Jordan

Dana Nature Reserve

We almost past by the Nawatee camp on our way to Dana. It lies on a small sideroad about 10km before the national park. Luckily Adam spotted the sign for it on the side of the road and we made the taxi driver reverse. Once we got to the camp, it was obvious that we ought to stay there. The view was magnificent! The camp was very simple. Basic tents with beds inside, but every tent had a small balcony where you could sit for hours to see the landscape. It was a nice and peaceful place and we were warmly welcomed by a young Spanish person, Humpe (also called Ziad). Humpe was a Spanish tourist that visited the camp the previous year and now came back to spend another 6 months in Jordan while working at the camp. So much to tell you that the Nawatee camp was a magic place!

The first day, we went down to explore the valley. We came across many old Nabatean tombs that were now inhabited by shepards. Once we were down in the valley, Humpe pulled out a teapot and we made some fire and had traditional chai. It was obvious that Humpe had become a real Jordanian and had taken on their traditions.

The second day, we went on a long and challenging hike. We started off at the camp and walked for several hours until we reached a Siq. The siq was dry at the beginning, but as we got further in, there was a small river in the middle. It was a beautiful scenery: the colors of the wall changed constantly and the river grew larger and larger. The whole Siq became green and palm trees magically grew off the stone walls. The deeper we got into the Siq, the more beautiful it became. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go the whole way to the other side and had to return the way we came from. We took a break and ate the lunch that the Rasmi (the owner of the Nawatee camp) had kindly packed for us before we had to head back. My level of exhaustment at the end of the day was unbelievable, we had walked for 9-10 hours, but luckily as we got out from the Siq, Rasmi was waiting for us with ice cream and cold coke. I have to say, it might have been the best ice cream of my life.

The food of the Nawatee camp was also the best of Jordan. Some days, they would cook chicken in this remarkable way. They would attach the chicken to some metal stick that they would plant into the ground. They would cover the ground below the chicken with aluminium foils and put some onions and other vegetables on it. Then they would put what looked like an old metal bin on top of the construction and collect some dry grass and bushes all around it. Finally, they would lit the whole thing on fire. They would repeatedly add more and more dried grass and after 30 min or so, a nicely roasted chicken was ready to be eaten. This was only one of their many recipes. It was without doubt the most spectacular one. Many other tourists from different hotels would join us at the camp for dinner.

This post would be completely incomplete without talking about Rasmi Nawatee, the owner of the camp. Rasmi was probably the kindest person I met in Jordan. He came out of a family of 9 brothers. Him and his brother Ali both had hotels in Dana and they were the greatest friends. Rasmi used to work for the Jordanian army but was now retired. He had traveled everywhere while being a soldier and spent a lot of time in Ethipia. Ali was the dean of a boy’s high school in the area. Besides that, he was a writer and wrote poems that made it into the Jordanian newspapers. They were great people to talk to and every evening we talked late into the night about Jordan. Unlike many other Jordanian hotel owners, Rasmi was not interested in overcharging tourists and misleading them. He was a truly kind person, always friendly and didn’t mind going out of his way to help tourists. He really did treat tourists like family and Humpe, the Spanish guy that decided to stick around in the camp,even took Nawatee as his Arabic last name.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 at 5:37 pm and is filed under Travel Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.