The sun pierced through the hat as drops of sweat formed on my
forehead. The dry arid atmosphere was making me thirsty, so i stopped to take a
swig of my water bottle. As I quenched
my thirst, i turned around to check out the landscape behind. The wide
expanse of Wadi Araba with its rocky desert golden hue greeted me. Warm
happiness flowed through, as I smiled to myself taking in the view. Jordan had
always been on my bucket list with Petra, Wadi Rum and Dead Sea on my places to
visit in Jordan. But this was something else! This was even better. A secret
way to Petra, the ancient 1st century BC Nabatean city ! We were 3 days into
our 90 km trek, a group of 8 with Americans, Scottish, English and an Indian in the mix. Jordan's Dana to Petra trek has been described as the 'Inca Trail of the Middle East' and has been
voted as one of the best hikes in the world by National Geographic and it was
certainly living up to the billing.
We had started our hike
at Dana Biosphere Reserve, which is protected by the Royal Society for the
Protection of Nature and is the largest reserve in the Hashemite Kingdom. As we moved down the valley, the landscape
changed while walking along the edge of
the Great Rift valley which stretches from Middle East to Africa up to
Mozambique. Crossing Wadi Feinan, we came across the ancient Roman copper mines
said to be from the times of King Solomon. Water and the proximity of
water is the most important factor in
this arid region. Our guide explained to us an ancient water ducts and the
waterways through the canyons feeding into the desert. It was pretty
astonishing how the 1000 year old water ways were feeding into ducts through
the valley eons ago.
