The road was shrouded in a thick fog all the way from Wadi Musa to Dana. The taxi driver drove extremely slowly and cautiously because the road could not be seen. Dana is a small village nestled in the mountains, livelihood in the village is either olive farming or tourism, which relies entirely upon the Dana Trail hike which Trav and I had planned. Steep cliff drops on the mountain road added to the cautious driving of our taxi-man.

Finally we arrived in Dana around 5pm, after arriving he requested 40JOD, the original quote was 30JOD, given the dangerous state of driving we had no problem paying the extra 10JOD. Mist obscured the supposedly stunning valley view and a light rain refreshed and hydrated the skin’s pores. Our accommodation that Trav booked could not be found, our taxi driver asked someone, they mentioned the place had closed down, how strange. Why had their online advertisement not been removed? The man who provided the information actually worked at one of the two hotels in town, he took us in offering a slightly more expensive room to the one we originally booked.

Sheeeesh, it was cold in Dana! Much colder than Wadi Musa. That evening we ate dinner at the hotel and went to bed in the large, stone, cold bedroom. The next morning Trav found a cheaper hotel (the other one in the village) which was across the road. We checked out of our hotel, and moved across the road. This saved us 5JOD ($10NZD).

Hike

The hike was a 15km stretch ending in Feynan that required getting a three hour taxi back to Dana (expensive). Because of this, we decided to just hike half-way and turn around. We set out after moving into our new accommodation. It was still foggy, but was forecast to clear up throughout the day.

The beginning of the hike, which descended into the valley, was thick with mud. This was like walking with concrete shoes. By the time we descended the weather had cleared up and stunning valley views surrounded us, we followed the dried up river bed for three hours or so.

We stopped for lunch, sitting nearby some local Bedouins who were herding their goats to Feynan. Sitting next to a small fire, the Bedouin goat herders busted out a recorder and started playing. This was a magical moment! They called out to us, asking us to join them by the fire and shared tea with us.

Sitting with the Bedouins was interesting. Because one of them had a toothache, Trav gave them his panadol. They also asked for cigarettes and hash, we didn’t have hash but passed them a half-full cigarette packet. The packet wasn’t returned, instead it was pocketed. At first I was a bit confused by this, but later I thought; maybe they don’t see others for days at a time, so when they meet and share things they share large quantities, returning the favour at a future point in time.

The hike home was a bit of a slog, up a really steep valley hill. When we got to the top the stunning valley view, that couldn’t not be seen in the morning, was in full sight. Beautiful!

When we got back to the hotel, the hot water wasn’t working (haha!). So we festered, un-showered for two days now. By midnight the hot water cylinder had been fixed, finally we could wash and warm up because it was fucking freezing!