waterfall before then it’s a fabulous place to do it. It helps to have nice weather, naturally, and we’d have appreciated it a smidge more if it had been a few degrees cooler but that’s such a small thing to mention.

We hopped back on the tender boat – an inside trip back to Crown Princess this time – and after freshening up (and we really needed freshening up) we enjoyed the early evening sailaway from Geiranger from our balcony. Yes, we’d seen most of these views on the cruise through the fjord earlier in the day but they’re not views you could ever get tired of seeing. We had another chance to see the Seven Sisters Waterfall and the perfect amount of calm beauty to observe to totally smooth out any stress aches and pains from the day’s hike.

The evening on Crown Princess was one that followed the same sort of pattern we enjoy on most cruise ships: food, drink, quizzes, and dancing (or people-watching) in the disco until the early hours. The next day of this Norwegian fjords cruise would see us dock at Olden where we were looking forward to a boat ride on a lake and a visit to see a glacier for the first time.

San Juan del Sur

We may have been ready in plenty of time and the ship may have been ready in plenty of time but the Nicaraguan authorities had different ideas and after a long wait in the theatre we were finally called to our tender boat over half an hour after our excursion was due to have started. Indeed, by the time we had completed the ride to land and our bus had set off for its tour we were close to an hour behind schedule. This was particularly worrying as, allowing for that delay, our expected time back at port based on the excursion’s duration would be well after the time indicated on the Last Time Aboard signs in position as we disembarked the ship and as we arrived on land. This was mentioned amongst our group with some people wondering if the tour would be cut short but, ultimately, we just had to trust that the operators knew what they were doing and, as this was an excursion arranged by Princess Cruises, we knew they wouldn’t leave us behind.

It’s a shame that we were acutely aware of the time because it would have been nice to just take a few minutes to look around the port area at San Juan del Sur. There was a large, covered space selling typical souvenirs, and dancers, musicians, and children dressed in local costumes were all there to welcome our ship. I can’t say whether there was much else beyond what we saw between the jetty and the bus but the impression was of an attractive bit of coastline, a very friendly place, very happy people, and it’s possible that there are enough things to do in the town if you don’t choose an excursion from the ship.

Drive To Mombacho

It wasn’t the most comfortable of bus rides and it wasn’t a short one. We headed roughly northeast from the coast on the road towards La Virgen on the shore of Lake Nicaragua then turned northwest and followed the main road tracking along the lake and affording us with occasional glimpses of Ometepe, the island in its centre formed from two volcanoes. They were easier to see on the right side of the bus and we were sitting on the left so my views and this short video clip (temporarily removed) are of the Nicaraguan landscape we passed instead. It’s almost cruel of me to have even mentioned it.

The road leading up the volcano was situated at a place called Comarca El Guanacaste and it was here, about one and a half hours after leaving San Juan del Sur, that we got out of our air-conditioned bus and onto a 4-wheel drive truck. Not air-conditioned; not comfy seats; exposed to the elements. The vehicle is mounted up a set of stairs at the back and people filled from the back forwards so that they could a) get off first, b) see more of the ascent, and c) cause as much trouble as possible for those climbing aboard last who needed to squeeze through the narrow aisle to get to the still-unclaimed rickety chairs affixed to the flatbed of the truck near the front. If you’re unlucky enough to get the front row, aisle seats then your view will consist mainly of a tarpaulin cover. Luckily, we were in the second row and I was able to lean out and snap some shots going up the mountain.

The ascent was a slow one and, as you can tell from the short video clip below (temporarily removed), not without a soupçon of noise. The views were pretty impressive, though.

Santa Ana

About two-thirds of the way up Camino al Volcán Mombacho is Santa Ana, a handy rest stop with a café, shop, and toilets. Our vehicle halted here for fifteen minutes to allow people to use the facilities and because there is a one-way system in effect managed over radio to prevent vehicles running into each other. The women’s toilet immediately caused a queue to form because poor toilet design is a worldwide phenomenon but as I was the last of the men to use the room allocated to us I then helped stand guard in shifts with another male passenger to let the women use the cubicles in our restroom. It’s worth noting that at this point we’d been off the ship for around two and half hours and the vehicle would not stop here on the way coming down although there was another toilet at the information centre at the top of the volcano.

