An excellent travel story today from Times Online on mountain biking through Jordan, a 280 mile ride through Middle Eastern deserts that put the adventurous author up close and personal with Bedouin villages, challenging single track, and a whole new way to see a country.
Author Vincent Crump set out too on a new trip offered by Explore, an adventure travel company headquartered in the U.K. This tour takes riders on the "Back Roads of Jordan" exploring sand dunes, and wandering down to the lowest place on Earth, the Dead Sea. Further destinations include riding the King's Highway and approaching Petra on your two wheeled traveling companion, in what has to be an amazing ride.
Crump wasn't a big fan, as it turned out to be more of a demanding holiday than he was expecting, and the June heat in the Middle East couldn't have helped the situation any. Stepping out into the desert in the summer is a bit like being in a blast furnace, and the struggle to stay hydrated in a spot as warm and dry as the Dead Sea had to take it's toll.
Still, there is a rising trend in adventure tourism to go by bike, and I have to admit that it's one that I like. Riding a bike has a lower impact on the environments that you'll visit, and the slower paced and off road nature of mountain biking can really put you into places you might not normally get to see. I'd love to take a trip like this one, and fortunately at the end of this article, there are six more similar trips suggested. They come in varying degrees of challenge and are found all over the world, stretching from Canada to Peru, and from India to Tanzania.
Whose ready to peddle their way across a country?
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