Hitchhiker's Guide To Jordan

 Hello from Dana, Jordan!  It has been a long, crazy, adventurous day full of ups and downs (literally) and interesting people!  Despite the difficulties we faced, I am feeling good tonight and, again, am simply thankful that we are safe and sound at our hotel (or cave, rather).  More about that later.

Today started off with a good breakfast at our hotel.  We learned last night that we can’t really digest the tap water here very well, so we were a little desperate for water.  So desperate that Dad took the boiling water for the tea and was trying to funnel it into our water bottle for the day.  He was somewhat successful. 

Our view leaving Karak

I was feeling positive and ready to take on whatever was ahead of us for the day, but as per usual, my positivity quickly faded when I was hit with the reality of cycling in the mountains of Jordan.  Yesterday, we were dealing with heat.  Today, we were dealing with wind.  Punishing, relentless, powerful wind.  Let’s just talk about wind for a second, here.  How often do you think about the wind?  I, personally, only notice it when I’m trying to take a picture outside and it’s blowing my hair back so much so that I look bald.  After timing it correctly and taking 50 shots, I can usually get a decent picture.  Other than that, wind never comes to my mind.  However, today, the wind decided it was finally going to get the attention that it deserved.  We were headed south for the day and the wind was coming at us with so much power that it was difficult for me to keep my balance whether we were going uphill or downhill.  Even when we were going downhill, I had to pedal just to maintain a speed of 12 km/hr!  It’s interesting to think about how we as humans no longer have to deal directly with the elements like people used to.  We have houses, cars, electricity, heat, air conditioning etc. to make our lives comfortable despite the weather.  However, today I was reminded of how powerful the elements are and the difficulties one faces when trying to deal with them using limited resources.

For the first part of the day, we were STILL going uphill.  I couldn’t believe it.  We had a few hills that we had to walk up, but we could ride for the most part.  If we didn’t have the wind pushing us back, we would’ve made better time, but we were determined to do as much as we could do and hope for the best.  On our way out of Karak, a local guy was cycling beside us and talked to us for a bit while we were riding.  Then, he disappeared and came back 5 minutes later with orange juice for both of us.  He rode with us a little longer, but eventually said goodbye.  Oftentimes, I find myself thinking “Why do we always have to ride our bikes on these trips? Why can’t we just be like normal people and go in a car or on a tour or something?  Do I even LIKE riding a bike?  WHY AM I DOING THIS?” and then things like the man with the orange juice happen and I’m reminded of the special people and experiences we get to have because we are on bikes.  His kindness brightened my day and gave me some energy for the next part of our journey.

Basically, we had two major destinations.  Our final destination for the day was Dana which is a tiny little village (called “The Floating Village”) that sits on the edge of a cliff in a giant canyon.  However, about 30 km before we were supposed to arrive in Dana, we would hit Tafilah.  This was a bigger city and was a good marker for us.  After going uphill out of Karak, we eventually started to go downhill.  And, of course, the downhill was steep and went on and on and on…Of course every downhill has an uphill on the other side…I was trying to be positive and think “Annika, you can’t complain about this downhill when you’re always complaining about the uphill climbs”.  So I tried to stay positive.  However, I could see that we were going down to the bottom of a huge canyon (Wadi Hasa) and that eventually we would have to go all the way back up on the other side.  The wind was also still howling and making it very scary to ride because tipping over on my bike on the middle of a highway on the edge of a cliff was very possible if I wasn’t careful. 

On the way down to Wadi Hasa

After what seemed like forever riding downhill, we got to the bottom of the canyon.  We figured that it would be best to get a ride up to Tafilah rather than try to walk for the next few hours in the heat of the day, get as far as we could and then have to try to get a ride when it was getting dark.  So, we happened to come across a small village and Dad asked if someone would be willing to take us up to the top of a mountain.  We had more than one taker, so before we knew it, our bikes were in the back and we were riding up the hill. 

This is to illustrate the power of the wind.  If you look at the flag you can see it was pretty strong!

