Forest reserve in Jordan

Jordan has set aside protected land for conservation. I don't know all the rules, but one of them is the Sherhabil Bin Hassneh EcoPark that Sweden supported, and there's another reserve called Zay National Park. It is just a bit northwest of the capital Amman. It's set on forested mountains and hills from which you have wonderful look-out points.

And the road going into the park is full of white and pink flower bushes.

Pardon the blurry pictures, they were all from a moving car.

 

Around the park, the hills have been terraced by low, stone walls which you can just see in the last picture. 

And as you drive around, sometimes you come across a stand of Erz trees, which is the tree on Lebanon's flag and which look just like pointed firs. 

Sometimes, you come across a lonely mosque on a cliff, surrounded by a small settlement. It reminded me of biking around the very southern tip of Sweden and suddenly coming across a church spire rising out of a village!

From the park towards the west you see the mountains of Palestine. Just when we were there, the sun was setting and had left behind a strip of icy-pink flare, and a valley in between that looked to be full of slowly curling, grey-blue smoke. It was the mist and haze of the departing day.