Hereford and surrounds

Our 2026 Northern hemisphere trip started on a site a few minutes from where the caravan is stored as Steve & Jilly had rented an Air B&B near Ross on Wye. Despite the van being stored here for 18 years we had never visited Hereford. It is a pituresque city with a fascinating cathedral. It abounds with fascinating craftsmanship.

Work on replacing some of the stonework was underway with this capital already two weeks into the making and several more to go. But just as craftworthy was the work area wooden fence with its wooden nails.

Inside there was some of the most detailed stain glass windows imaginable – and in three distinct styles.

These two were to one side of the lady’s chapel.

Next on the craftsmanship front was this mobile organ. It was built so that its console is at the same level as the platform for an annual three choirs festival. It looks like a tight fit moving it between columns.

The main organ was built in 1892 although it has gone through a few refurbishments. How the large pipes operated was challenge enough never mind who had imagined their initial build. 

However, the cathedral has two extraordinary pieces of history. The first is a chained library. It seems theft has been around for some time – well at least from the early 17^th century.  The only way to read these magnificent volumes was to sit at the adjoining bench as the book is chained to its shelf. 

The second unique exhibit is the Mappa Mundi, a 13^thC interpretation of the world. Not only does this have most countries (all centred around Jerusalem) it also includes 500 or so drawings including around 420 cities and towns, 15 Biblical events, 33 plants, animals, birds and strange creatures, 32 images of the peoples of the world and 8 pictures from classical mythology.

All on a piece of velum (calf skin) and about 1.5 by 1.3 metres.

The detail is extraordinary. It must have taken months/years of painstaking work.

In the heart of the city is a wonderful Jacobean building aptly named “The Old House”. It dates back to 1621 and had some interesting displays including dress up clothes. 

This plaque gave rise to some laughter. (The lawyer is doing the milking…)

Hereford was a wonderful sedentary day catching up on news, so the next day Helen and I opted for the Brian Hatton Trail - an 8 km (5 mile) Heritage walk. This is towards the West of Heriford and runs parallel to and North of the Wye Valley. Hatton (1887 – 1916) is Hereford’s most celebrated artist and many of the views were later versions of his landscapes. This is clearly one that needed (and was) painted.

The apple orchards did not cover as much land as they do now – but with Westons round the corner (of which more shortly) there is clearly a growing demand for apples.

Of course what sort of country walk would it be without curious cows to give Helen a suitable scare…..

The summer to date had been pretty hot (for UK) and although the heat haze reduced clarity the views of the Valley were still wonderous (a time for stopping and staring).

All of which put us in a thirsty frame of mind for the following day’s visit to Westons cider brewery. 45,000 Tonnes of apples are crushed between September and November. This is the hopper where the trucks end tip the apples.

Once crushed of course all that juice needs to ferment somewhere and that involves some enormous vats. This is one of the older ones but at 30,000 gallons is still small compared to one double its size that can just be glimpsed on the left hand edge.

After the tour our thirst was finally quenched with a six glass (they weren’t full!) tasting.

And, in order to get on top of the alcohol, A good lunch was needed…Michael (Jilly’s brother) and wife Sue joined us for the tour.

The following day we all went to the Morgan factory. Although I had been in 2015 it was a first for the others. I also fancied a revisit. They are beautiful cars…

Helen asked the inevitable question about going electric. Morgan has made them but demand proved negligible and as all cars are made to order, none were being made during our visit. This one featured in the museum.

By contrast this is the latest development. It is so new it has not been given a model name. We had to stick to the "yellow path" so could not view the front but the back at least is certainly different.

Our visit was on a Saturday, even so some workers were in. It certainly is a dedicated workforce. Here the leather was being applied to a glove compartment door.

The ash super structure continues to be hand made with laminated sheets making the rear arch extremely strong and safer than conventional metal. (It is more elastic.)

While the aluminium frame means rust is not an issue. Look closely and you can start to appreciate the amount of hand work involved as there are numerous clamps in place on both these cars.

From the modern motor to some of the first, our next visit was a steam engine rally. This may not be as fast as a Morgan but in its weight class…It is also a beautiful bit of machinery. 

Elsewhere amongst the standing engines was an early Kenwood. Well a dough maker at least from a nearby bakery. 

After what was a very short four days with Steve and Jilly we parted and promised to look at joining up next year.

Helen and I decided to squeeze in one last visit. Symonds Yap is a quant and picturesque village either side of the Wye. Getting across was by a unique human powered ferry.

On the East side was Symonds rock. This fortunately has a well-developed path up to a spectacular view. Perrigan falcons and Goshawks are key inhabitants but it was probably too warm for them to hunt so we didn't see any. The Wye path can be seen running through the field – now there’s a thought….