Dad negotiating with the loacals

First ride of the day

We had already had quite the workout up until that point with the wind and the distance we had covered, so it was nice to have a bit of a break.  Once we got to Tafilah, we knew we had about 30 km to Dana.  This seemed doable!  Riding through the city of Tafilah was interesting.  I find riding in traffic much more stressful than anything else, and Jordanian traffic is actually so crazy.  We stopped to ask for directions, and I was in charge of watching the bikes while Dad went into the store.  These 10 year old boys came by and were looking at the bikes.  I didn’t think anything of it, just said “hello” and smiled like usual.  Whatever, not a big deal.  Then, we find out which way to go and so I pick up my bike and start to walk it to the street corner where we’re going to start riding.  I’m standing there waiting for Dad to get his pannier back on the bike and the kids come up and hold my brakes so that I can’t move them.  They start laughing at me and keep saying they are the police and they’re not going to let me go.  Ha ha.  You’re hilarious.  I keep saying to Dad “Can you please hurry up, Dad?” and he’s taking his sweet time not realizing that two boys have quickly turned into four boys all grabbing onto my bike.  I’m just trying to go with the flow and laugh it off, but then they all start pulling on the bike (not that I actually thought they were going to steal it from me) and I’m pulling back like a game of tug of war.  Dad is STILL preoccupied with his pannier and is not coming to my rescue.  So, I eventually had to yell “PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE!” and grabbed the bike and started riding, leaving Dad to fend for himself if the kids went after him next.  Eventually he caught up to me, but by that point I had also had rocks thrown at me by some other kid.  And not little pebbles.  These were two large stones that were definitely aimed at me.  Dad kind of pokes fun at me because I am basically scared of little kids now, but I have never felt as threatened on this trip as I did when they were “jokingly” trying to steal my bike. FOR REAL.  Kids are scary.

Soon after that, we decided to stop for lunch.  Dad was hungry and I was ready for some time to process and recover from the “10 year old boys incident”.  As we are eating on the side of the road under the shade of a tree, a van pulls up and this guy asks if we are going to Dana.  He works there and was headed there anyway, so he said he would give us a ride for free if we wanted.  Dad said that would be great (with the wind the way it was, we thought we would make it by sunset, but it was going to be a challenge, partly because we only had a general idea of where our hotel was, but it’s such a remote place that it isn’t on any map).  We got our bikes in, and I thought to myself “Well, I think I’m a natural at this hitchhiking thing than I thought.  Yesterday I was devastated that we had to ask for a ride, and now it’s old hat!”.  The man who picked us up spoke beautiful English and told us all about Jordanian culture, history, and let us know that the elevation of Dana is 1,650 metres above sea level!  Yesterday, we started at about -300 metres at the Dead Sea.  Dad didn’t know that Dana was still further up than Karak.  The place that we are staying is also off the main road and down a very steep hill that’s about 3 km long.  Dad said we probably would’ve had to walk it with our bikes because it was so steep if we hadn’t been able to get the ride. 

Anyway, we arrived at our “hotel” at 2:15 PM and we couldn’t believe how it happened.  Again, out of nowhere, we were taken care of and made it to our final destination for the day.  It was crazy.  Since we were here so early, we got to explore this village that overlooks the canyon.  We are staying in a furnished cave and it is fabulous.  Outside, the wind is howling like crazy (I’m so thankful that we aren’t on bikes).  We can see a million stars in the sky, and we just had a fabulous Bedouin style dinner with a guy who works at the hotel (Hazim), and a farmer and engineer that live nearby.  Hazim did some singing, I did some singing, and we had a fabulous meal.  What is life?  THIS IS LIFE.
Below are some pictures of Dana!

I also was able to get a great picture of the star filled sky!

Yeah, I knew it wouldn't work and I'm embarrassed that I still took the picture anyway.  This was the final result.

When I originally brought up the idea of travelling to Jordan and Israel with my dad, I wasn’t imagining the trip being by bicycle.  In comparison to our other bike trips, this trip is not about the mileage we cover each day, making sure we ride every square inch by bicycle instead of taking rides when offered, or pushing ourselves to our absolute physical limit.  I want to learn about the culture, meet people, and really feel like I’ve experienced the country rather than just cycled through it.  I think the difficulties we’ve faced have led to really positive experiences and I am grateful for that.  Tomorrow we are heading for Petra.  I don’t want to speak too soon, but I think the worst part of the trip is over.  For the next few days, at least, I think the roads will be more “ride-able”.  But who knows!  We have learned from the wind today that the elements can change everything.  However, I’m hoping we will have a good day of riding tomorrow and then we have a rest day to see Petra the following day.  We may not be riding our bikes as much as I thought but, hey, hitchhiking through Jordan isn’t any less of an adventure!