Bethany Beyond the Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
I rejoin my driver and we head to the Dead Sea resorts. I was hoping this meant we travelled along the edge of the Dead Sea but no we went back up the Desert Highway nearly to Amman instead. The reason, security checkpoints, one of which we passed through in order to enter the Dead Sea resort area. The next day I was off to visit Bethany Beyond the Jordan. There are lots of claims about the location of various significant religious sites and Jordan claims this as the site where Jesus was baptised. Of interest to me was how narrow the River Jordan is at this point, less than a stone's throw to the West Bank. Of note was the number of tourists on the Jordanian side of the river compared to the other side, where I only saw Israeli soldiers.