We had a rest day and spent some time at the Royal Jordanian Diving Club on the Red Sea. Here we mostly lolled around on the beach and did some snorkelling on the reef. It was actually lovely to lie around and do nothing for a change and Ian, Fraser and Sarah seem to be doing it very well in the photo, although we couldn't have done it for any longer.
We had an overall sense of well being and achievement with a bit of sadness that we would not be getting back on the bikes again and that we had said goodbye to the crew.
After lunch we flew back to Amman and had a final dinner at a lovely Lebanese restaurant. And for once there was a decent selection of vegetarian food for Angela and Jinny. Vinny did a fab speech after little warning that we had nominated him to do it - well he is a word smith so the obvious choice! I particularly liked the bit 'you wonder just how sloshed you were when you decided that this would be a good idea for a honeymoon!' Too right! (Anna, Simone, Jinny and Collette clearly enjoyed the speech too!)
We had already been told that Jordanian people are insulted if you finish a meal that they provide for you as they interpret it as not having provided enough food for you. The same principle seems to apply in restaurants as the portions always seemed big and as soon as we finished our bread it was immediately replaced. The Lebanese restaurant provided big enough starter portions to fill us up - meze with things such as fish balls, halloumi, lamb spleen and brain. Fraser went for the spleen, which was similar to liver, although no one was brave enough for the little grey cells! The mains were lots of grilled meat dishes and we rolled out feeling very full. I don't think I have ever eaten so much food in 10 days in my life although I must have burnt it off as amazingly I think I lost a little overall. It's been hard since we got back to resist eating piles of salt and the still huge appetite!
We had a few drinks and retired to bed to fly home in the morning. On reflection I think it was the most fabulous honeymoon and I feel lucky to have experienced a beautiful country populated with lovely people with a great bunch of fellow travellers. I will always look back on the trip with real fondness and would definitely do it all again.