Santa Ana was a very pretty little area and probably a very welcome resting point for those people choosing to walk to the top of the volcano ahead of the hike around it. There was an abundance of colourful flowers and I won’t antagonise florists by even considering hazarding a guess at what they were.

Mombacho Volcano Hike

A slightly shorter drive from Santa Ana took us to the information centre and café at the end of the road atop the volcano. We didn’t use the café but we were told that they only accepted local currency at the time of our visit. The very first thing we were shown was a trail guide indicating the paths that could be taken: the Crater Trail and the Puma Trail. The former trail is around 1.5 kilometres long and considered moderately difficult and the latter one is strenuous and approximately 4 kilometres in length; that, along with the time taken to get get to and from the port plus the inherent unfitness of cruise passengers in general (guilty as charged) meant we’d be hiking the Crater Trail for this excursion with an expectation that this would take around one and half hours.

If you’re thinking of taking a hike around Mombacho on your own then you are only allowed to self-guide the easier Crater Trail; you need to pay for a guide if you want to try the other, tougher path. Regardless, upon leaving the information centre you have to take the Crater Trail initially to skirt around the edge of the nearest crater and you can either go clockwise or anticlockwise. There were too many of us to be guided in one pack so one half went on an anticlockwise circuit of the crater with the guide who’d accompanied us on the bus while the other half headed clockwise with a guide who worked for a local company who specialised in looking after the volcano and its tourist operations. We were in the latter group.

Mombacho Volcano is 1344 metres high. With that being the highest point, of course, the initial part of the hike was mostly downhill which was absolutely fine all the while you could forget that this would come at the cost of some future uphill parts to battle.

We would periodically stop so that our guide could explain some of the flora we were encountering: grass that looked like bamboo but which was very flexible – he bent one over to touch the ground to demonstrate – to cope with the occasionally strong winds at altitude; giant leaves that collected water; explanations about the types of orchid that grew on Mombacho; warnings not to touch a rather innocuous-looking bark away from the marked path which we were told caused an acid-like burning sensation if it came in contact with your skin.

The top of Mombacho is a cloud forest, a type of forest that accounts for around one percent of the world’s woodland. As the name implies, cloud forests thrive on their altitude which intersects with the formation of cloud layers. Moisture from clouds and fog condenses on leaves, collects, and drips onto the forest floor leading to wooded areas with higher-than-average amounts of moss and high acidity in the soil which in turn creates often very unique ecosystems. That soil lower down the slopes can provide some interesting growing conditions and Mombacho has coffee plantations situated there. Be aware that the clouds, of course, could be present if you visit which could make any hike a colder and considerably damper one, lacking some of the fantastic views you might otherwise get, although, as you can see from the photos, we had fabulous weather for our hike which was in March, 2019.

At certain points around the hiking trail there were signs in Spanish describing some aspect of the trail; its flora or fauna, for instance. One of these signs was at the entrance to a narrow canyon that had initially been formed by rainwater erosion but which had been widened by inhabitants in the area in order to assist in getting fresh water, something no longer necessary once modern plumbing made an appearance in this part of the world. The canyon was an interesting little side-journey off the main hiking route and gave a partial view towards the interior of the crater that we were circling.

Our hike continued after we’d all returned from the canyon and, while there were short periods where we were climbing, the path we were taking continued to descend overall. We had a few more stops where flora was pointed out and we also got to smell some unroasted coffee beans as we trekked ever clockwise towards what would be the lowest point of the hiking trail.

It was at the low point of the Crater Trail that we caught up with the other half of our hiking excursion group. This was close to the volcano’s fumaroles and it was about two thirds of the way around the crater’s rim from where we started, moving in the direction we’d taken. There were two points of interest at this meeting point of the groups so we took it in turns with our half of the tour looking at the fumaroles first while the other group headed to the viewing platform looking out to the Granada Islets, then vice versa.

