Day 70
Sleeping location: A quiet hillside 10km outside Petra, Jordan
Distance (km today/total): 10 / 5843
Estimated climb (m today/total): 600 / 52500
Climb out of Petra: steep
Day in three words: Bit more Petra
About midnight we were awoken by someone saying “hello” outside the tent. This turned out to be 3 park rangers who informed us that we were not allowed to sleep inside the national park, which we knew but had assumed that this area was not in the park because a) there were no signs, b) there was tons of litter, and c) there were other people sleeping around us. Apparently locals are allowed to sleep here, but tourists are not. After we explained ourselves, showed our documents and confirmed that we would be leaving the next day, they agreed that we could stay and drove off. A victory for the little guy. In the morning the owners of the pickup truck I had worried about actually invited us over for some breakfast and tea. They were called Sabin and Hamed and they were Jordanians who had come down to Petra for the weekend to see it (we saw them inside later on). It’s nice that the locals get to visit as well. The best thing about them was that they thought Rebecca was called Paprika.
The main advantage of this spot was that the Petra entrance was only 1km away; some hotels are further away. We got there by 8am and went for another explore. This time we did the longest possible trek, all the way to the Ad Deir monastery, which was magnificent. The views down the other side were similarly spectacular, as the mountains fall dramatically away down to the rift 1000m below. We did a bit more exploring of things we hadn’t seen the day before and headed out by about 1pm. Despite the obvious problems that come with overtourism, Petra is an incredible place which felt different to any ruined city I’ve seen before, both in terms of grandeur and setting. The landscape is amazing and it’s such an interesting place to explore. 5* would recommend.
We decided to treat ourselves to a nice lunch whilst we had the opportunity, and had some tasty food at a nearby restaurant and relaxed in the air conditioning for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, when we got back on the bikes our full tummies strongly objected to the immediate climb back to the ridgeline, which was crazy. 300m in the first 3km; 600m over 9km overall. The routing also messed us around a bit, taking us over a pretty steep section of gravel road as a “short cut” which mostly required us to push. As a result of all this we had only done 10km by 5pm, but found ourselves in a very quiet area with some flat patches ideal for camping. We decided to take advantage and call it a day here. The campsite turned out to be great, super peaceful with good views back down the valley, and we felt very relaxed all night.
Distance (km today/total): 10 / 5843
Estimated climb (m today/total): 600 / 52500
Climb out of Petra: steep
Day in three words: Bit more Petra
About midnight we were awoken by someone saying “hello” outside the tent. This turned out to be 3 park rangers who informed us that we were not allowed to sleep inside the national park, which we knew but had assumed that this area was not in the park because a) there were no signs, b) there was tons of litter, and c) there were other people sleeping around us. Apparently locals are allowed to sleep here, but tourists are not. After we explained ourselves, showed our documents and confirmed that we would be leaving the next day, they agreed that we could stay and drove off. A victory for the little guy. In the morning the owners of the pickup truck I had worried about actually invited us over for some breakfast and tea. They were called Sabin and Hamed and they were Jordanians who had come down to Petra for the weekend to see it (we saw them inside later on). It’s nice that the locals get to visit as well. The best thing about them was that they thought Rebecca was called Paprika.
The main advantage of this spot was that the Petra entrance was only 1km away; some hotels are further away. We got there by 8am and went for another explore. This time we did the longest possible trek, all the way to the Ad Deir monastery, which was magnificent. The views down the other side were similarly spectacular, as the mountains fall dramatically away down to the rift 1000m below. We did a bit more exploring of things we hadn’t seen the day before and headed out by about 1pm. Despite the obvious problems that come with overtourism, Petra is an incredible place which felt different to any ruined city I’ve seen before, both in terms of grandeur and setting. The landscape is amazing and it’s such an interesting place to explore. 5* would recommend.
We decided to treat ourselves to a nice lunch whilst we had the opportunity, and had some tasty food at a nearby restaurant and relaxed in the air conditioning for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, when we got back on the bikes our full tummies strongly objected to the immediate climb back to the ridgeline, which was crazy. 300m in the first 3km; 600m over 9km overall. The routing also messed us around a bit, taking us over a pretty steep section of gravel road as a “short cut” which mostly required us to push. As a result of all this we had only done 10km by 5pm, but found ourselves in a very quiet area with some flat patches ideal for camping. We decided to take advantage and call it a day here. The campsite turned out to be great, super peaceful with good views back down the valley, and we felt very relaxed all night.
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