We’re now 120 kms into the hike and have really sore legs! For me this is partly due to the very stupid decision to replace my very capable inner soles with some “super comfy” ones from the chemist. This resulted in some pretty excruciating foot and knee pain, which I put up with for 6 days, and then magically disappeared when I put the old insoles back in (duh!).

We’ve now decided to rest our tired legs in a super luxurious pad in Madaba (at least by the standards of the last few days).

The last few days have once again been amazing. We left Al Salt to the old city of Iraq Al amir. The walking was very pretty if a little uneventful (lots of olive groves, steep hills, some old tombs, and again lovely interactions with the locals – Jordanians really are collectively the nicest bunch of people we’ve ever come across).

Iraq Al Amir was a pretty cool town. As it was a weekend, there were lots of local tourists and picnickers down from Amman for the day. It was really nice to see and felt super civilised.

Like it seems for all of Jordan, Iraq Al Amir has a long, long history and has a series of huge caves above the town which have been used for thousands of years, including as animal shelters in recent times.

Iraq Al Amir also has a Women’s cooperative which makes ceramics and paper, and I’d rung ahead to arrange some accommodation and dinner, as I’d heard this was possible. However it was a little confusing to organise, and I wasn’t really sure what to expect, if anything (they have an Airbnb site, which has a zero response rate).

We were met at the coop by an incredibly kind and enthusiastic lady who spoke as much English as we speak Arabic. She latched onto Alli and preceded to show us around at great pace, including our accommodation, which also doubled as the local shop!

At this point Alli had a little melt down, which was inspired by being vey tired and hungry, not knowing what to expect next (including that I really didn’t know how much they were going to charge us).

Much to our surprise, the very lovely lady had prepared us our first Mansaf, which is lamb slow cooked in fermented and dried yoghurt, with nuts and rice. It is the best ever fix to a days hiking – as we were eating it, it felt like the food was repairing all the damage we had done over the past week! She also must have known Alli was hungry as it was HUGE and ready at 5pm!

Oh yeah and of course the town also has a ruin. Built by the wealthy Tobias family.    

After Iraq Al Amir, things started to dry out considerably, but the scenery was still amazing and we found a great camp in a small pine forest.

We also got our first glimpses of the Jordan Valley, the dead sea and Palestine. It seems crazy, but the floor of the valley is more than 400 metres below sea level!

We also started seeing a lot of Bedouin scattered throughout the dry hills. It seems a very tough life and at odds with the mansions that occasionally sit high above them (we didn’t take any photos of the camps because it seemed rude, so you will have to imagine a desolate hillside with not a tree to be seen, with some tents among animal shelters made from plastic sheeting.

We finished the section on top of Mt Nebo (where Moses apparently looked out over the promised land). The incredibly steep hill below the top is absolutely covered in rubbish including lots of empty alcohol bottles. We also passed Moses spring on the way up, which I can report has a very large eucalypt tree growing out of it!

Section summary:

• Day 6 – rest day in Al-Salt
• Day 7 – outskirts of Salt to Iraq Al Amir, 17.4km, 806m ascent, 968m descent, Women’s coop
• Day 8 – Iraq Al Amir to Husban, 15.6km, 910m ascent, 686m descent, wild camp
• Day 9 – Husban to Mount Nebo, 14.6km, 758m ascent, 752m descent, hotel (Tell Madaba)

Total so far: 120km | 5,561m ascent | 5,583 descent.