Location
Rasoun and Mar Elias, AjlounDuration
2 days / 1 night
Group size
Up to 6
Language
English, Arabic
The long version, for people who would rather sleep in the woodland than drive back to Amman. Day one is the ridge walk from Rasoun down through terraced olive groves and pomegranate to the wadi floor, then up to a cabin clearing where we cook zarb - lamb and vegetables buried in a fire pit for three hours - and eat it under the oaks. Day two starts slowly with mountain tea, then a shorter loop to the old Byzantine winepress cut into the bedrock at Mar Elias before lunch at a family house in Orjan. Total walking is around 18 km over two days. Be clear about the accommodation: a simple wooden cabin, two shared bathrooms, cold-ish showers, no air conditioning and no wifi. It gets down to about 8C at night in spring and autumn, colder than people expect at 1,100 metres. Bring a fleece. There are wild boar in the valley; they avoid people, but they are loud at 2am.
We are four families from Orjan and Rasoun, on the western slopes below Ajloun Castle. Between us we know which oak holds the best shade in August, which co-operative kitchen bakes on which morning, and roughly where the wild boar cross at dusk. We work with the reserve rangers, not around them, and we book the women's soap house and biscuit house directly so the money stays in the village. Our walks are unhurried and our groups are small. We are not a coach company and we do not do sunset-photo stops. If you want northern Jordan at walking pace, in oak and strawberry-tree woodland that most visitors drive straight past, come north.
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