Woke up at around 7:30. Our hotel is really cool, but there are a few important things that it is missing: virtually NO internet (a very weak and unreliable signal is offered in the lobby, but that is a LONG way from our rooms), and (at least this morning) NO hot shower.

After a brisk cold shower we packed our bags and headed to the breakfast room. Today the coffee tasted even worse than it looked. I had put some bread and butter on a plate and left it at the table while I went to get an orange juice. When I look back at the table, I see several sparrows sitting on the table and on my plate, pecking at my pad of butter. (At least SOMEONE is enjoying the breakfast!)

After breakfast we had to hurry to get our luggage out to the bus so the driver could pack (and I mean PACK) it into the rear storage compartment. Our backpacks come with us onto the bus and, if there’s still room, they get forced into the shelves above our seats (so that you can get properly boinked on the head by a falling water bottle when we’re driving on a bumpy road). There is NO room to spare on this bus. It has 15 seats if you count the rear bench seat as a four-seater. Up until today I’d been okay sitting back there since it is the only place where I can turn just a bit in my seat to avoid having my knees jammed tightly agains the seat-back in front of me. And because it is the back seat and the view from there is not a view, it usually has one empty seat where one of the women who sits there can keep her backpack on the seat beside her. After a week of riding the bus we’d sort of settled into a seating arrangement that worked for everyone. Well, not EVERYONE. There are two people on this tour that really don’t like each other. They’d sat side by side after their big showdown, but today one of them was first on the bus and took a seat in row 2, leaving the seat beside her empty. As the passengers filed in and took their seats, that one empty seat remained empty. And when the last person to board the bus came on, she walked right past that empty seat and squeezed her butt into the empty seat beside me. She was NOT going to sit beside you-know-who! Oh boy. This is getting ridiculous.

We made two stops before lunch. First at a big ‘dates’ store where they were happy to give us a few samples and even a short talk about dates. Then, after another short drive, we stopped at a ‘fossil’ place where they cut up big slabs of rock from the surrounding area and make them into some beautiful furniture and ornamental pieces (and a LOT of small — and questionably authentic — souvenirs).

After the fossil tour and a WC break, it was about 90 minutes to our lunch stop. We sat down at long tables under an outdoor tent at BIG tour bus restaurant, where the simple basic menu had a fixed price that included a starter, main, and dessert. Most of us were not interested in such a big meal for lunch; all we do all afternoon is sit in a tour bus, and we already have big dinners planned for us. So Naomi and I shared ONE lunch (turkey kebobs).

After lunch we made one more stop before arriving at our final destination. We pulled in to the  Carrefour grocery store to pick up a few things that we might want over the next few days, when there will be fewer options available. Of course I went to check out the beer situation but all they had was zero-alcohol beer, and I’m not a big water drinker. This Ramadan business is a bit inconvenient, even for the tourists who don’t observe it. We ended up buying a few chocolate bars and chips. Not sure that was the smartest thing to do.

Soon after our grocery stop we pulled up in front of our hotel in the town of Haroun. Looked okay from the outside. Not bad from the lobby and the big dining hall. there was a big courtyard out in the back, and even a swimming pool. And while our tour brochure had mentioned that we might have shared bathrooms, not so for us! So that was a bonus.

Best of all, the wifi worked. (Haven’t check to see if there’s hot water for showering.) So it was busy, busy, busy for Naomi and me — working hard to upload photos and write these blog posts. I queued up one of my ‘new’ Van Morrison albums, “Remembering Now”, and we enjoyed listening to to that while we sorted through our trip photos.

At around 4:30 we met at the bus. A local tour guide joined us and after a very short drive we disembarked and began what turned out to be about an hour-long hike. Very nice. Very interesting.

Dinner was downstairs at out hotel. We’d put in our orders before we left on our hike, so the food arrived at the tables right after we sat down. Food was okay. Pasta for me and a mushroom omelette for Naomi. And that was the day! We went back to the room. Naomi had a little headache and I need to finish up this blog. Which I have now done. See you tomorrow!