Day 19: Amman - Wadi Mujib - Karak - Petra (1)
We had hooked up with a Spaniard, Luis, and an Italian, Alessandro, to share a taxi. And so the four of us embarked on a taxi journey south along the King's Highway (one of the two main routes south).
We had managed to find a taxidriver willing to drive us to Petra via this slower route, and stopping at sights in between as well. Obviously all for some extra charge, but we all felt it would be worth doing some sightseeing rather than motoring straight down to Petra (like most people do).
Our first stop was at Wadi Mujib, also nicknamed the Grand Canyon of the Middle East. Measuring 4 kilometres across and 1 kilometre deep this canyon certainly isn't the least bit inferior to its American counterpart.
Unfortunately I am not able to say whether or not it is equally impressive, because the view was extremely poor. Just like Mount Nebo yesterday (and Umm Qais the day before) it was very hazy, restricting the view to no more than a kilometre ahead. Later we learned that the haze is caused by annual winds sweeping across North Africa, which blow a lot of dust from the Sahara east towards the Middle East. Not entirely sure if this is the infamous Sahara Dust, but the principle is the same.
The expectation is that the dust will settle around the second week of May. The haze never stays for more than two or three weeks, but unfortunately for us we'd already be out of the country by then. So we'd have to make do with pictures of sunny skies over the impressive canyon walls. Nothing for us to do about it unfortunately.
