Last day's walk into Petra

Friday - We wake at 6 am listening for Haroun driving away to Petra to pick up our entry passes - as today is the day we finally walk in. However by the time we're up, washed, dressed and packed ready for the day Haroun still seems to be comatose in his bedding by the vehicle. Khalif has prepared our breakfast and our packed lunches by the time Haroun surfaces and drives off to the visitor centre. Jordanian clocks went forward by an hour last night, so we put the lie -in down to mismanagement rather than too late a night round the camp fire.

View from our tent
Just around the rocks from us is a large Bedouin encampment and although we saw donkeys and goats there yesterday, this morning they have been  joined by a herd of camels.













We were just leaving the camp at 8-15 when Haroun returned with our Petra passes, and then we were off! The walk to Little Petra took around an hour - past irrigated fields growing barley,

past the first obelisk carvings,

 the new water treatment plant serving the major industry that is Petra, and the town of Wadi Musa with all its hotels. The sight of mass tourism with the coaches, tour groups, cafes and bazaars at Little Petra was unnerving after our time in a virtually uninhabited landscape with minimal human contact.

A few hundred yards before the entrance to the Siq  at Little Petra was this large expanse of open ground -  ideal parking and camping space for the large caravans of traders and their camels who frequented the trade routes managed by the Nabateans.


















Walking into Little Petra

After an hour at Little Petra we left the tour groups behind as we continued our walk to the main site past the  remains of Beilah - a village settlement dating back to the ninth & tenth centuries BC, which was excavated  in the 1960's by British archaeologist Crystal Bennett.

Reconstructions of some of the village houses.
From there we followed a good sandy track on to a plateau at the back of the main Petra site - and after a lunch stop at the top of the valley ..........

we were ready for the final march in!

Our first view of the huge scale of the whole Petra central site

Hot, dusty and tired but after 5 day's trekking, we'd made it.

Eid gave us a short tour of the central area, we had a quick look into the museum on site, then it was time to part company as he was due to meet up with his next tour group in Amman later on tonight. He saw us safely to our hotel just out above Wadi Musa town, then left us eager for the next day's walk with a guide in through the "front" door of Petra - down the world famous Siq to the Treasury building - as yet unseen by us.

It seems a little ungrateful at this juncture to mention that we have had a hotel upgrade, but wish we hadn’t. Originally we should have been in a 3 star down in the town of Wadi Musa, close by the entrance to Petra, but we are now checking in to our 4 star, beautifully reconstructed stone village resort of the Beit Zaman – it is situated about 8 kms out of town, and once there we feel somewhat isolated – there go the evening strolls around the bazaars and the café culture. After a decidely cool, un-4 star -like soak in the bath for aching bones we negotiated our way from our stone village house to the restaurant area - it is now cold and drizzling – not ideal weather for wandering round a large site hunter-gathering for your dinner. We have our latest night out for days and make it past the 8-30pm benchmark.

Thursday - the alarm goes off at 5am and it's barely light. By 5-30 we're up, packed and ready for breakfast. There are swathes of mist drifting below us in the valleys and it's still quite cold.

 Quick hint for campers : when sleeping on a sloping hillside perilously close to the edge of a massive drop - it's not a good idea to just pop your rolled up sleeping bag outside the tent door while you attend to putting your boots on. Luckily Pollie stopped the inevitable and I now look forward to another warm snuggly night rather than a miserable cold one wrapped in a towel. After feasting on omelettes we were walking out of camp by 6-30am. We passed by another Bedouin camp as we headed down into the valley bottom way below. Very pleasant walking as it's still cool due to the mist, even as we struggle up the far side of this massive valley.

Our tents are somewhere way back up in the mist as we reach the dry wadi in the valley bottom - and slowly climb up to the escarpment at the other side of the valley. Pollie is not too happy on the top as the path follows the edge of the cliff very closely and it's quite a way down. We follow the escarpment for miles, seeing 5 eagles and 2 goat-herders along the way - one is playing a pipe and we hear the music very faintly carrying on the wind - the other herder we see on some rocks across the valley and we hear him bellowing at some misdemeanour by the goats.

Further along the route, although still quite some distance from Petra ,we start to see traces of the Nabatean civilisation - here an original piece of stone terracing probably dating back nine thousand years. All over this plateau are settlements, terracing, shards, flints,and fragments from the Nabatean culture.

