We’re now in Aqaba having walked for 10 days straight, covering 200km. We hurt all over, but it’s been totally worth every bit of pain and discomfort.

The journey is too long to tell in a single post, so we will split this in two.

After a couple of rest days in Wadi Musa, one of which involved a 20km hike through Petra, we set off once again, this time with Gill, a French guy who is also walking the trail.

We were also joined on the journey by ‘el perro’, a rather hungry, but friendly canine who was obviously feeling the lack of tourists around.

The trail goes right through Petra, which for those who don’t know, is an ancient city first constructed by the Nabutians (and later added to by the Romans), which was effectively ‘lost’ after it was abandoned following a decline in trade in incense on which it depended.

The Petra site is an absolute wonder (and is actually listed as one of the seven wonders of the world), with massive ruins spread over several kilometres situated in an otherworldly setting of domed, fissured mountains and deep wadis.

One of the cool things about Petra is that it is still inhabited by Bedouin who often live in the cave houses dotted throughout the site. Apparently, if you want to live there, you just need to find an uninhabited cave and clean it out, so that everyone knows it has been claimed!

Of course, being a massive tourist site, there is a fair bit of hassle going on. Being the sucker I am, I parted with $50 for a rather heavy brass camel, which I then had to lug around for the rest of the trip – I’m sure it was worth at least $10!

After Petra it was a series of wadis and mountain passes. The landscape though here was stunning with canyons (wadis) that almost look like candy and mountains that look like some sort of Salvadore Dali inspired cake – it was like nothing we have ever seen!

There were Bedouin camps dotted throughout the dry landscape. At first the tents look like canvas, but they are actually hand knitted from goats wool. They must be super tough to live in the dry and extreme climate here (and also immune to the smell of goat!).

We had some very nice interactions, including with a couple of young guys called Yousef and Oman, who provided us with some goat milk straight from the teat, asked if we liked alcohol and marijauna, professed their love for us and left.

Although there is some occasional water in the Wadis, it is of questionable quality. The high mineral content means it makes some interesting coffee, and there are normally a lot of animals walking and pooping in the small rivulets that pop up occasionally.

For this reason (and to save the need to carry quite so much food and water) we arranged for food and water drops in two places. It was really good not to stress about finding water and to have some better food at the end of the day.

At the end of the fourth day we hit our first real sand dunes. They look really beautiful, but are really tiring to walk on! We also started to see camels and less goats.

We also finally got rid of el perro after many unsuccessful attempts. This was with mixed feelings. We had all got a little attached to her, but she was also constantly tripping us up, eating our limited food and harassing the few livestock we bumped into. However, it was a bit heartbreaking to see her driven off in the back of a ute by our wonderful water drop guy (one of several Ali’s we met along the way).

After several days of losing altitude, we now had to ascend back up to the high desert plateau near Wadi Rum (of Lawrence of Arabia fame). This involved walking many kilometres up a slot canyon, with narrow twisting bends and cliffs high above us (Wadi Alhiemer).

At the top we were met by two young boys from the bedouin town of Abissiya. They insisted on making tea for us, and gave us a local desert plant they had been collecting, which was surprisingly good and tasted a lot like fresh asparagus.

The ‘town’ was pretty minimal, with a few buildings and some bedouin tents scattered over the landscape.

We were hoping to stay at Abu Sabah’s homestay, which was marked on the trail, but was without any way of contacting him.

We needn’t have worried, however, as the few passing hikers obviously make a significant contribution to the town’s economy and we were swiftly escorted to the infamous Abu Sabah.

The homestay turned out to be an open Bedouin tent, with some rather decrepit and no longer working toilets (we used the desert instead). And Abu Sabah turned out to be a rather lovely old man with three teeth. He was really nice and gentle, but seemed to be the king of the town.

We spent an evening around a rather smokey fire, drinking copious amounts of sweet tea, looking at Abu’s collection of ancient photos, and making stilted conversation. We were very obviously the guests of honour and were expected to sit with the other men of the village, while Abu entertained us. He even played us some traditional music, on a single stringed guitar played with a horsehair bow. While it was played with great seriousness, either Abu is not the greatest player or we do not appreciate the style!

Alli was lucky enough to be able to go and sit with the women, who apparently sat around an even smokier fire made with weeds.

It was definitely an interesting cultural experience, but a long, tiring one and quite expensive one!

The next day we entered the true desert of Jordan with a long flat plain ahead of us. This is where several movies depicting alien planets have been shot and you can see why, with massive rocks rising out of the desert like ships in a sea of sand.

After seven days in the desert, we finally entered Wadi Rum village the cheater’s way, on the back of the ute for the final 10 or so km (which was rather shockingly cold!).

Section Summary:

25/01 – Petra to Gaa’ Mriebed, 22.3km, 643m ascent, 1123m descent, wild camp

26/01 – Gaa’ Mriebed to Wadi Al-Saif, 18km, 643m ascent, 636m descent, wild camp

27/01 – Wadi Al-Saif to Wadi Gseib, 15.5km, 356m ascent, 636m descent, wild camp

28/01 – Wadi Gseib to Wadi Alheimar, 19.8km, 822m ascent, 628m ascent, wild camp

29/01 – Wadi Alheimar to Abissiya, 19.1km, 645m ascent, 124m descent, Abu Sabah homestay

30/01 – Abissiya to Jabel Taur el ‘Arfa, 26.7km, 432m ascent, 548m descent, wild camp

31/01 – Jabel Taur el ‘Arfa to Rum Village, 11.7km 204m ascent, 190m descent, Orxy Hostel

Total so far: 416km, 15664m ascent, 15690m descent.