Hiking holiday in Jordan

Finally I had some different views while hiking! Though I started to like hiking in the Netherlands, I got used to the rough heath lands, the green forests and the flat country sides, and I wanted to see something totally else. So I went to the dessert and mountain ranges in Jordan.

Me and my sister booked an organized group travel and we loved it. We hiked in the beautiful Dana reserve and did a hike we could not have done without the local guide, half the time we would not have known where the path was going as we crossed huge rocks. We have been going down and up and saw different vegetation during de- and ascending and the local guide told us so much about how he used to use the plants we saw when he was roaming the reserve as a young shepherd.

The following hike was a full day in Petra city. As a young kid my mom told me about a city with my name which is carved from the rocks, off course I wanted to see it! We were in Petra from six in the morning to four in the afternoon but most of it our guide showed us the different sites and we were not going fast. After the tour we could go up several mountains with carved stairs. In total my sister and I took around 1300 steps to reach two tops. Especially the second had the awesome view on the famous treasury from above. I spend a lot of time up there, airing my feet over the edge and enjoying the view.

The last hikes were in the dessert. I was afraid I would not be able to withstand the heat, as it would be well above 30C. But both days we left late in the afternoon, after we have been acting like a herd of cows, napping and chasing the flies away. Later in the day it was possible to go hiking, and I did better than expected. Probably I had been drinking enough. One of the hikes was really short as we went back to camp riding camels, but it was pretty tough! The sand was so soft, we were sinking into it, making it hard to move forward. I asked how the locals walked and the guide told me to take small and fast steps. This helped but I felt like a nervous horse with the small and fast steps despite the locals looked like strolling through a shopping center while maintaining a quick pace. I am not a dessert woman yet I guess.

Due to the short hikes I did not learn much about hiking, but I know how to deal with the heat and soft sand a little bit. As I planned a trip to Tenerife after the summer, this experience calms my nerves a little bit. If it is too hot I will just look for some shade and chill out until it gets cooler. Also, I will bring some oral rehydration salt with me to improve the efficiency of drinking all the water.

Distance: 35/772/1500 (this hikes distance/total so far/goal to reach)