PETRA, Jordan - Average Israelis would overturn the desk, scream and raise their fists. But bicycle riders are not average Israelis. They are polite, never litter, and are accustomed to suffering silently (particularly while climbing steep hills). But on the second day of the trip, one of the riders dared to open her mouth to mutter, "This is a disgrace. I'm going to demand my money back. I would have brought energy bars from home but the instruction sheet said the Jordanians prohibit bringing any food into the country." The somewhat apologetic statement was made on the last Friday at the top of a 1,400 meter mountain not far from Petra, Jordan. The hour was 2:30 P.M.

The reason for her anger was hunger. She was hungry. Really hungry. And she wasn't the only one. Most of the 130 men and women who went on the trip were hungry. But the table set by the trip's organizers offered only three jars of jam, one package of halvah and a package of chocolate spread. Closer inspection revealed that all of them were empty, clean and shining. The first 20 riders who reached the summit devoured the contents and latecomers were forced to make due with dry pita. The organizers, members of the Geographical Tours company, immediately sent the truck that escorted the riders to a nearby village. After 20 minutes the truck returned with everything available in the village grocery store: four jars of artificial jam.

Annoying? Not really. That was actually a marked improvement. On the previous day, the opening day of the journey, the riders did not eat a single thing - not even pita and jam - from 10:00 A.M. until 9:00 P.M.

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But why be petty? The first organized bicycle trip to Jordan was a tremendous experience - despite logistic snafus - because of the ride, the routes, the atmosphere and the landscape. Imagine a chain of tall mountains covered in brittle, red sandstone. Wind, water and time have carved the sandstone into psychedelic shapes. Sometimes the landscape resembles a colossal skull pocked with holes that appear not only where the eyes and mouth should be, and sometimes it resembles the sensual curves of a woman's body. Now imagine that you are not only looking at that landscape but riding a bike across it. That experience immediately dispels any sense of hunger - not to mention pain in your muscles.

A nearby nation with low prices

This was not only the first organized bike trip to Jordan but also the Geographical Tours company's first bike trip to any location. That might help explain inconsistencies in the food supplied to the riders. The company has been organizing trips abroad for 30 years, usually to exotic destinations. Recently, it announced its entry into the bicycle travel market. Damien Jaffe, the company's deputy director, an avid bike rider and the architect of the current trip, speaks of a golden opportunity. "The bicycle market in Israel is growing at an astounding pace [an estimated 80,000-100,000 riders in Israel, Y.K.]. This is an affluent sector, the top percentiles of the population, people who spend many thousands of shekels on bicycles, equipment and clothing. We believe they would be happy to participate in organized bicycle trips abroad. There are a few companies that organize bicycle trips outside the country [Medraft, Botzbike, Club Giraffe, Y.K.], but we believe this niche has barely been exploited and there is still great potential."

Geographical Tours intends to run bicycle trips to Romania, Morocco and the Republic of Georgia, but their primary destination will be Jordan, a nearby nation with low prices. A weekend trip, from Thursday to Saturday, including two nights in a hotel, costs $370. The next group will set forth for Jordan on May 24 and the company intends to send at least two or three groups there each month. That sounds promising, but there is a problem: The Foreign Ministry has warned Israelis not to visit Jordan, because of security precautions, of course.

Piki Dayan, the trip's content guide, is not fazed by the warning: "Southern Jordan is absolutely safe. There are no Palestinians in that area and no Iraqi immigrants. Everyone here is Bedouin. They live in unified tribes and zealously preserve their interests. They need a flow of tourists to make a living." And tourists do continue to come, albeit in much smaller numbers than in the past. "The first drop in the number of tourists," Dayan says, "occurred in 1996, after Netanyahu entered the government and the Jordanians were convinced we intended to wage war. The second time was in 2000, when the Foreign Ministry started to publicize their warnings."

Most tourists who enter Jordan from Israel arrive from Eilat on one-day bus tours that include an obligatory visit to Petra, at a cost of $100-150 per head. Longer trips are not the norm - particularly not trips on bicycles. In June 1970, a would-be assassin on a motorcycle attempted to kill King Hussein; since then it has been prohibited to bring a motorcycle of any type into the country. The Jordanians apparently consider bicycles a type of motorcycle. "We worked for two whole months to get a permit," Jaffe says, "and we actually didn't know, until the last minute, if they would agree to let the group enter or not." Their attempts finally succeeded but riders were forced to wait at the border for five hours - two hours longer than expected.

Thus, the first day of the trip began late. The organizers cut the distance of the first ride from 25 to 20 kilometers. Even so, the last riders arrived at the bus in the dark. Once again, the experience of riding overshadowed everything else. The route passed through Wadi Ram, northeast of Aqaba, about a 40 minute bus ride from the border. Wadi Ram is an enormous, broad channel at the base of spiky mountains of red and white sandstone. Part of the way, riders comfortably traversed solid ground; at other stretches, they contended with slippery sand and, left no other choice, for some distances they walked their bikes.

40-kilometer-ride

The next day was harder: Riders left the hotel in Petra for a series of near-fatal climbs on paved road and dirt paths. They ascended into a sparse oak forest that is somewhat reminiscent of the Odem Forest in the Golan Heights. From there, they plummeted southward on a rubble-covered slope. The day included 40 kilometers of riding, in the course of which riders climbed a total of 1,100 meters. The peak experience was a single-file path on red sandstone. Iki Rahat of the B'khol Ofen Golan (the Bike Golan non-profit organization) posted clear signs along the way so riders would not get lost. The long line of colorful bikes moved very slowly down the single-file path because of the number of people, obstacles along the way and, especially, because of the view. It is impossible not to stop to look at the landscape, to take a photo and have your photo taken time and again.

On the third and last day of the trip, the group divided into two: Some went on a short tour of Petra followed by a short, 10 kilometer, off-road ride in the area, and some went on a long tour of Petra, which did not fail to surprise and thrill even those who have visited the site once or twice before.

There were 135 riders - seven of them female. The average age was over 40. With the exception of one rider who scratched his face and another who dislocated his shoulder, everyone returned home unscathed and a bit thinner, with a slightly deeper tan. Most were smiling.