 

Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea

After Petra, we headed South for Wadi Rum and had a quick stop at the railway station. This 1956 engine was used for the biographical Lawrence of Arabia film, where he helped the Ottomans so the Arabs could control their own destiny. What he didn't know was that he was set up by a secret Sykes-Picot Agreement to divvy up the area between France and Britain.

The train cars behind had sandbags and gun positions, all to help the imagination. Our driver (Feras Nassar) was excellent and happy to participate in some antics. 

St Lawrence’s book “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” included this shot on the cover (I could only make out 6 pillars!).

Our overnight stop was at Rum Planet Camp, which was different to others in the Wadi. It was owned by locals (no foreign investors) and focused on sustainability (stainless steel loaned water bottles, solar power, fans rather than AC, insulated tents etc). The manager, Ahmed, was perhaps the best guide we have experienced. Rather than send one of his cousins out with us, he opted to do so himself as he “preferred older people”. I suspect this was because we were much more interested in the Bedouin lifestyle and the Wadi than the more selfie-driven, younger generation.

This was demonstrated by our first stop – a nearby gorge. A truck caught us up, the tourists jumped out, had a quick walk and left while we were just starting to explore the place. As the gorge was incomplete an alternative route was required, hence these steps. There were no volunteers in our group to try them out!

On the opposite wall was some old Arabic writing. It was unusual as it did not include any of the Arabic “dots” to assist pronunciation. Hence, readers had to understand the context to comprehend the message.

The shapes of the mountains were particularly varied and one could imagine all sorts of faces and animals. This view may have been where the pyramids were first conceived.

Just before sunset, Ahmed lit a fire (we had all helped in gathering the fuel) and made some mint and thyme tea. It was excellent, although Ahmed was surprised that, unlike him, none if us wanted sugar in it!

The following morning, Steve and I had an early start and took a camel ride to see the sunrise. They are remarkable animals not least because of the lurching involved every time they stand and sit. Fortunately, our guide knew how to manage the resultant rider lurches!

This relaxed shot rather belies the internal turmoil as we waited to dismount.

And this video helps explain our trepidation. It is little wonder that camels moan before sitting or getting up. It is clearly quite an effort. Check out the complex leg movements.

This is the entry to the camp. Just inside, we had spent an hour the previous evening lying on the ground while Ahmed gave an enlightening explanation of the stars, including navigation and star signs.

One day in the camp really was not enough and in no time we were off to Aqaba. This is Jordan’s port on the Red Sea. Looking around the bay, our proximity to Israel and Egypt was little more than a hop, skip and a jump. Feras’s brother lived in Jordan and caught a bus each day to work in a hotel in Israel. Three times a Jordanian's income while enjoying the significantly smaller costs of living at home.

Rather than a walk around town, we opted for a glass-bottomed boat to look at wrecks and corals. The captain certainly knew the depth of his boat as we seemed to get very close but never quite scraped the bottom despite the waves and windy conditions.

We certainly took more than enough shots of the coral!

We then headed for our final stop – the Dead Sea. En route, we stopped to view some of the salt pan workings. The scale of this operation compared to those in Port Said was stark. This is a massive industry. (The hill on the other side is Bethlehem.)

So, saying the industry does have a downside. The Dead Sea is over 60 kms long and about 14 kms wide, but that is changing rapidly. As water is drawn and evaporated for phosphate and salt production, the level is dropping some 2 metres per year. The shoreline looks more akin to a dam than a sea. There is some talk of piping water in from the Red Sea to replace the loss, but as that would require agreement between Jordan, Israel and Palestine, it is at best a distant project.

Eventually, we arrived at our hotel, had a quick change and golf cart trip down to the retreating beach so that we could float inelegantly in the 65% salt-concentrated water. Nothing can live in that, hence the sea's name. You can’t even swim, as salt water in the eye would have been very painful. However, it is easy to keep your hair dry and rest assured, without glasses, there is not much reading going on!

The second attraction was to get covered in mud. Apparently, it is good for the skin and overall well-being. I think that is more to do with washing it off, followed by a hot shower, than contact with the mud.

That evening, we had our last supper together for this trip. The peals of laughter that emanated from our table must have been disconcerting to others in the dining room. It did underpin how much we enjoyed each other’s company. We were lucky with the quality and personalities of most of our guides, but also suspect the synergy of our group helped to energise them.

We all agreed we should try and travel together again. All we need to do is pick somewhere!

