Getting out of Karak turned out to be a bit of an odyssey. Luckily it worked out, but it took most of the day, a lot longer than expected. I was supposed to take a bus from Karak to Tafilah and transfer to a bus to Dana. For some reason there were no buses to Tafilah from Karak that day, so instead, a couple of locals told me the best way to get there and the odyssey began. First a bus to nearby Mota, then about a mile walk across town to another bus station with a bus to Tafilah, maybe.

After getting to the other bus station I was directed to a man with a car who offered to take me to Tafilah instead of waiting for the bus, ok whatever, but not before driving all the way back to Karak to run a couple of errands (cue the angry face). Finally, an hour and a half later I was in Tafilah catching yet another bus for Qadsiyya. That bus dropped me off at the turnoff to Dana where I had a 2km walk downhill to Dana village. Whew!

It was all worth it once I got to the village though. Dana sits on a small outcrop over looking the stunning Wadi Dana, where I’ll be starting my hike tomorrow. The village is ancient! There are Nabataean ruins mixed all over and between the newer structures, some of the ruins have even been refurbished and are being used as houses. Just touch up the walls, clean it out, add some modern windows and electricity and you got yourself a new home. I wandered around taking pictures and traversing from viewpoint to viewpoint, stopped to take in the sunset from behind the valley and then had the amazing buffet dinner at the hotel.

I woke up with the sun, had a light breakfast and started hiking down the valley. This is really a beautiful area. I couldn’t stop taking pictures during the descent, it was so stunning and finally making my way through the valley with those mountains rising up on either side was just incredible.

The best part was I didn’t see another living soul all day. I had this whole beautiful valley all to myself. Along the way I spied this gorgeous little slot canyon, so I wandered a bit off the trail to go explore.

The weather was alot cooler up in Dana village and for most of the hike. The last couple of miles are quite a bit lower and you don’t have those big mountains protecting you, so it got a lot hotter, but I finally made it to Feynan Ecolodge. It’s a self sustaining hotel with solar power and supplied by spring water. At night due to the limited power the whole place is illuminated by candlelight. The place is very nice and the food is delicious, though it’s tremendously overpriced!

The next morning I was up early for my guided hike up Wadi Ghwayr. It starts off very similar to Wadi Dana, but after a few miles the black basalt mountains turn into a beautiful red sandstone slot canyon. Surprisingly, there is spring water flowing through this canyon all year long and it’s filled with frogs and fresh water crabs. Jordan is such a dry and desolate place, but then there’s this. Amazing!

There were also some 9000 year old ruins along the way. My guide Ali says that to them, 9000 years ago is like last week. Haha Also, along the way were two small waterfalls, one of which we took the opportunity to cool off in. As refreshing as it was, it didn’t stave off the raging headache I got later. I think the two straight days in this hot, sun drenched desert was too much for me.

I didn’t really do anything after the hike except sleep and try to stay cool. Luckily, the next day was just a travel day because my head was pounding. Hopefully, I’ll be feeling better for the next round. Stay tuned.

All the pics from the Dana Biosphere Reserve are here