Regular readers of my blog may have noticed that I really, really love a castle and so it goes without saying I was very excited at the prospect of visiting Kerak Castle during my week in Jordan. The Crusader castle at Kerak is an enormous white limestone fortress, perched high on a hill overlooking its modern-day namesake town. It was built during the Crusades, in 1142, by Pagan the Butler, lord of Outrejourdain – one of a number of castles built by the Crusaders across the Levant. The castle’s extensive walls extend across the hill top, dominating the town, and…

At 431 m below sea level, the Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth. A slither of receding water between Jordan and Israel, the Dead Sea is actually a large lake, part of the Jordan Rift Valley, and it’s where I spent a late afternoon relaxing during my week-long sojourn in Jordan. As we approached the Dead Sea, the super-salty body of water looked enchanting as it glistened in the late-afternoon sunshine. With a salinity level of 33.7 per cent, the Dead Sea is one of the saltiest bodies of water on Earth and is almost 10 times saltier…