Mujib Biosphere Reserve – Jordan

[Walkers trekking through the river at Mujib Biosphere Reserve – Jordan]

If you ask someone what they know about Jordan before they have been here, you would probably get the usual response of “Petra, the Dead Sea, and Wadi Rum.” That, and a few biblical sites was about my knowledge at least. So the Mujib Biosphere Reserve took me by complete surprise. My itinerary listed that we were going for a walk in a reserve.

I thought it would be a walk in a restored forest or some such thing, so my travel partner Kevin and I were perplexed when we were told that we couldn’t bring our cameras because they’ll get wet. We were told we will be walking through a river. “No problem”, I said, “I’ll just hold it above my head”.

Not an option, and neither was wearing flip flops. It takes a lot to prize a camera away from a travel blogger, but we eventually yielded to our guides advice and put on shoes and left everything behind that shouldn’t get wet.

As we entered the reserve we were in a canyon with a gentle stream passing through. Pretty easy so far, but as the walk progressed the passage narrowed, the water quickened, and our jaws dropped lower. After travelling through rocky desert landscapes the last thing I expected to see here was a rushing river of pristine mountain water running through this stunning red rock canyon.

We reached the first waterfall, which would have been a camera killer, and despite the pain of not travelling with a camera I was glad I left it behind. There were several waterfalls to pass during the hour+ walk in the river, some of them 3-4 metres high and requiring to climb up in the water with ropes. The end of the walk was a larger waterfall which was as far as we could go (and me left wishing I had a waterproof camera.)

On our return we grabbed our cameras to take this entrance shot of the canyon.