Fumaroles are holes near volcanic craters where gases vent. It was certainly possible to smell the sulfur from the fumarole but it was only just about possible to see one and taking a photo proved impossible as it required leaning out and looking down a crag in the mountainside. More interesting was a fumarole that wasn’t venting but into which we could put an arm – if you’ve ever seen Peter Duncan’s test of manhood in the movie Flash Gordon then, yes, almost exactly like that – and feel the sudden, almost heavy heat from deep underground encasing it. It was a strange and fabulous experience.

The viewpoint was the farthest distance from our starting point and allowed us to see directly ahead of us towards the freshwater Lake Nicaragua, the city of Granada (where we would be heading after our volcano hike), and the archipelago of 365 islets formed during an eruption of Mombacho in the distant past. Some of the islets are inhabited and our tour guide in the bus had mentioned that he had older family members who lived there and who remembered in their youth when the freshwater sharks that the lake is famous for were so large in volume all you could see were fins moving between the lumps of land. This contrasted to modern times when local Nicaraguans, many of whom cannot swim and so keep away from the sea, still nevertheless come to the lake to paddle or learn to swim, fear of shark attacks being low due to the rarity of even seeing one of the creatures.

Turning leftwards and towards the northeast it was even possible to see the smoking crater from another one of Nicaragua’s volcanoes, Masaya.

All that remained to do was to complete the circuit of the Crater Trail and get back to the information centre at the top of Mombacho. Now, maths comes into play here. We’d effectively covered twice the distance of the other group to reach this point but we’d both dropped the same altitude. This meant, of course, that on our part of the hike we had descended at half the rate of them but, conversely, it meant that the remaining part of the trail to hike – you know, the upwards bit of it – would be twice as steep for us as it would be for them. In the first of the photos below you should be able to make out the pylon atop the volcano on the right side; that’s the information centre that we needed to get back to.

This was the only excruciating part of the hike around Mombacho. We are not a fit couple and probably shouldn’t be picking the excursions with warning signs on them when we’re booking cruises but we’re also contrary gits so whenever we even think the words “probably shouldn’t” regarding an activity then there’s a part of our brains that will already be drawing up plans to do just that thing. For a fit person this part of the hike is quite likely a nice workout. For a regular hiker this may well be just a warm-up exercise. To be fair, if it was just the pair of us taking it at our own pace then we’d probably have had no trouble either but our pace turned out to be a lot slower than everyone else’s and, not wanting to slow everyone down, we matched what the rest of our hiking group was doing. And almost died. An exaggeration for me but perhaps not so much for my wife who has trouble regulating her body temperature in normal circumstances and whose face was the colour of a ripe tomato with third-degree burns as viewed under a red spotlight. She was physically unable to speak and experience has taught me not to attempt communication in these situations for my own safety and to simply do what I can to cool her down during the brief halts we had.

Because we’d made painfully, painfully good time returning to the summit of the volcano we had time to wait before the other half of our group caught up with us on their more gentle ascent. This, at least, gave us both the chance to reach a more normal temperature and skin colour before we headed back down in the back of the four-wheel drive once more.

Despite the high exertion towards the end of the hiking trail this was a fantastic trip to do during our stop in Nicaragua and we don’t regret it one bit. Highly recommended if you like to hike or just want to say you’ve walked around a volcanic crater or you’ve got a soft spot for forests. Should you be thinking of taking a hike around Mombacho Volcano, my advice, you won’t be surprised to learn, is to do so in an anti-clockwise direction from the information centre.

Descending Mombacho

With our excursion group whole again and everyone who’d needed to use the toilets having done so (we’d pretty much just sweated out all the water we’d carried with us) it was time to head back down the mountain. We passed back through Santa Ana without stopping and passed several pairs of hikers walking up, about to start their own trek around the trails.

It was interesting to see the vegetation change as our altitude dropped, something I’d not noticed on the way up. The verdant colours of the cloud forest level soon gave way to a more heat-scorched environment, although one reasonably well-occupied.

We finally made it out onto the main road where we were let out of our truck and gave silent prayers of thanks to the God of Air-Conditioned Vehicles once more. The next stop on our day’s excursion out from San Juan del Sur would be to the city of Granada for a look around at its historic centre and a spot of lunch, and that will be covered in the next post in this cruise diary travel portfolio.

