This is an old Roman road leading down into Wadi Sabra. Stay with me here, this thing is two thousand years old and the Romans did not have an infrastructure bill.

The rocks in the center of the image at the bottom demarcate the left margin of the road. The road then moves right to the shrub just below the middle of the picture. If you look closely you can then see how the road swings left contouring the hillside. It is not so much the road itself, but the row of rocks demarcating the left margin of it.

In the distance you can see the bottom of Wadi Sabra leading up to the mountain on the horizon in the center of the image.

At the bottom of Wadi Sabra looking back at the Roman road. It is hard to believe that while walking down the roadbed in switchbacks the road was always obvious. Yet when you look back at the hillside from the bottom you do not see a trace of it except a few feet right in front of you.

Wadi Sabra was a beautiful wadi with a lot of variety. Here is the beginning of a slot canyon section which led on to a massive dryfall of some 150 ft height. The guide talked about a donkey trail that would be leading around the dryfall. I promptly walked past the cairns  indicating the beginning of the trail. So I walked down to the fall, got cliffed out and upon walking upstream I noticed the cairns right away.

At the end of Wadi Sabra there was a settlement of a Bedouin family. I saw some animals but no people.

I do not understand the economics of this lifestyle at all. Everybody has a Toyota pickup which costs JD 40k. The alternative to the pickup would be a camel, but camels are not cheap either. And how are you going to feed the camel? There is not much growing this time of the year.

Back to the pickup. Apparently you ask a rich guy to buy the pickup for you and then you pay him back in monthly installment. I just do not understand where the cash flow comes from to make monthly payments. I was and remain flummoxed on how this works. I had the same questions last year in Sinai. At least there one could see ample evidence of illicit crops being grown that could have the kind of margins that would some sort of cash flow. I did not see a trace of illicit crops being grown in Jordan.

Here we are in Wadi Quseib, the wadi with the critical water supply question. The greenery indicates that there is water deep below, but was there water at the surface?

The first surface water I saw was this, the backcountry equivalent of a dive bar, filthy and not particularly inviting. This hole was filled with trash, as is just about everything in Jordan, and the water was turbid.

I use a mechanical filter to purify water and therefore have to pay attention to the quality of the input water. Once the filter clogs, I need to have clean water to backflush. Not always easy.

Bingo! A second hole, on the surface to boot, clear. Tasted ok and I could leave next day with six liters, enough to get me to the highway corridor at the entrance to Wadi Rum.

The next few days really were the highlight of the entire trip in terms of pure hiking. Convoluted terrain made for challenging route finding (in a good way) and a never ending supply of stunning vistas, provided you are into deserts and mountains. If you have a hankering for greenery, then not so much.

Oddly shaped (right margin) and colorful (center) limestone.

Got to walk some dunes too. If you are lucky, the surface is undisturbed and the sand is consolidated by the constant wind. If you are unlucky the locals have been driving their pickups all over, breaking up the surface and then it’s absolutely exhausting to walk, especially if you have to climb.