Jordan 2022, part 21 (Dana)
As I’ve said in the previous sequel of my Jordan travelogue, the driver of a van that I left Karak with organised in town Al Ayes further transportation for me by another van. Nobody asked me anything, but I was moving in the desired direction, so I did not complain and simply moved to that other van. Together with my bag. There were a couple of other passengers in that other van and so we left. Soon we passed through the town of Tafilah continuing to move in the southbound direction. At first, the clouds dispersed a little and I could see some patches of sky, but soon enough it was completely cloudy again. One of the passengers got off along the way, while another one, the driver and myself continued to the town of Qadisiyah.
Just before entering Qadisiyah, close to the place where there is the road to village Dana that was my next destination of this day, there was a filling station. The van in which I was, turned to a side road beside the filling station, stopped there and the driver turned on the 4-way blinkers. The other passenger got out and went on his way. Nobody told me a word. I tried to communicate with the driver, but he spoke no English, I spoke no Arabic, and yet somehow I was explained that he had already called the manager of the hotel at which I was to stay in Dana and now, according to the previous arrangement, we were waiting for the car to come and pick me up.
The driver was out all the time and he was mostly speaking on his mobile phone. For a short while, I was out, too, there was a lot of show there, I took some photos and then I thought I would be better off if I entered the van and waited there.
And so, 5 minutes passed, then 10 and even 30. I got out of the van to try to see with this driver what was going on. He was standing a dozen metres away, still talking on the mobile, when all of a sudden came a vehicle, like a small SUV, and out of it came a uniformed person, i.e., some kind of a policeman, but it was obvious that this was a person of a higher position. With him came another man, younger and in civilian clothes, but it was clear that he was also a serious character. They asked me (in English) who I was, where I came from, what I was doing there... I explained it all (nicely). We were approached by the van driver and then they talked in Arabic for a short while. The main uniformed policeman asked me if I had any luggage. I said I had. Then he showed me clearly that I should transfer my things to their vehicle and then they told me I should also get in. The higher-ranking policeman and a young uniformed driver sat in the front, while the civilian-clothes guy and I sat in the back. The latter then asked for my passport and then he wrote some things into his mobile phone. I simply could not stop wondering what was going on and what was happening to me, but there was certainly no panic on my side even for a second. They were very kind and well-mannered, and practically they drove me to the village of Dana and my hotel. Does this seem surreal? I think it cannot get more surreal than this.
As I was to learn later on, the hotel manager did not have a proper vehicle available at the time when the driver of the second van I used that day came to the filling station. The reason for this whole action was primarily the snow. Namely, in order to get to Dana village, it is necessary to leave the King’s Highway that practically runs across the mountain plateau in this area and to descend along a relatively steep road. After it had snowed, there was a problem, not because of the quantity of the snow, but because Jordanians are not used to driving on snowy roads. Yes, it can be done, but only by 4x4 vehicles. Well, the hotel manager did not have such a car handy at the time of my arrival, while the police SUV was the right kind of vehicle. And yet, as we were driving down towards Dana, the vehicle slipped a little, but again, this is only because people there do not have sufficient experience with snow and icy road conditions.
That hotel manager later told me that it was precisely him who called the police to take me to the hotel, but as he was very much inclined towards limitless self-promotion and I did not like him at all in the end, I’m prone to thinking that he exaggerated. Then again, this did not matter any longer.
What did matter was that I got settled, i.e., I left my things in a room and came down to a shared room decorated like a Bedouin tent. The point is that the place where I stayed was not a proper hotel, but rather a refurbished group of old, neighbouring houses in which guestrooms were made, with all of that brought together into a whole including also that shared room.
It is important to say that it was January, it was cold, it was a totally low season and there were almost no tourists. It is also important to say that I got a modest, tiny room (that was advertised as a huge space with its own terrace), without an air-conditioning unit that would warm the room up during the night, on top of which in that shared room it was also very cold and there was hardly any internet connection at all. With time the heating was provided (by a small kerosene furnace), so I sat there and tried to use the internet that was not that easy, but I said to myself that I should not get nervous, although I was not pleased at all. I am usually very laidback concerning accommodation and I am ready to be full of understanding, but here for some reason it REALLY bugged me this “false representation” of theirs. It was not a question of price at all, but rather only my failed expectations and my expectations are very important and dear to me.
Since it became clear that the clouds had lifted a little, I decided to go for a walk around the village. Dana is a small village located at the border of Dana Biosphere Reserve. A little more about the reserve later on, but let me first say something about this hamlet. It incorporates various stone houses and everything is situated relatively high (at around 1240 m a.s.l.), relatively in terms that it is at a lower altitude in relation to the plateau where the closest town Qadisiyah is (at around 1450 m a.s.l.). In addition, the place is positioned on a very mild slope that extends with its flatter section to the very edge of a deep valley, i.e., Wadi Dana. Around the middle of the 20th century, the village started to lose its population that traditionally worked in agriculture, but now began to move to other parts of Jordan. However, in 1989, Dana Biosphere Reserve was founded and there was a need for accommodation of potential visitors. Dana village was perfectly positioned, but also neglected. Then parallel to the gradual refurbishing of the houses, a programme was initiated for the rejuvenation of the village by eco-tourism and this is one of the positive, successful examples of this approach. Today, the partially restored village is a centre from which numerous walking and hiking tours start. The village is small and probably even during summer it does not offer numerous options for accommodation, but in January, when the season is so low that it is almost non-existent, there were practically only two facilities opened.
