So the holiday break here is now officially at an end here in Jordan, but I ended up being able to go out more than I had originally expected. Definitely more than I did last year. The first three days I spent in the house studying arabic and doing some computer work. The next day a couple friends from Lebanon came over to Jordan, so I spent the day with them visiting people in Amman and a couple of the neighborhoods close by. However, the day after I had been planning a two day camping/hiking trip with a number of the guys from the church and friends from the university. So in preparation for the trip I had to find a nice place to show them. Most Jordanians have never done any kind of exploring of Jordan. Their idea of camping is to take a bunch of stuff in a car, stop on the side of the highway, and have a big meal then sit around. Anyway, a friend of mine has a couple books about hiking here in Jordan that she let me borrow, they have almost all of the valleys along the dead sea in them. So I found a valley that sounded interesting and semi-easy and went to Google Earth. About a month ago I bought a subscription to google earth and some extra software so that it can be integrated with my GPS, all told it was only about 35$. I found the valley on Google Earth, zoomed in, mapped the route on the software, then transferred it to my GPS. After than I downloaded the satellite images to my cellphone, since I don't have a basemap of the middle east on the GPS. I zoomed in and got fairly detailed images of the route (not that all this was nesecary since I had the cooridinates and since it is a valley/canyon which makes it difficult to get lost...but it was cool anyway). By the way, the valley we walked in used to be part of the land of Edom, near the border of Moab.
I spent the night before the trip shopping for supplies, because I knew if I let them do the shopping we'd end up carrying way too much stuff (as it turns out they bought a bunch of extra stuff anyway). We left the next morning, drove past the dead sea, passed al-Karak (a major stronghold from the crusader period with a huge castle), and arrived at the valley entrance via the GPS marker. The hike was alot of fun, though the trail turned out to be more difficult than expected due to higher than average water levels, and some of the less fit guys had a hard time. We ended up only walking about 3 miles in (which took 4 hours) then stopping, set up camp, had a big dinner, and played cards via moonlight and flashlights. The next morning we walked back to the cars and headed back for Amman. Overall it was a fun trip and I got to know the guys alot more personally, and got to show them some of their country. I will post pictures of the trip later.
Anyone interested in exploration and cartography, especially if you live overseas, I highly recommed the Google Earth/GPS option. The addition software I got was called "ge2gpx".
Ok, I am done rambling. signing off.
7 comments:
That's cool, sounds like fun!
I like google earth too. Although I don't use it for nearly as intricate an operation as you do, mostly it's for work. It sounds like you had a lot of fun.
Can't wait for the pictures!! Praying for you!!
They were probably afraid if they let you do all the shopping they'd starve. : )
Hey, my friends here don't know my about my 'thrifty' eating habits. Plus peanut butter is a speciality here. However, I did introduce them to oatmeal haha.
Sounds like a fun trip Noah! glad you could do something like that over there. :o)
Hello Noah,
it's Larisa. I am in Russia now, but when I was in Alaska and other states I also checked Google Earth to watch my town. It was a great blessing for me. I wish you Merry Christmas and Happy 2009 Year. By the way, though you probably do not know this, but Sunday means "Reseraction" in Russian. So I can also celebrate Reseraction every Sunday. However you do it oftener.
Post a Comment