Karak

The flight to Amman passed without peculiarities. On the second thought: there was one. Just as we landed I felt something turning in my gut. On no, not again! It seemed like a continuation of the miserable last days of my previous trip. Moreover, the opening of the plane door was delayed due to technical problems. After what seemed like an eternity, the door finally opened and I hurried out, overtaking everybody in search of a toilet. When I got out of it, everybody already cleared the immigration and only my bike box was standing near the luggage trolley.

Early in the morning, when assembling the bike I couldn't tighten the right pedal all the way into the crank. I took a closer look and discovered few scraps of aluminum in the crank thread. Oh my God! I ruined the crank! I tightened the pedal as tight as I could and hoped it would last at least to Amman where I wanted to fix things. After 10 km both pedals started to loosen. It seemed the tour was over before it begun. Out of anger I repeatedly screwed and unscrewed the pedals until they were all the way inside the crank thread. I knew I busted the cranks, but I was resigned and ready to throw the bike in the ditch and continue on foot in case the pedals fall off. After a moment of hesitation I turned 180 degrees around and started cycling south, in the direction of Karak.

When I started from the airport in was extremely cold, around 0 C, but during the day it reached 13 C. Nevertheless the wind was strong and cold and I realized that minimizing the clothes is not always the best solution. I was skeptical about my pedals, pedaled delicately like a ballet dancer, and inspected them every half an hour. As kilometers went by the pedals showed increased stability and the day came to a happy ending 120 km later in Karak.

Day 1: 122km. Total 122km.