Hiking the Jordan Trail: Dana to Petra: Day 2
After our first day’s hike we settled down to camp surrounded by sandy mountains- huddled up in my sleeping bag, I was woken up in the early hours by the distant hum of the call to prayer- amazing how the sound travels, even though we were in the middle of nowhere.
Peaking out from my tent the sky was flushed with pink. Today we climbed higher, covering 15km and making 925m of elevation gain. For this stretch of the journey we were joined by a local Bedouin guide and his donkey- to help carry extra water- despite it being February it got super hot in the day.
A highlight was finding wild purple iris growing on the mountainside.
As the day winded to a close, the weather made a distinct turn amid warnings of expected heavy rain, flash floods and even snow.
After some discussion over tea and frantic weather forecast checking, our guides made the decision to cancel day 3 of the hike and our planned campout. When it rains here it really rains and campsites can end up being washed away. Luckily, we were treated with wonderful hospitality by our Bedouin guide who welcomed us into his home- we all shared one room and nestled round a little electric heater where we could shelter from the monsoon rain which was lashing down outside. I fell asleep to the beat of relentless rain, and in the morning there was no sign of let up.
After a warming breakfast, we headed off in jeeps but soon encountered snow on the roads as we climbed higher- it really was a case of 4 seasons in 1 day!!
our campsite surroundings
snowy scenes
camp for the night
waking up
wild purple iris
our Bedouin guide and his donkey
