Zuhair Zuriqat is quite a mouthful of a name for a Western audience.
But our Jordanian G Adventures http://www.gadventures.co.uk guide made it light-hearted for us.
By telling us we’d remember it by thinking of an animal sanctuary and what’s on the top of our head.
It’s been a year this week since I first met and last hugged Zuhair.
And Jerry and Hannah, Beatrice and Banni, Sophie, Rick and Harry.
The memories are never far away The water of life, Petra, and the sands of time.
But they were heightened yesterday when founder Bruce Poon Tip caught up with us by video call.
And told us why we’ll all be reunited soon.
It’s all about the group
Because it is in our human make-up to come up with the technological solutions.
And adapt to our changing circumstances.
And because the desire is there to connect again with each other and the destination.
Most importantly though it’s the communities we form and meet when we travel.
G Adventures puts the group dynamic at the heart of much of what it does (although they now have an independent traveller arm too).
And I was encouraged to share a room like the others when I travelled to Amman last year.
I got into the bedroom early in the morning and was met with a bare bum hanging out of a duvet, the bum belonging to Aussie Harry.
We came face to face a couple of hours later when the phone went and I handed it to him… it was a wrong number.
High jinks
It set the tone for the trip from the Dead through to the Red Sea with stop-offs in Petra and Wadi Rum.
West Indian Jerry joked that there was no point in him blacking up with the mud in the Dead Sea as he browned me up.
Wadi Rum in the desert was where one of our number who will remain nameless emerged from our canvas-thin tents.
To complain about the snoring the night before.
Zuhair the hero
One I will own up to was my flirtation with snorkelling.
When the group could barely hide their anticipation about swimming through the coral to see a sunken tank and aeroplane.
I was in and out quicker than you could say Zuhair Zuriquat… my bushy top lip was stopping the air from getting to my nostrils.
G – I wish I could be back there in Jordan www.visitjordan.com.
And for the best take on how Travel will move forward…
Read Bruce’s e-book Unlearn: The Year the Workd Stood Still www.unlearn.com on Apple Books or Kobo in Canada.
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