The tents are pitched at the foot of these rocks on the flat plain in front. We reach them at about 2-15pm - it's been a long hard day. Over tea Eid expresses his concern at our route via the Monastery into Petra as there is an awkward section he feels might unnerve Pollie as it is very exposed above a drop. Luckily I have with me my book of walks in Jordan and we plan another route in from Little Petra and Beidah down through one of the 3 valleys avoiding the awkward section. A Plan B is usually viable! We've come this far together to fail at the last hurdle, and we plan to walk up to the Monastery area on one of our other days in Petra.

The campsite was in a wonderful setting, backed by a high canyon and I wandered around taking photos for an hour before dinner.

Wednesday: We woke at 6am - yesterday's breeze has disappeared and even so early in the day it is very, very hot. Eid is concerned that the first 2 hours of todays walk, steeply uphill on very rough, stony ground might jeopardize our ability to do tomorrow's really long walk. He strongly recommends that we take the 4WD to Mansourah and carry on today's walk from there. Although I am desperate to walk all the way into Petra I am mindful of the scorn I heap on visitors to the Lake District who take no heed of weather conditions and advice, and risk their own safety and that of those who have to rescue them. We break down camp and load up into the 4WD.

After being dropped off in Mansourah - a mere 15 minutes by 4WD, we gain some new friends who walk with us some way.

We climb steadily for about an hour to reach a gently undulating path overlooking ancient copper mining sites. The temperature is in the top 80's and still rising.

The rest of today's path is gently undulating - a wide unsurfaced 4WD track made for the archaeologists who frequent this area - a repository of ancient civilizations. Saw hardly a soul again when we were up high in the mountains, just an occasional goat-herder, and a couple of Bedouin tents 

We reach our destination by early afternoon - but Eid has received some bad news by phone - the weather is forecast to change and heavy rain is expected. If this happens we may have to move camp as the 4WD would not be able to negotiate the earth tracks if they were turned to mud. It could also jeopardize our next 2 days walking as we will be going through canyons liable to flooding. Fingers crossed the good weather holds out! Just before dinner Eid tells us about a natural spring higher up the valley and we treat ourselves to a wash and new hairdo.

 

Our wonderfully remote campsite - perched on top of the escarpment

In bed by 7 again as tomorrow is one of our longest walks.

Tuesday : It was very windy in the night and the patio furniture trundled around outside clanking all night. Pollie slept through it all. Did I have a good night's sleep - I tried my best! It was still very breezy and cloudy in the morning but after a hearty breakfast we set out warily at 9-15 en route for our first camping night. However next door to the hotel was the Wadi Dana shop stocking locally produced items for our perusal. We stocked up on essential items ( 2 necklaces ) and finally left Dana village at 10-15.

Our route took us up above the village and over a shoulder to the next valley, through a Mediterranean - type landscape. As this is spring and there has been a little rain all the spring flowers are out, but in a miniature version of their british counterparts. We travelled through many landscapes today - and by mid morning the temperature was in the 80's - there was some slow difficult walking down a high sandstone slope, through a stony, sandy wadi where we had our packed lunch, traversing a dusty clay slope which brought us up over a ridge where an immense landscape opened up in front of us - sandy ridges leading down to wadis.

 The only people we saw all day were three shepherds out with the goats and sheep -

when we'd passed by the last lone shepherd we heard the strains of pipe music carried up to us on the wind. We finally spotted our campsite at 4-15 and the pace picked back up and we rolled in to be greeted by cups of hot, sweet Bedouin tea. Our tents had mattresses and our main rucksacs and sleeping bags had been transported for us, but trying to get ourselves organised for tomorrow's walking, recovering from today's hike ( 18 kms - 6 hours ) and dressing for dinner meant one of the three had to give. Luckily by the time Haroun and Khalif had prepared dinner it was dark and we ate a wonderful meal by camp firelight and moonlight.

 














 Knackered we were tucked up in our tents by 7pm - I've not been to bed that early since I was 9.

Monday: Up at 6, repacked the day sack & rucksack, had an early breakfast and we were walking by 8-15. It was quite breezy but sunny and hot walking along the sandy floor of the dry wadi.

