There are plenty of reasons why driving off road is better than driving on a road. As I was whisked from Amman's Queen Alia Airport to a Dead Sea hotel, the first reason reared its head in the form of a traffic police officer who booked the driver for speeding, even though he couldn't have been going more than 90kph. Indeed, fresh off the plane from the mad roads of the Emirates, I remember thinking just before he was pulled over that he was driving this E-Class in a very sedately manner.
So, no suspect traffic tickets is a definite point in favour of driving in the wilderness. The following morning, as the Mercedes staff had us up early, another benefit came to mind - going off road is a great social experience. After all, only an idiot goes off road alone and, on this occasion, I was sharing the route with a friendly group of journalists. The expedition was lead by Duncan Barbour, the affable all-terrain specialist I'd last met on a previous Mercedes event.
The full range of Mercedes off-road vehicles was lined up outside the hotel, from the baby of the range, the GLK, to the GL and ML, the two mid-sized SUVs that seldom see sand, wadi or stone in the real world, and the mighty G Wagen, the most capable off-roader of the four, a vehicle that has become legendary in the Middle East for its combination of off-road prowess and high-end luxury. On the first day, I drove the GL and ML on a rugged, rocky climb. Once we were away from the main road and the hotel strip, there was the overwhelming feeling of being in the middle of nowhere. And there's another reason why off-roading is better than tarmac - you truly get away from it all. Even if your phone has reception, if the office calls, you can't rush back to your desk any time soon.
The GL and ML's off-road functions are breathtakingly easy to use. There is a switch to adjust suspension height, another to engage low range gears, another for downhill control, and a fourth to lock the differentials. You can drive the car like a standard automatic or switch to manual mode and change gears via paddles for more control, especially on downhill crawls and terrain where walking pace is the required speed.
Today's off-roaders, with their increased ease of operation, may upset 4x4 purists, but they are far more democratic, and this is yet another reason why off-roading is better than driving on the road. It is a skill and a thrill for almost any driver now. With the GL and ML, once you have set your switches, the car's brains have pretty much done the technical stuff for you, but it still takes some thinking from the driver. When stones can stymie your progress via punctures or coming loose and causing a slide, you should only drive, as Barbour reminded us, "As slow as possible and as fast as you need to."
The drive started easily enough, on gentle, winding tracks that were more loose gravel than serious rocks. These tracks are used in the WRC's Jordan Rally, but given the top-heavy nature of our vehicles, we weren't going to break any speed records on this excursion. The route took a lurching ascent up a rocky hill, with a narrow, winding ledge featuring plenty of what Barbour described as "air corners". In other words, if you left the path you'd find yourself in the air and then promptly crashed out a couple of hundred metres below the rest of the group.
Even the GLK, the car with the least clearance, made fairly short work of the uphill path. When it comes to baby off-roaders, it is an able challenger - with its 3.5L V6 engine in the top-of-the-line model - to the Land Rover LR2. And while the G Wagen got stuck in a rut, as the rest of us peered over the ridge to watch Barbour talk the driver out of trouble over the radio, it was clear it was a case of driver error rather than a problem with the car.
Over dinner that night, a Jordanian member of the group said we were lucky to access that hill, as there used to be restricted entry due to a radar station on its summit. While it is now gone, he said very few Jordanians would even know how to get to the path that we took. And there's another reason why off-roading is excellent - when you're not bound by road signs and tourist haunts, you never know what you might come across in your travels.
On the second day, the 5.5L V8 G Wagen was our mount for the wadi drive. Unlike the other SUVs, there is no suspension height adjustment switch on the G Wagen because it doesn't need it. There was plenty of room to clear anything in our path. But our first obstacle was a group of kids who ran in front of the cars demanding money and, disturbingly, cigarettes. With Jordan's small economy largely reliant on fruit, sheep and tourism, which in turn relies on keeping a fragile peace with Israel, their very near neighbours, it was no surprise to encounter people who were not leading lives of wealth and privilege. Over the two-way radio, Barbour recounted that, when they were tracking the routes prior to our journey, the children also threw stones at the cars. It was a moment of mixed feelings as the tourism police, who accompanied us, shooed the children aside on our way towards Wadi Al Hasa.
All the vehicles got their feet wet during the crawl along the wadi in the bottom of a canyon. With clear water beneath us, high rock walls beside us and glorious sunshine spilling through, the cameras clicked away. Ever watchful, Barbour reminded us to avoid driving through the white, bubbly patches of water, which indicated sharp rocks beneath the surface that could rip tyres. At the end of the wadi, we headed to the Wadi Feynan Eco Resort for a vegetarian lunch - the goats we passed by looked rather smug - before attempting the most challenging drive of the expedition.
For the last session, I had a choice of the GL or the ML, the GLK not quite having the clearance for the final obstacles. I chose the GL. Both cars have the same off-roading toys but, having driven both on the day before, I felt more comfortable with the broader, chunkier stance of the GL. Combined that with its V8 engine and a tad more torque, it felt more like a proper SUV than a soccer-mom taxi.
Reaching the stony summit that heralded the start of the steepest descent, Barbour made us walk down to the part of the drive that would require the most concentration. We took a collective deep breath and scanned the rugged, rocky terrain to determine what line we wanted to take. It was like a slow version of a racing driver planning his lines on the track, only this time the track was barely defined, and we relied on Barbour's Scottish burr and our co-drivers, with heads out windows, to spot any nasty rocks and determine whether to bear left or right.
It was a tense crawl, but it was impossible not to smile when you hit the bottom and looked back up to see the angle you'd successfully negotiated. There's another reason why off-roading rules - there are so many more opportunities to challenge yourself and find out what you and a machine can do together than there are on a boring motorway. After the path flattened out a little, a patch of soft sand appeared in front of the convoy. As the tyres were still fully inflated, the cars needed fearless acceleration to pull through.
Finally, it was time for the day's last learning experience. We parked at the site believed to be where the copper from King Solomon's mines was processed. The second collective intake of breath for the day happened as we were told about the Christian prisoners working the mines, who had their achilles tendons cut so they couldn't escape. They were literally worked to death. The last time I thought about King Solomon's mines was when the movie of the same name starring Richard Chamberlain came out in 1985. That film had the mines located in Africa rather than Jordan; but to be more historically and geographically accurate, the place where we were standing was actually the less glamorous-sounding King Solomon's slag heap.
The sun started to set and it was time to head back to the hotel, a smooth drive on tarmac roads punctuated only by the alarming sight of barely dressed men spending Friday at a Dead Sea hangout known locally as Underwear Beach. Despite the view, the real beauty of modern off-roading then occurred to me - you can easily take your vehicle to places where a rented Yaris would fear to tread, then hit the road when you're finished and head for home in style.