The Street of Facades is a wide area beyond the Treasury with numerous Nabataean tombs and Nabataean decorations on them in their typically grand scale. The placing of tombs doesn’t reflect the age of when they were constructed or any real significance with the person entombed as the tombs were simply produced in the most suitable sandstone spots at the time.

A lot of the damage on the tombs is natural so possibly the most distinctive of those in this part of Petra was the Aneisho Tomb which seemed to be standing separately and withstanding the assault of time better than others around. The tomb includes features in Greek and Egyptian styles, was built for the minister of Queen Nabatiyeh Shaqilh II, and its interior is split over two levels and covers around four hundred square metres in area.

Carrying on our walk we next came to the Theatre. Built early in the first century CE like most of the more impressive architectural feats in Petra and later modified during Roman rule, this was nevertheless a distinctly Nabataean theatre on account of it being carved out of the surrounding sandstone rather than constructed independently in the Greek or Roman manner. Its location was picked to have the best view of most of the more impressive tombs leading up to it and its capacity is estimated at around eight and half thousand people. A couple of days after our visit to Petra we would visit Chester which also has ruins of an ancient theatre and I can assure you that the one at Petra is a smidge more impressive. Maybe even a tad more than a smidge.

A little further along from the theatre was a place to stop and simply admire the views for a while as those who needed to use the toilets could do so at a spot in front of the Royal Tombs where a number of shops and stalls were set up. The tombs looked particularly impressive and if we return to Petra at some point then I’d certainly like to explore them but on this trip we were too limited for time.

The main walking trail in Petra then curved to the west and took us down the Colonnaded Street. This would have been the main shopping street in the city with a large market area to the south. The street includes drainage channels under its curved shape to remove excess water from rains and while it was originally Nabataean it had clearly been improved upon and rebuilt during the period under which Petra was ruled from Rome.

The Colonnaded Street took us to a structure that didn’t look that impressive but which was the Temple of Qasr Al-Bint, one of the most intact buildings in Petra and still standing at its full height despite seismic activity in the area. From the perspective of our excursion, though, this was an important location that indicated the last bit of flat ground we’d have for a while as it also signified we had reached the start of our hiking trail.

And so, with a final gathering together and some words of encouragement from our guide – “This will be hard work and I will push you to get you up as quickly as possible. Please let me know if you feel ill at any point” – (okay, not exactly words of encouragement) we started our hike to the Monastery.

If you read about it ahead of time, even if you read it here, then you know that the Ad-Deir Trail (the hiking trail to the Monastery) consists of approximately eight hundred steps. But that doesn’t mean you’ll take eight hundred steps to ascend because there are long, sloping sections in between the steps. And that doesn’t account for the fact that some of those steps are steps in the loosest definition possible. And the steps are covered in sand and stones in places. And they’re different heights and angles. And some areas have sheer drops near them. And donkeys thunder past every couple of minutes. And donkeys are wider than you realise. And donkeys don’t care about you.

It is, in short, not an easy hike, and if you’re the wife of someone writing this who just happens to have old injuries to her ankle and knee to contend with plus a fear of any unstable surface under her (edge of a cliff: fine; stand on a foot stool: palpitations) then it’s a horrible hike. I very quickly saw that my wife was experiencing a panic attack on the ascent and I think it was pretty obvious to most of our tour group that she was struggling too. In fact, at one point heading up we passed a French group coming down and one woman in there approached us to say there wasn’t much further to go and we could do it so it was even obvious to kind but complete strangers passing fleetingly. Of course I offered to stop the hike because that’s what a caring husband does but I also only offered once because that’s what a caring husband who receives the Glare of Impending Homicide If You Ask That Question Again does.

Our guide was true to his word and kept urging us all on but we did stop three times briefly up the enclosed trail to rehydrate. Out of necessity because of the time we’d arrived and would need to depart we were probably hiking up the trail at the worst time of day with long sections in full sunlight so it was hot, but probably because of the time of year not terribly so; it was considerably hotter when we’d hiked in Nicaragua earlier in the year, for example. Even still, we were very glad to have packed some wet wipes with us as their cool dampness helped to bring down our temperatures quite nicely during those moments of respite on the climb.

