It’s random how you can end up in a corner of the world so frequently, in the last twelve months alone I have been to the Middle East three times – my trip to Egypt’s Soma Bay, last November’s escapade to Dubai and now Jordan – a once in a life time experience that I will never forget.
So why Jordan? Well, growth in SUV sales for the is expected to continue – not only in the United States, but around the world – particularly in the Middle East and Africa. SUVs are also becoming the preferred vehicle of choice for Millennials. Now onto the journey!
A lot of the experience was documented live on my Instagram and you can view my 24h Snapchat story from the driving experience, here. So I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about more of the detail, the road holding and share some unseen photos from the desert!
I landed at night, so really only felt the desert breeze briefly on the way to the Kempinski, but immediately the next morning – after meeting with the Ford team, enjoyed the Dead Sea multiple times and the hotel amenities before dinner and an introduction to the future vision of Ford and a preview of our adventures for the next day.
It was an early start, by early I mean 7am breakfast – so maybe just normal time for most people…! We were split into groups of four and allocated our cars – which would be rotated on a regular basis – so I was able to enjoy The F150, the new Ford Edge, The Ranger and The Explorer. I’d have to say my favourite was the Explorer – it had more kick and more USB ports – but The Edge was definitely a nippy beast with a beautiful design.
Our journey consisted of the mountains, the cliffside up to the desert, bear in mind we ascended from 38 degrees centigrade in the lowest point on Earth to 15 degrees centigrade up in the cliff – quite the difference! We then went to Wadi Rum and Seven Pillars followed by a train re-enaction of the hijacking in Lawrence of Arabia – I mean, I understand the novelty factor, but we’re in the Middle East and I just find that level of violence quite tasteless at a time like this, but history is history, so hey…
That night we took the fleet of beautiful metallic Ford desert beasts to Aqaba and again checked into the Kempinski – it has the most wonderful ocean view from the rooms – a really amazing experience – we also went out into the bay for drinks on a pirate ship and then back for dinner and a conversation with William Dalrymple.
Back into the cars the next morning and dramatically we found out that there was a violence outbreak near to Petra – which truly broke everyone’s heart, but it did mean that we had more time back at the Kempinski Ishtar and the Dead Sea and more photo opps along the way.
Really grateful for opportunities like this and special thanks to Emanuel, Alessandro and Sabrina (my co-pilots), Marc, Ryan and Anna. Definitely a Ford convert!
