It can be the smallest detail that gives the game away, like a wonky wall hanging. That's the only clue that it is the Bedouin who run a new desert lodge in southern Jordan. It's a hangover from their traditional nomadic life in long, low tents, apparently, when there wasn't much call for hanging things straight.
Just 90 minutes' drive from the popular seaside town of Aqaba - followed by a six-hour trek - the 26-room Feynan Wilderness Lodge lies like an oasis in Indiana Jones territory at the foot of the Dana valley amid the arid mountains of the southern Rift valley. The long, black flapping tents of the old Bedouin camp have been replaced by modern adobe-walled buildings, which are solar-powered. It's a cool place to escape to during the heat of the day, and at night the inward-looking lodge has a monastic feel, with the soft glow of over 250 goatskin-covered candles illuminating the atrium against the starry night sky.
The lodge and nearby Dana Guesthouse and Nature Reserve are managed by Jordan's Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) to help promote the country's natural heritage as well as provide local employment for the Bedouin, linking conservation and ecotourism.
According to the RSCN's Chris Johnson, the set-up has attracted attention from tourism authorities in neighbouring Syria and Lebanon. "No one expects this kind of collaboration in the Middle East," he says. "It's the beginning of an entrepreneurial shift in tourism development, which has the knock-on effect of providing alternative jobs for Bedouin who can no longer rely on rearing goats."
The six-hour trek to the lodge begins at the RSCN's Visitor Centre at Dana - a traditional stone village perched high on the cliffs overlooking the Dana Nature Reserve - and follows a meandering trail through the spectacularly steep-sided Wadi valley where there are nearly 700 kinds of plants and over 200 species of bird, including vultures, eagles and kestrels. The lodge lies at the western border of the reserve, where you can extend the trek to a three-day desert adventure all the way to Petra, staying at Bedouin camps near Shobak en route.
In addition to the Dana Guesthouse and Wilderness Lodge, the RSCN runs the remote Rummana campsite, which is accessible from Dana and open from March to November; the Azraq Desert Lodge at the gateway to the Azraq oasis and eastern desert beyond; and a five-star campsite at Mujib Nature Reserve on the shores of the Dead Sea.
· Tribes (01728 685971, tribes.co.uk) has an 11-day trip to Jordan, including stays in the Dana Guesthouse and Feynan Wilderness Lodge, from £1,090pp half-board, excluding flights. Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature: rscn.org.jo.
richard.hammond@theguardian.com