And so I shall let the pictures do the talking for the hike up the trail to the Monastery at Petra now. You’ll see how there are sections of flattish ground between the steps and see how the trail zig-zags back on itself in places. You will also be able to get a feel for the narrowness of the trail and height of the surrounding walls of sandstone at parts along the hike as we made our way to the summit.

From the start of the hike to reaching the plateau at the end took us just under an hour. What greeted us was definitely worth the trek.

Despite its name, the Monastery was most likely a temple or tomb (those Nabataeans really liked their tombs) to a king, Obadas, who was later deified. The fantastic facade is fifty metres wide and almost as tall. If you’re visiting Petra and you think you can do it then the hike to the Monastery is highly recommended by us.

The wide plateau in front of the Monastery was artificially created by the Nabataeans for social and ritualistic gatherings and in more recent times, as you’ll see from the video above, rest facilities have been established. After a short gawp at the Monastery we headed to the café to get some more water as we’d almost depleted everything we’d brought with us on the hike. Other people were eating as they – as well as cats and dogs – were sheltering in the seated section of the cave adjoining the café but we were content to just get some liquid inside us.

It didn’t take me long to recover but I wasn’t fighting an hour’s worth of panic-attack-induced adrenalin coursing through my system so I left my wife to rest a little longer while I took a walk around the area for some more photos. Behind the café was a raised area of ground affording better views of the impressive Petra building and which included some rock mounds with hollowed out rooms and windows carved into them. There was also an area up another set of steps that claimed to offer a fabulous view to the west over the Jordanian landscape but I wasn’t sure if I’d have the time to make it up and back without my wife worrying so satisfied myself with some pictures of the people and sights more close by.

When we checked the time we realised that we had plenty of it left. We have to thank our guide for that because his constant pushing for us to complete the hike meant we could really relax if we wanted from this point on. We could probably have stayed around the Monastery for another forty five minutes if we’d really wanted before starting on the way back but we decided we’d make our return ahead of everyone else in order to be able to take our time going down – those fears of my wife and her issues with the uneven terrain would return just as much on the way down as on the way up – and potentially explore some of the areas we’d passed on the walk through Petra to the hiking trail.

It would transpire that something would distract us from exploring more of Petra’s ruins on this visit. Something wonderful. You can find out what that was in the final part of this travelogue series covering our cruise excursion to Petra which takes us from the Monastery back down to ground level and out of the fabulous Jordanian city.

You might recollect from our hike up to the Monastery that the path involved in the region of eight hundred steps and that these were uneven, angled, different heights and widths, sometimes near sheer drops, covered in loose stones and sand, interspersed with stretches of unstepped pathway, and frequented by donkeys clip-clop-thundering past every couple of minutes. All of this was true on the way down too because these weren’t your Harry Potter-style steps that transform when you’re not looking. You might think that descending the hiking trail from the Monastery to ground level in Petra would be considerably easier than the initial climb but it would be more accurate to say it was simply different. For me, yes, an easier task because going down is always easier than going up. Please take your filthy mind out of the gutter. For my wife and her historical injuries to ankles the descent was as bad as the ascent because the slope on many of the steps put a lot of pressure on sore points. Not only that but her shoes – proper hiking shoes – seemed to have more trouble keeping a good grip on the sand-covered sandstone. And, of course, a fear of heights on uneven surfaces is a fear of heights on uneven surfaces no matter which way you’re facing. Progress was slow but that was why we’d elected to head off early. We’re semi-sensible like that sometimes.

Slow progress meant I could stop to take photos when I wasn’t stopping to help my wife down another scary part of the trail.

Where there are tourists there will be people trying to sell things to tourists and the hiking trail to and from the Monastery at Petra is no exception to this rule. You’ll find three or four spots along the route where a handful of tented stalls are erected, some selling drinks, many others offering souvenirs. One thing we particularly liked was that there was no hard sell from any of the stallholders; when we stopped and looked we were left in peace, no lifting of goods and proffering, no attempt to encourage a sale at all. This was a refreshing contrast to many other places we’ve visited on our travels over the years. Another thing we liked were cats because we saw quite a few in Petra. Only ginger ones, mind.

