Day 67
Sleeping location: Mount Dana hotel, near Dana, Jordan
Distance (km today/total): 28 / 5765
Estimated climb (m today/total): 500 / 51300
Hours spent in random family’s home: 3.5
Day in three words: Sick little Rebecca
We made an early getaway but Rebecca was still feeling really bad and needed more rest, so we headed for the nearest town which according to google maps had some accommodation. Thankfully a lot of the way was downhill so she could freewheel and push when the road went uphill. None of the “hotels” in the middle of town existed, and the other one was a bit out of town down a steep hill, so she waited and I went to investigate. This place had at least once been a hotel, but now appeared to be some kind of squat, so I went back up to her. When I got back she had been adopted by a family who had seen her curled up by the side of the road. They insisted she come in and sleep, so after a bit of very British umming and ahhing we did that. Their names were Silam, Firaz and Musa (spelling possibly not perfect), mum and two policeman sons respectively, and they were amazing, bringing us food and water and coffee and letting Rebecca sleep until she felt better. In between sleeps we sat with them and had a basic chat over some tea.
We left about noon and gave them a bag of dates as thank you (it was about the only worthy gift we had). The nearest actual hotels were about 20km away in Dana, and Rebecca said she thought that would be ok for her to cycle. We had to cross over the top of another couple of huge wadis, which made the cycling quite hard, but she was tough and kept pushing and pedalling. Towards the end was a pretty long (300m over maybe 5km) climb, so we took it slow and had breaks every 500m or so. About two thirds of the way up I was overtaken by a pickup truck carrying a bike and a blonde girl - she had scored a lift from the “tourist police”. There was no room for me and my bike, but I did drop my rear panniers in and zoomed up the rest of the hill.
We reconvened at the first hotel, which was quite rustic but had amazing views down over the Dana wadi. We got a room for half price basically by being sad. The hotel has a resident “teenage” cat called Susu who is extremely mischievous but also adorable. He keeps trying to attack my hands whilst I’m typing, and walks over everyone and everything however he likes. He is also fascinated by our bread, and keeps trying to get into the bag to lick the bread, even though cats don’t eat bread. We spent the rest of the day relaxing on the terrace with Susu and enjoying the view, resting ourselves back to health.
Guest section written by Susu walking on my keyboard:
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bank,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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Distance (km today/total): 28 / 5765
Estimated climb (m today/total): 500 / 51300
Hours spent in random family’s home: 3.5
Day in three words: Sick little Rebecca
We made an early getaway but Rebecca was still feeling really bad and needed more rest, so we headed for the nearest town which according to google maps had some accommodation. Thankfully a lot of the way was downhill so she could freewheel and push when the road went uphill. None of the “hotels” in the middle of town existed, and the other one was a bit out of town down a steep hill, so she waited and I went to investigate. This place had at least once been a hotel, but now appeared to be some kind of squat, so I went back up to her. When I got back she had been adopted by a family who had seen her curled up by the side of the road. They insisted she come in and sleep, so after a bit of very British umming and ahhing we did that. Their names were Silam, Firaz and Musa (spelling possibly not perfect), mum and two policeman sons respectively, and they were amazing, bringing us food and water and coffee and letting Rebecca sleep until she felt better. In between sleeps we sat with them and had a basic chat over some tea.
We left about noon and gave them a bag of dates as thank you (it was about the only worthy gift we had). The nearest actual hotels were about 20km away in Dana, and Rebecca said she thought that would be ok for her to cycle. We had to cross over the top of another couple of huge wadis, which made the cycling quite hard, but she was tough and kept pushing and pedalling. Towards the end was a pretty long (300m over maybe 5km) climb, so we took it slow and had breaks every 500m or so. About two thirds of the way up I was overtaken by a pickup truck carrying a bike and a blonde girl - she had scored a lift from the “tourist police”. There was no room for me and my bike, but I did drop my rear panniers in and zoomed up the rest of the hill.
We reconvened at the first hotel, which was quite rustic but had amazing views down over the Dana wadi. We got a room for half price basically by being sad. The hotel has a resident “teenage” cat called Susu who is extremely mischievous but also adorable. He keeps trying to attack my hands whilst I’m typing, and walks over everyone and everything however he likes. He is also fascinated by our bread, and keeps trying to get into the bag to lick the bread, even though cats don’t eat bread. We spent the rest of the day relaxing on the terrace with Susu and enjoying the view, resting ourselves back to health.
Guest section written by Susu walking on my keyboard:
Bh7
]\nnn
9iuj9oa0Qf
bank,,,,,,,,,,,,,
bhnh56cd
Steve says you're doing a great job guys!
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Steve is our cat.