This past weekend, Bethany, Julia, and I took off for a weekend of hiking at Wadi Dana, a nature reserve in the south of Jordan. For a while it seemed like the trip wasn't going to work - we were having issues getting a rental car, and finding a hotel, trying to decide if we wanted an extra night or not. But as Wednesday drew to a close, we had figured out basically what we wanted to do. The events that followed made it a truly interesting and wonderful weekend.
Thursday morning started off like any other Thursday for me - I was up early, made coffee and ate breakfast on our balcony. But soon after, Bethany and I had most of the things to come with us in the living room, checked almost everything off the to do list, and headed out to the car rental company to pick up our car. We got a little turned around finding the place, thanks to my shaky memory, but once we got there, everything went smoothly. Then came the real challenge: driving back through the city without getting into a fatal car accident. Ask my mother, the traffic in Amman is ridiculous. Not as bad as Egypt, but I still think I could die half the time I'm in a taxi. But we survived. We got the car all packed, picked up some food for the way down, and thus began our adventures. After a while, we pulled off to see the Karak Castle, a 12th century castle conquered by Saladin during the crusades. We had a rinky-dinky little car that had trouble getting up hills, but we made it. We explored the castle a bit, enjoying the views. We picked up a local white wine there to enjoy later that evening, then jumped back in the car. Once we got back to the main road of the city, we realized we had no clue how to get to the highway we wanted. We pulled over and asked a local, who gave us some directions. Wrong directions. For the next 3 hours, we drove in circles, frequently pulling off to ask if we were on the right road or even headed in the right direction. The thing about an honor/shame society - if they dont know, they make it up. Not the best thing. We decided to then follow signs back to Amman, which would add a lot of time, but at least we would get on the right highway. And then there were no signposts for the exit we were supposed to take. All the guidebooks said there were, but they lied. After many calls to the hostel we were staying at and stopping a lot, we finally managed to get off at the right exit, only to find that it was a deserted highway far from civilization, and we had less than a quarter tank of gas. After maybe half an hour, we encountered the first sign for the reserve, and in our ecstasy, decided that it was completely necessary to pull over, jump out, and take pictures of the sign and our joy at finding it. So much so that Bethany hit the sign by accident. No broken bones, luckily, but it was sore. We got back in the car and rounded a blind corner, only to see in the nick of time two donkeys chilling in the middle of the road. That was a heart attack. We swerved and barely missed the "two-butted honkeys" Bethany had way too many words coming out at the same time). At this point the hostel was calling us to find out where we were, thinking we had driven off a cliff or something. Which brings us to the final heart-stopping adventure of the evening. We finally found what we thought was Dana Village, except the road split, there were no signs, so we continued straight. Wrong. The road narrowed quickly into a gravel path with a barely any room between the edge of the road and the edge of the cliff. When we discovered we had to turn around, I decided that I was more likely going to drive off the cliff reversing than if I turned the car around on a small shoulder. Julia volunteered to get out and stand at the edge so I would know where to stop, and Bethany and I proceeded to haul the wheel around to complete the turn, the whole time trying desperately not to think about how close we were to dying. We finally got the car turned around and into the hostel to find a relieved owner and a traditional dinner waiting for us. We packed it in early that night - we were drained from all the adventures.
We got up early on Friday morning, looked at the cliff we almost drove off, and felt sick. It hadn't really hit us until then. But we were glad to be there, and even happier to have made it without death or injury. Julia took the wheel that morning for our drive over to the entrance of the reserve, where we would be staying at a campsite in the valley. Thanks to Bethany, we got an extra discount on the price, and then we got ready to hike down to the campsite. It was a sight to see - the mountains and trees, the silence only interrupted by the sounds of birds - absolutely beautiful. After maybe 5 minutes of walking, the truck taking our bags down pulled up behind us and offered to drive us the rest of the way down. We dumped our stuff in our tent, then set off for several hours of hiking up the mountain. It was tough hike up, although really rewarding. We sang Disney songs on the way up, stopped frequently to take in the amazing views, finally stopping at the top to relax and eat lunch. The hike down was much easier, and it was a great time to just talk and get to know each other better. Once we got back to camp, we grabbed some more water, and napped in the bedouin tents for a while. The sun began to set, so we grabbed more food and the bottle of wine from the day before, then went to find a secluded area with a great view of the valley to eat dinner and watch the sun set. It was breathtaking. After dark, we talked with a nice German couple who were there, sat outside to look at the stars, then went to bed. We all slept well that night.
Saturday morning came, and we were sad to have to leave. Before breakfast, Julia and I went off to see the famous "ibex" that lives on the reserve. We didn't see any, but instead found this small cave/tunnel that ran along the edge of a cliff. The view was magnificent. I crawled through the cave to the other side, then climbed the rocks on the edge to get back to a safe spot. We then sat, taking in the beauty of it, until our stomachs growled and reminded us that we were expected for breakfast. We ate, packed our things, then took the truck back up to the car. With sadness, we left the reserve, quietly reflecting on the beauty of nature and how much we enjoyed the time away. Bethany drove us back to the city, navigating the crazy holiday traffic like a pro to get us back to the apartment safely. We unpacked, I returned the car, and I think we were all wishing we could still be at Wadi Dana. We spent the night in eating popcorn and fajitas, and watched Beauty and the Beast, partly in Arabic. "Be Our Guest" was the song of choice on the hike up the mountain, so it brought back lots of fun memories.
Ramadan ended on Saturday night, so the mosque was going all night and throughout most of the morning. We gathered last night for football and card games and stories of our weekend, which was also a lot of fun. And though many of our adventures were scary and frustrating, it was one of the best weekends I've ever had, bringing the 3 of us closer than we could have thought.
Coming up: more grammar, I really will finish my college apps, maybe a day trip or two, plenty of sleep, and I get baptized Friday morning. Definitely looking forward to my week off.
Here's the link to some pictures from the trip, more to come later!