In the two photos below you can get some sense of how the Monastery hiking trail turns on itself, how the steps are, how the donkeys carry the tourists along the path, and the sort of drop along the route.

It was not far beyond this point on our return to the main part of Petra that my wife’s feet slipped out from under her on the sandy steps. Luckily, nowhere near an edge and not in any donkey droppings either. More importantly, the only bruising was to her ego and she wasn’t hurt at all. She also wasn’t the only person to fall that we witnessed with a least half a dozen tumbles seen going up and down.

The descent was taken even more slowly but with no major breaks to recover our breaths that we’d needed earlier in the day and with fewer stops to get some respite from the sun as it had moved around and was being blocked in many points by the sandstone walls we were passing, it took no more than around thirty five minutes to make our way to the base of the trail. And that’s with lots of photos along the way of rocky walls and narrow gorges, of course. I am me, after all.

The lower end of the Monastery trail brought more evidence of human activity in the sandstone walls with plenty of niches, caves in some instances, and carvings.

And thus it was that we completed our descent of the trail. More weird rock formations as we’d come to expect from Petra marked the point at which we’d reached level(ish) ground…

… but it had something else too.

At the base of the trail and identified as toilets on the map we’d looked at there were a few buildings and lots of seats outside. We both needed to use the loo thanks to the volume of water we’d put into ourselves not actually all being sweated out on the hike up and down the path so we made our way to them and made use of the facilities. A local was sat at the entrance to the toilets pointing men to one side and women to another but with toilets being the way they are all over the world this meant there was a queue for the ladies’ side. After I’d relieved the pressure inside and washed my hands I indicated to some women in the queue that there was nobody in the men’s side and there were a couple of cubicles in there. They shot past the guy telling people where to go who looked shocked at first but then quickly resigned to the fact that practicality was probably the priority.

My wife had already passed into the queue the other side of the door by this point so I had to wait for her to complete what she said was a snake around the inner walls of the toilet block which gave me time to look at the rest of the building we’d found. Amongst other things there was a café there (hence the seating outside) and attached to it a small shop where things could be ordered through the hatch. And one thing caught my eye: beer. A horrible assumption on my part was that Arabic countries are dry countries (where alcohol is concerned as well as just in general). Not the case at all.

There are many things we like doing when we travel and one of them is trying local drinks in countries we visit. When my wife emerged from the toilet I pointed at the beer and got an “Oh, hell yes!” look from her. We had plenty of time thanks to our guide’s forced march up to the Monastery which I’d initally thought might mean we could explore the Royal Tombs, perhaps, on our way out, but with so many other things to see that we could really do with a longer visit anyway the lure of beer won us over. We’re easily won over when it comes to beer.

The beer was not cheap and that’s coming from someone who’s bought drinks in Iceland and Hong Kong. We were behind a hiker who also enquired about the beer and quickly opted for water when he was told the price. For us, no problem at all. We grabbed the cans of cold lager – and we are not lager drinkers under normal circumstances – and found a seat in the shade of some trees where we both uttered deep aaaahs of contentment. So now we can say that we’ve drunk beer brewed in Jordan in the ancient city of Petra. That’s the sort of thing we live for.

We negotiated the chicane of resting camels and found ourselves back on the Colonnaded Street heading directly towards the Royal Tombs. My camera immediately attracted the attention of some French girls who assumed that lugging a great big DSLR around meant you must have an innate skill at using a stranger’s iPhone and mimed some gestures to get me to take their photo with it. I don’t like touching Apple products and I don’t like holding expensive equipment belonging to other people and I sure as hell wouldn’t trust anything I was carrying to people I didn’t know – I’m guessing they realised there was little chance I was going to run off with it – but I persevered and there’s a reasonable chance I got them in the shot I took.

I looked longingly at the Royal Tombs from afar and glanced at the time. My wife said she’d wait if I wanted to get up closer to them but I decided we’d stick together, take our time leaving Petra, and make sure that a return trip in the future would include a visit to them instead.

