We had a day off in Dana to resupply, and ended up spending most of the day with the guest house owner, Malik (Matt and he really hit it off). 

Before running a guesthouse, Malik had worked for the conservation society that manages the Dana biosphere reserve. He told showed us some incredible photos that he had taken of birds and wildlife from around the area. Being winter, spotting many creatures in the flesh is rare, so we really appreciated getting to see the photos and learn about the wildlife that call Dana home.

After a long leisurely breakfast, Malik took us to into the nearest town to restock. He then took us to a little piece of land he’d purchased above Dana, where he was slowly terracing and planting olive and lemon trees.  There, we lit a fire and Malik cooked us lunch – a beautifully simple meal of onion, tomato, and foul medames (broad beans), cooked in sheep’s ghee. 

We sat there, looking out over the view, eating the shakshouka with bread and our fingers straight out of the cooking pot, feeling pretty lucky.  That night, after dinner, Malik convinced Matt to play chess with him, and they stayed up late into the night playing and chatting.

The next day we set off again, this time bound for Petra. We decended into the Dana valley, down a steep zig zag 4wd track. The gravel was loose and I took a couple of tumbles, but thankfully only ended up bruised rather than injured.

We then walked along the rolling hills of the valley floor, passing several shepherds and their sheep and goat flocks.  It was pretty easy going, so before we knew it, we were nearing the end of the reserve.

We had been relying on a spring towards the end of the valley to top up on water, but what we found was a bunch of black pipes sweeping the water away for kilometers down the valley (the largest pipe eventually led to an eco-resort). We kicked ourselves for not filling up sooner, before thankfully managed to get enough water from a leak in one of the pipes.

When we came to the end of the valley, the land dried out quickly. We passed a bunch of bedoin, who seemed a bit poorer and less happy than others we’d passed. The smiling and waving children we’d seen in the north were replaced with women asking for money. I can’t say I blame them – how they manage to keep sheep and goat flocks alive in these rocky landscapes continues to bamboozel us.

We then knuckled down for the long slow slog across the rocky dry flood plains of wadi arabia, carrying our water for that night and the next day. 

We got to our campsite (a random flat spot just out of view of a bunch of bedoin tents) completely shattered.  We started to wonder if perhaps we should have had an extra day off in Dana (or maybe packed a little less heavy food).  Our legs, that for the previous section had been feeling strong, were suddenly fealing weary, and we were getting aches in our backs and necks from the heavy packs.  Something we’d read in one of the many blogs we scoured prior to the trip rang in both of our heads: “there is no such thing as an easy day on the Jordan trail”.

We got moving early the next day and headed back up into the mountains.  As we climbed, the bedoin tents dissappeared, and we were quickly back in stunning isolated territory.  The mountans looked otherworldly, with huge cragged peaks.

The route was well marked with huge cairns, and then zig-zagged up a steep rocky hillside, giving us impressive sweeping views back over the landscape. 

We hit the peak of the climb and then descended just as quickly (but not for quite as long) into Wadi Fayd, with a perennial running stream.  We had a bit of a wash in the cool water, and then followed the flow upstream. 

We reached the headwaters of the wadi at around 3pm and given how tired we’d been, decided to have an early day and camp near the water rather than to carry the extra weight up the next hill.  It was another beautiful spot, where we could hear frogs and birds, and even saw a pair of foxes. 

We set up camp, and then made one of the best meals we have ever eaten camping, which as I type it I really can’t believe we carried it and pulled it off.  We started with rice (pilaf style) with zhuchini and peas, seasoned with jameed (fermented yoghurt stock), chicken stock, and kabsa spices, and then topped it with three different toppings: 1. sultanas and almonds fried in butter, 2. chickpeas in green chilli, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil, and 3. tinned chicken luncheon fried in olive oil (we are camping after all).  We ate it all and then fell into yet another peaceful hikers coma for the night.

Because we’d stopped early the day before, it meant another 20+km day to get us to Little Petra.  Unfortunately, the early day and delicious meal hadn’t done anything to ease the pains developing in our bodies.  The spectacular scenery did help a bit, along with various rediculous songs that Matt kept making up, but we both felt like we were slightly limping into our pre-booked accommodation.  We made it around 4pm, with a beautiful welcome of sweet bedoin tea and a hot shower, and then spent the night in a large communal tent with roaring fire.  Yet again, we were the only guests.

From Little Petra, our original plan had been to follow the back road into Petra.  However, with our aching legs we were worried we wouldn’t truly appreciate Petra for all its glory.  So instead we decided to stick to the road and walk the 10 odd kilometres into Wadi Musa (the town that services Petra).  We now plan on lying in our hotel bed for at least a whole day, to get the energy back up to explore Petra and do it justice.

Section sumary:
18/01 – Dana to Wadi Malaga, 22.5km, 499m ascent, 1451m descent, wild camp
19/01 – Wadi Malaga to Wadi Fayd, 13.7km, 893m ascent, 417m descent, wild camp
20/01 – Wadi Fayd to Little Petra, 22.3km, 954m ascent, 625m descent, Ammarin Bedoin Camp
21/01 – Little Petra to Wadi Musa, 11.5km, 364m ascent, 286m descent, Plaza de Petra BnB

Total so far: 282.9km, 11919m ascent, 11769m decent.