 The terrain changed constantly throughout the day. We stopped at a bedouin tent for tea,

 later ate our packed lunch in the shade of a juniper tree, walked up a good track passing a few other trekking groups who were walking down from Dana to Feynan. By 2 the temperature was really hot and we had the steepest part of the walk up to Dana. Finally got there at around 3-45 walking in through the old ruined village to the Dana Guest House - our home for the night

- hot showers, comfy beds, a magnificent view over the whole valley we'd been walking up all day.

The place only has 9 bedrooms, was full tonight and we met some really interesting people over dinner. Lights and electricity meant I could catch up on the blog and recharge camera, phone and computer batteries, not to mention my own. Don't know what state my legs will be in in the morning. Hard day tomorrow, and 3 nights camping looms. I fear sartorial elegance may nosedive.

Sunday: As the lift down for breakfast was a long time coming we took the stairwell down, the door closed behind us on our floor, annd of course all the doors out to other floors were locked. A caretaker let us out sometime afterwards and we had breakfast. On trying to get back to our room we took the wrong lift and ended up in the underground car park.

Omens in Amman. Finally safely back down at reception with our luggage Mr Bassam introduced us to our guide for the trek - Eid, who has wonderful English and is a delightful, distinguished 55 year old. We drove out through central modern Amman but didn't see any old characterful sights. After about 40 minutes we got our first glimpse of the Dead Sea and we reached the Dead Sea Spa Hotel around 10-30am.

 Much floating and mud annointing took place. The dead sea mud has to dry on you for around 10 minutes for its therapeutic qualities to work their magic.

 Should have left it on longer maybe! We rinsed, showered, swam in the pool, sunlounged till one then had a huge buffet - all in the name of serious training for the trekking starting tomorrow. We travelled through very differing landscapes after the Dead Sea - towering cliffs, flat plains where strong winds swirled the sand around into dunes then we turned east back towards the mountains past a dusty rock strewn landscape where I spied the first camel - as Pollie was asleep at the time. Mr Bassam left us at the Feynan Lodge reception, as we had to transfer to a 4WD to get us up to Feynan Eco Lodge . We'll see him again in Petra as he'll be driving us back to the airport. We checked in at the Lodge around 4pm, dumped our bags and got ready for the Sunset walk with Mohammed, one of the Lodge's guides.

We were accompanied by his small nephew and friends,

 and called back at his brothers tent for sweet Bedouin tea.

The ladies were amazed by Pollie's bright red lipstick, and my dyed red hair which is apparently, in Bedouin terms, a sure sign of a woman looking for a new husband. Probably best to wear a hat tomorrow then. The lodge only has electric light in the bathrooms, and everywhere else is candle lit- after an excellent vegetarian dinner, we stargazed briefly from the roof, then made our way through the gloom to bed. It was 9pm. Early start tomorrow on our trek.

Setting off for Petra

Friday:


Left home mid afternoon for a Manchester treat - an evening with Cirque de Soleil in their large tent by the Trafford Centre - a performance based very loosely on resurrecting Icarus after his ill-fated plummet to earth, and getting him airborne again. It was magical, with the grace and skill of the performers taking your breath away. Not to be re-enacted though Geoff while I'm away, without the use of a safety net.

Saturday: Left to meet Pollie & Garry at Manchester airport at 8-30am for a mid-morning flight to Amman. Checked the bags in OK then all went off for coffee.

 Just as we were saying our fond farewells Geoff saw that in the side pocket of my rucksac I had my torch - I had forgotten it was my pride and joy gadget torch with lots of useful things concealed in the handle - knives, files, corkscrews,spanners etc.He confiscated it before security did. In the same pocket was my other recent acquisition, my hand held battery powered fan - ideal for cooling you down on those hot uphill treks. I was demonstrating its attributes when the fans disintegrated and it fell to bits in the arrivals hall. Both husbands bid their farewells and left us sweeping up the pieces. The first leg of the flight to Istanbul was delayed, which meant that on landing we had 5 mins to make our connection to Amman. Turkish timekeeping meant that we made the flight and had a further 30 minutes on the runway. We were met at the airport by a very efficient member of the On the Go team who got our visas , shepherded us through the airport and introduced us to Mr Bassam, our driver who delivered us safely, exhausted to overnight in the Toledo hotel in central Amman. He arranged to pick us up at 9 in the morning. Nice hotel, comfy beds, slept well.