Dana to Petra

Dana Wildlife Reserve was amazing, and the natural scenery was enough without anything else. Crazy steep ravines and arroyos with great color-bands in the rocks and thorny bushes and unclear paths all over the place. It is still an arid climate though, so fortunately, yesterday, it was cloudy, and although still hot, it was manageable. But the paths are not always clear, and Bruce and I followed more than one animal trail instead of the people trails, and it invariably took us right into a thorny-bush patch followed by a rapid descent that was not possible for humans (at least ones without antelope-like agility).

And we saw actual endangered ibex on one hike. There were six or seven of them, and they were much, much smaller than we thought they would be. Like goats too, except with sweeping antlers that go back. When we first noticed them, we probably said some stuff out loud, and they scampered immediately straight up a rock close to us, and then across it, but we couldn't get close, since a small ravine separated us. But still, we saw ibex, and that was worth the visit alone. Where we camped, the locals said there had been hyenas present the night before, but that seemed odd. I had no idea hyenas were this far north, but the reserve has wildcats and gray wolves too, so who knows? But they also said that some people can stay here for weeks and not see any ibex, so we were lucky.

Now, we are in Petra, and I had no idea it was so big. You don't even get to see anything in the park until you walk for about a mile down through the siq, which is great - it builds the anticipation, plus there is no annoying parking lot full of tour buses and honking drivers. Everyone needs to hike in, and it's great. And then after the initial entrance, you need to keep hiking around, nothing is packed right in there, as the site is huge and varied with many trails and things to see. We'll be here two more days, since there is so much ground to cover. Tomorrow, we're going to visit the High Place of Sacrifice here among other places.

Bruce and I got lost today near Little Petra - an off-the-beaten-track minor area - while hiking, and it was a little unnerving for some time. We both cruised through the canyon at Little Petra which was fine, but once we launched over the top, there was a well-marked path that we thought went somewhere and had ruins, etc., on it. It didn't, but we kept following it, thinking we'd find something. We were definitely the only people there and hiking through sandy arroyo-stream beds. Anyway, in our haste to find something cool, we sort of didn't pay enough attention to where we came from originally, which was rather stupid on our parts, and when we finally gave up and came back to where we thought we had started, we kept by-passing the correct arroyo outlet and couldn't figure it out. There were many other arroyos, and they all looked the same. But finally some other loud tourists came calumphing-clip-clopping, breaking branches, knocking rocks, kicking sand, and shouting over the top like we had before, and we heard them, chased after them, and saw where they had come down - it was a totally narrow little arroyo that had Nabatean steps carved in it around some trees and up and over. After that it was easy, but we had stupidly hiked up there with no water, and the sun was beating down, hot, hot, hot. But it all turned out well, fortunately. And what's a vacation without a little excitement? 

Now, after a couple of beers, and a cigarette or two, we're going to go rest our tired legs - we hiked in Dana, also at Shobak Castle, in Little Petra, and then finally at Petra in the late afternoon today. Tomorrow is a big day, and the site opens at 6 am - best to beat the tour buses....