In the late evening, Helen and my taxi arrived for the one-hour ride to the airport and flight to Frankfurt. Interestingly (and in contrast to the flight from Cairo), our path took us over Israel. We were required to keep our seatbelts on longer than usual (about an hour) until we were over the Mediterranean. I assume someone thought seat belts would be of some help if we were shot down!!

Petra

A second stop missed from our cruise attempts was Petra. After a quick breakfast, we walked out of the Petra Guest House hotel and there were the ticket barriers into the site. Now that’s convenience! We were met by our Bedouin guide, Mahmoud, who spoke excellent English and, with a degree in archaeology, was both very informative and easy to listen to. He lived in the nearby village.

Petra began to prosper in about 1000 BC under the Nabataean empire due to trade in Myrrh, Frankincense and spices. The geology is stunning but not something for this blog, other than to say the natural colours were extraordinary. The walk down and through the city is some 4 kms – all downhill, and in no time at all, we encountered our first building - the Obelisk tomb with four pyramids atop. What makes Petra so special is that most buildings were carved from the top down (rather than built up). This is the burial site for five people.

The main street runs through a natural gorge and is hence subject to flooding (on the few occasions it rains). To counter flooding, they built a small dam and tunnel to divert the water away from the gorge.

The size of the gorge is immense, and hopefully, this shot, which includes visitors and the distant cliff tops, provides some indication of scale. The engineering continued with two water supplies. The one on the left would have been covered with stone slabs and supplied the lower part of the city. The line on the right contained a vitreous clay pipe that operated under some pressure to provide water to the upper side of the city.

The left-hand gravity supply included silt traps to help keep the water clean.

As with all our visits, these two found something to talk about and brought up the rear. Even with the floor concreted to protect the friable sandstone, it still appears to be hard to talk AND walk! Above these "statues", the gorge narrows to a bit over 1 metre. 

The light was spectacular, and every so often, some of the natural colours really stood out.

After about an hour, the gorge (or Siq) opened up to Petra’s most well-known façade – the Treasury. It is 40 metres high and beautifully decorated with Corinthian capitals, friezes and figures. At the top is an urn that for years was thought to hold treasure (hence the name), with accompanying bullet holes. Science has now shown that it is purely a funerary urn.

Of course, you could also pose atop a camel with the treasury in the background – that was a step up too high for our mob!

As we moved further into the city, our next encounter was the street of facades. 

Mahmoud suggested we go into one 

and after the eyes had adjusted to the dark interior, we found several of his relatives selling trinkets and spices.

A challenge for any city of 30,000 people is entertainment, and for that, you need a theatre. As room was tight, the location did unfortunately mean a couple of lesser tombs were encroached (the rectangular holes) – such is the price of progress! The engineering for this was advanced when you consider this was carved top down, and when finished, the acoustics had to be perfectly attuned to the centre of the stage.

Nature continued to impress with its natural patterns and colours.

At the end of the main path were the Royal Tombs (Urn, Silk, Corinthian and Palace) dating back to 70AD. These four are all surprisingly different. They could almost have been part of a design competition; however, their carving spanned 150 years.

Age was not limited to the tombs – this pistachio tree is reportedly some 450 years old – not bad when most average a mere 300 years!

We then entered the lower part of the city on the collonaded street. This was built in Nabataean times and then refurbished by the Romans. It is very similar to earlier streets we have seen on this trip, with cart ruts and what would have been a covered walkway protecting shops.

Finally, there was the Qasr al-Bint temple (50 AD). What differentiates this from other built temples is that it has withstood several earthquakes. One reason for its resilience may be that the two horizontal bands (which can be seen on the left-hand wall) comprise timbers. These would have provided some tensile strength to otherwise brittle walls.

We then faced a change in direction and started walking uphill. As a child, our guide initially lived in a cave. One of them in this shot was a playground where he could recall feeling very frightened when his father was fighting in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. Most of those working used to live in Petra but have now been relocated to a nearby village and given the rights to manage all tourist activities. 

As we approached the bus stop for our lift back, the final tomb was Turkmaniyya. Unusually, this has a Nabataean inscription over the door.

It mentions the tomb has a courtyard, dining halls, a water cistern and retaining walls. It seemed rather like a "for sale" sign, but in fact was a dedication to Dushara, "the god of our lord". The tomb is only for those authorised to undertake the act of consecration.

Far less prescriptive was the timetable for the bus ride out. My enquiry as to the expected schedule (half-hourly or hourly) was somewhat wide of the mark. Apparently, the bus moves half an hour after the first passenger gets on board! 

And with that, a long-time bucket list item was ticked off! What a brilliant tour! Add it to your bucket list and make it happen!