It was late morning and I was sitting on a rock atop a mountain in southern Jordan, munching on a date and taking in the vast panorama of the Great Rift Valley spread out before me. This spectacle was my reward for two hours spent scaling a steep Bedouin track, a clamber punctuated by frequent stops to catch my breath and inhale the scent of boot-trodden thyme. I'd been up since before dawn, when the stars were still etched in the sky, and had just completed the first major climb of my four-day hiking trip on the new Jordan Trail. This was the inaugural "thru-hike" of the trail, and the realisation of a 20-year dream for veteran British climbers Tony Howard and Di Taylor who accompanied our...
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