Got up when it got to light to sleep, broke camp and headed back to the enterance to Wadi Rum. In the government house we found out that the morning bus to Aqaba had been hired by a tour group. We were either going to have to wait until around 4pm or get a ride out to the main highway and hope for a bus. We opted to take the third alternative which was sit for two hours drinking coffee and beg our way on to the bus that had been hired by the French tour group.
We got to Aqaba, and the girls headed off (Jody and Karen to Eilat in Israel, and Meredeth up to Amman). I checked in to a reasonable clean hotel, and set off to find a laundry (things were getting quite desparate), found a laundry, turned in the clothes and went looking for the Egyption consulate - only to realize I'd managed to goof off until after 12 so the consulate was closed for visas. Looks like I'm staying another day in Aqaba. Spent the afternoon wandering around, reading, checked email (for 10 dinar an hour!), and basically wasted the afternoon.
It's kind of interesting, from Aqaba you can see the resort towns of Eilat in Israel and Taba in Egypt right next to each other only a short distance (5 or 6 miles?) accross the Gulf of Aqaba.