We followed the main route through Petra and next passed the Theatre which was now proving to be popular with goats and people wanting to take pictures of goats alike.

We retraced our steps past the tombs lining the Street of Facades next. There were plenty of souvenir stalls along this route and we stopped to take a look at some of them but didn’t see anything we fancied purchasing.

This brought us back to the building that this ancient site is most famous for, the Treasury. You can see some more photos of the building and read a little more about it in the first part of this subset of the Jordan travelogue series where we walked from the visitors centre to the Treasury at Petra. The area in front of the building was in shade now making it a far more pleasant time of the day to gaze up at the workmanship and take in the scale but we weren’t sure how long it would still take us to get back to the coach and so didn’t dawdle long.

Stepping into the Siq – the long gorge you pass through to get to the main parts of Petra – I turned back to take another shot of the Treasury through the narrow gap in the sandstone walls. A tip if you’re visiting Petra and want this classic (fine: clichéd) photograph is that the later afternoon period is better for it because there are fewer people around to get in the way (unless you want them for scale) and the light contrast between the inside rocky walls and the outside area where the Treasury can be seen is lower meaning there’s far less chance that your camera will overexpose or underexpose the picture.

Just the Siq to go and then the trail up to the visitors centre. Mostly flat from here.

Is it? Is it really? Because I seem to recall there was quite a slope heading down to here this morning.

Well, a hint of a slope perhaps. We’ll probably not even notice it.

We noticed the slope quite a lot as it turned out. It isn’t steep, it’s true, but it’s constant and it’s longer than you remember. However much time you take heading through the Siq to get to Petra’s impressive sights in the first place, add half that time again to head back. And after you exit the gorge the steepness increases. Prepare to be a little out of breath and just this side of completely knackered by the time you complete it.

One thing we noticed was that there seemed to be a lot more horse-drawn carts galloping past us on the exit from Petra. I suspect that people who’d been up for the walk earlier in the day were in more of an up for the terrorise pedestrians from the comfort of a seat mood as the afternoon headed towards evening. Luckily, horse-drawn carts aren’t quiet things and the walls of the gorge carry and echo hoofbeats well and even in the narrowest parts of the Siq we were able to get close enough to the wall to not be too threatened by the speeding vehicles.

The final bit of walking was in sunlight and as has already been mentioned a little bit steeper than the walk preceding it which meant I was called upon to take some tactical photo stops along the way. The Obelisk Tomb and Djinn Blocks were the most interesting of the features along this last bit of the route out of Petra and you can read a little more about them in part one of this series of posts too.

Amongst the souvenir shops around the vistors centre area we finally picked up a few purchases but still had money left over. Luckily, the two-hour bus ride back to the ship at dock in Aqaba included a stop at a store and we got rid of almost all the remaining Jordanian money we’d taken with us then. People who know us and who know how much we like soap will be unsurprised to learn that we came away with lots of soap.

Just before we reached the bus park I was taken in by the modern architecture of the Petra Museum and the gorgeous light conditions of the time of day. We didn’t quite have enough time to pop in and visit but if its interior is as nice as its exterior then I’d say it looks like it’s worth a visit if you’re there.

We weren’t the last people on the bus but we might have been the penultimate couple to arrive and only by a minute or two. As regular cruisers and regular partakers of excursions this was a pretty close to unique experience for us as we’re usually back with plenty of time to spare and invariably have to wait for stragglers to turn up late. That wasn’t the case here and possibly because everyone had sensibly allowed more time than they needed to get back from sightseeing, and our bus was able to leave ahead of schedule as a result.

It goes without saying that Petra is absolutely incredible. It is one of the most impressive places we have ever visited. If you’ve not been then you must go and there can be no argument about it. If you were to visit as part of a cruise excursion like us then I’d also recommend the hike to the Monastery that we did if you think you’re capable of it. It isn’t easy but it’s rewarding and it’s an experience you won’t regret.

In the final part of this Journey to Jordan Cruise travelogue series I’ll cover our last night and morning on Marella Discovery plus our experiences in the airport at Aqaba and on the flight back home. Well, not quite home.