Wadi Mujib and some Castle and the Dana nature reserve

Friday, December 14th.

... The hotelier, the German speaking loon, has lost the plot. He has come back into our room for the fourth time to have the same conversation as to why we are not taking his minibus. Aside from the fact he wants a minimum of four people - and there are three of us - Marcus has already made alternative arrangements. He is unable to comprehend this. He keeps on trying to ask me why. I barely have the energy to stand up; let alone explain. Merryl has patiently told him, each time, we have arranged through someone else. He goes downstairs to find the other taxi-triver waiting. A fierce argument breaks out. The screaming and shouting can be heard from our room. Marcus has taken charge of the situation by hiding in the corridor - I don't blame him to be honest. However I have to go down and pay. I put my rucksack on and try to ignore the waves of nausea and descend the stairs into the chaos...

We checked out of the hotel today and tried to organise a taxi. The women was unable to locate the driver so Marcus headed out to arrange something with a local cab driver. I was still really weak and disorientated. So putting my clothes on was a bit of an effort. Marcus arranged a cab but in the meantime, whilst he was gone, the mad hotelier turned up and tried to arrange a cab with us. Merryl tried to explain we were making alternative plans but he was having none of it. He kept leaving the room returning to start the same conversation. He physically reminded me of Peter Jackson's Gollum from Tolkien's Middle Earth books - he was a shrivelled old soul, with a liver-spotted palate, and with a soulful, miserable, eyes that looked like poached eggs. I really was in no position to argue with him. When Marcus returned he came upstairs and argument ensued. The hotelier then went down to find the other cab driver and all hell broke loose. Marcus refused to go downstairs and Merryl was telling him to stop hiding behind his mother's apron. Had I been well enough I would have found this all very amusing. But I was too busy trying to get my rucksack downstairs and not throw up.

We finally got into the taxi just in time to have the hotelier on the phone to the police. Our cab driver did not seem to bothered by this lunacy so I figured it was normal here. I desperately wanted to see how the police dealt with the heinous crime of 'booking a cab' but alas we were never to find out. Oh. We were also told we were no longer welcome in Madaba. Something we all had to try very hard to get over.

I don't remember much of the day but the sun was shining warmly. We had to scupper our original plan of visiting bethany-beyond-the-Jordan and Herod's castle as I was too ill. Instead we drove down to the village of Dana through Wadi Mujib. This is effectively a mini-Grand Canyon and it is very beatiful. We stopped and took some pics and I had a good old lie down. We also stopped at the dam in the valley which was pretty damn manky and polluted. After this we stopped at a Crusader Castle and spent a couple of hours exploring it. The castle was at a place called Al Karak. It is a pretty impressive fortress. It was known in crusader times as Crac des Moabites, and is often confused with Krak des Chaveliers. I was pretty impressed with it. In fact I'd give it a 7 out of 10. The views were superb from the north ramparts down into the promised land and toward the dead sea. We spent a lovely couple of hours looking around it. I was particularly impressed with the sheer drop on the North-East side, to the glacis below, where history notes that Raynald of Chatillon used to expel unwanted visitors and prisoners. There was also some great underground passages, and churches.



From here we then drove directly to Dana. Our driver stopped at a location just South-West, and above, the village, and we stood and watched the sun go down over the beautiful valley we were to be hiking in the next day.

We got to the village just before sunset. The hotel was quiet and peaceful. Here we had our first experience of tea infused with sage. It is served, as most tea in the Middle East, black and sweet. But the sage made it taste pretty amazing. We had dinner after sunset and met a Belguim girl, who lived in Kabul, Afghanistan. She was on holiday exploring Jordan. We were to bump into her a few of times during our trip, and had already seen her in Madaba. Well all got very excited about the prospect of visiting Kabul! however I was still recovering and soon had to go to bed. Leaving the others to play cards and drink vodka.