I started with this walk around the hamlet and somehow I decided to go first along the flat section, only to realise after a couple dozen metres that I was quite close to the end of the village. I turned into a tiny side street and it led me to the very end of the hamlet where I almost fainted with delight having seen the beauty of the place. Since this byway brought me to a steep section, now covered by snow, treading very carefully first I had to reach the last segment of the main asphalt road that ran through the village. This was also the viewpoint. Only then could I take photos of the sight that delighted me so.
While I was standing there, filled with unstoppable admiration, the clouds kept moving, which meant that different effects were created. But, they were all – perfect.
Then at some point I turned around and went back first to that guesthouse at which I stayed, after which I continued with my walk along the main street that is in fact the end of the road that leads from the highway to Dana. There were some interesting sights here.
I continued along the main street through the village and a little uphill, but then some local dogs started to bark at me too much, so I returned to a road that led away from the main street and went on that way. From there, I could have a very nice view at Dana village.
Soon I reached a guesthouse that belongs to the RSCN (Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature).
The RSCN is, so to speak, the chief organisation in Jordan that deals with the protection and management of natural resources in the country. They are in charge of establishing protected areas and of their subsequent management. I had already had contacts with them when I went to Azraq Wetland Reserve (https://www.svudapodji.com/en/jordan-7/) and Ajloun Forest Reserve (https://www.svudapodji.com/en/jordan-16/). As a part of their management of the protected areas, they often offer accommodation, but by the rule they are more expensive than the others. Here, in Dana, I chose that other guesthouse, but I was very much interested in staying at another RSCN facility towards the end of my travel around Jordan, which was something I planned at this time.
So, when I reached that guesthouse/hotel of the RSCN in Dana village, first I went to a terrace because it renders a spectacular view at that deep valley that is also called Dana – Wadi Dana.
Then I entered the guesthouse, just to see what was there. As it turned out, there was a reception, as well as a couple of sofas in the lobby with some men sitting on them. The way I concluded later, these were apparently the guides who worked here, but since there were no visitors, they were just sitting there and chatting.
Since I could see that the next large hall after the reception lobby was something like a restaurant, I asked if I could get a Turkish coffee. They said I could, but apparently the restaurant did not work and so they invited me to sit there with them, while one of them went to make me a coffee. I felt a little embarrassed, but the thing was set in motion, so I let it go on. We talked a little and soon came the coffee.
One of these very kind people offered to take me to a room within the guesthouse in order for me to see what the rooms look like here. I gladly accepted and then I was delighted, feeling remorse for not staying here. The room was spacious, with a large bed and, most importantly, it had an air-conditioning unit (which was of utmost importance because of the cold during the night). A particular architectural feature of these rooms is that the exterior wall in the bathrooms, where the shower is, is made of – glass. Namely, the guesthouse is perched on the very edge from where a large steep section, almost a vertical cliff of the deep Dana valley, starts, so nobody can actually see the person that is taking shower, but in turn the person taking the shower has a spectacular view.
We went back to the lobby and then they offered to me some mint tea that was excellent. In the end I thank them wholeheartedly and was getting ready to leave when they invited me to come back again, which I promised I would do the following day. Still, I first went to the terrace again and again I enjoyed the fantastic view at Wadi Dana. Meanwhile, the clouds had moved in the sky, so this time around the sunlight partially penetrated the valley and that only added to the beauty of the landscape.
On the other side, looking upwards towards the mountain slopes on the top of which was the plateau, the clouds still held their position and did not allow any direct light to pass through.
By the way, it can be seen here that most of the road is without snow. This is so because there were some cars passing here and as it can be noticed the quantity of snow is not big anyway. But, let me emphasise again, the Jordanians are not used to snow and that is why obviously any quantity of snow creates a problem for them.
Before starting with this walk, I had encountered a young man at the guesthouse where I stayed and we started to talk. As it turned out he was from Slovenia and he even spoke Serbian. We were both very cordial and were glad that, there, we met somebody from the national neighbourhood. He told me he was travelling around Jordan by hitchhiking and so a Canadian girl who had a rented car picked him up and now they both just stopped by to see what this all looked like. Soon I met the Canadian girl as well. The owner of the guesthouse could not stop wondering how the two of them managed to reach the village by a very ordinary small car, but then the three of us started to laugh. Simply, it was clear to us that a girl from Canada and a boy from Slovenia know very well how to drive when there is much, much, much more snow than here.
By this time, I was walking around the village alone and practically I did not meet anybody here, but I did walk past some traditional local houses.
And then I went again to the end of the main street and the viewpoint. The view was certainly breathtaking, but the fact also was that there was nothing else I could do here anyway.
After this I went back to my guesthouse and to that shared room. In the meantime, the room had warmed up a little, but the internet was still very poor. Well, I sat there anyway writing down some of my impressions on the computer and soon came the dinner that I had agreed on with the manager upon my arrival.
Meanwhile, a man came to that room and I could not fathom who he was. Not because this was very important or because I’m impolitely curious, but simply because it seemed as if he were the owner and the other guy was just a manager, or perhaps I was completely wrong. In any case, this was a very kind man. We started to talk about all sorts of things and we also mentioned Wadi Musa as my next destination. He then gave me recommendations for some restaurants. At some point I said that the internet was very bad at the guesthouse, while I needed to do something that required a good connection. That man kindly gave me the password for his wi-fi and so I finished everything I needed to quite efficiently. Indeed, there are nice people everywhere.