Sunday, October 12, 2008

Desert Trekking My Style

Wadi Rum, Jordan

When I left Canada a year ago I took this awesome trek description with me from one of my favorite magazines - TREK (it's a French magazine). Illustrated with beautiful pictures the pages provide the outline of a one week trek from Petra to Wadi Rum. I wanted to do this trek.

Then, when I started doing some research on the internet, it turned out that a trek like this was much too expensive to do independently. I had also contacted a guide in Wadi Rum via email and the reply was discouraging. He basically said that to go on any kind of tour with just one person especially during peak season was not just very expensive but pretty much impossible.
Therefore, I decided to make the best out of it and see the most interesting places with minimum expenses. I invested in the book by Tony Howard and Di Taylor depicting various walks, treks, scrambles and climbs in Jordan. There was the option to buy one specifically for Wadi Rum but then I wasn't going to stay that long in Wadi Rum nor climb by myself :-(
I also searched online for the tours offered by the tour operators in Wadi Rum and carefully defined my route.

Basically I wanted to go from the village and back in a big loop taking in two of the most beautiful and more accessible canyons: Rakabat and Barrah. The two of them couldn't be more different. Whereas Rakabat is a very narrow canyon involving some really good scrambling and route finding skills and is tortuous enough to make you spend days there in exploration and also to potentially get lost, Barrah is a very wide canyon, flanked by equally massive rock walls and mountains but sunny and spacious and simply a pleasant walk. It, too, offers opportunities for exploration in the side cracks and canyons but getting lost here or not finding the way out of it means you're plain stupid.

Given the heat and the fact that there was no water on the way, not to mention that few people did this kind of tour on foot I had to take plenty of water with me and be self sufficient. I definitely wanted to go alone and enjoy the peacefulness and beauty of the desert at my own pace. I was looking forward to the clear starful nights and the magnificence of these mountains.

I did not want any support along the way, no car or horse or camel to carry me or my stuff nut after some thinking I decided I needed a "lift" for my stuff in the beginning. Rakabat canyon was narrow and a scramble. Carrying my heavy pack through that seemed to be eliminating the fun. Not to mention that I didn't know how difficult the terrain was going to be. Now i know I would have got stuck with my pack in a few spots. Therefore I needed a camel to carry all my stuff to a spot at the end of the canyon. From there I was going to be on my own.

I packed 12 1.5litre water bottles in my big backpack plus a 2litre bottle which I had on me. To eat I had some flat bread and 12 boxes of cream cheese, some almonds, 2 chocolates and a little box of feta cheese. Nothing more.

Day 1. The scramble up and through Rakabat canyon was awesome. I was happy for the cairns in addition to my route description, since the terrain was not easy. Where I made wrong decisions I paid for them, having to climb in a couple of spots something I shouldn't have done. All the time I kept thinking that I had to be very careful especially since I was on my own. Any mistake could have costed me a lot plus it would have created trouble to other people. My little pack with all the camera gear , some food and water was heavy enough in spots where I had to lift my body up. But it was great fun. The views of the village and Rum valley from above were priceless and the scenery along the whole hike simply breathtaking: huge vertical walls, narrow twisted passages, jagged ridges, delicately eroded holes and columns. there were plenty of narrow side canyons to explore and I had to just control myself to keep follwing the route. Ali was waiting anxiously a the other end and was happy to get his pay and leave. I was on my own.

That afternoon I explored some more the area, the canyon ended in a wide wadi with some more speacular views and I spent both sunset and sunrise there on a huge red sand dune taking pictures and contemplating this fantastic scenery.
In the evening I made a little fire next to the rock wall where I had my little camp. I had dinner and then read a bit and wrote a while in my diary and by 8:30pm I was sound asleep.

Day 2. The next day I spent all morning backtracking Rakabat canyon and exploring corners and side canyons I did not have time for the previous day. I dicovered the fantastic echo some areas had by a wonderful chance. It was about 12:30pm and I had reached the soaring walls of the Eljil mountain in a spot where the transition from this to Kharazek canyon required an abseil. Suddenly this godly voice started chanting behind me "Allaaaaah!" It was the prayer from the village mosque, but much louder and fuller than you ever heard it in the village. It was reflected and amplified by the rock walls to the point where it sounded more like a chorus. It was simply overwhelming and beautiful.
In the afternoon I had decided to move camp. I had calculated that the approximately 4km to the beginning of Barrah canyon should at most take me 2 hours considering that by now I still had to carry about 15l of waters plus the rest - I figured more than 20kg. The terrain was mostly flat though sandy making walking more strenious. To avoid the heat I had planned to start at 4pm, which gave me about 3 hours of daylight.

I reached my target in time to set camp and even explore a bit the area and take pictures. The night was beatiful and I picked a higher spot this time. It was more exposed to the wind which kept the annoying mosquitos away. The views I had were great and a nearby dome provided a good spot for sunrise pictures.

Day 3. The next morning I took my time with sunrise pictures then had breakfast and reorganized myself. I planned on taking enough food and water with me to allow me an overnight stay anywhere along the canyon or at its end, depending on where I simply liked to spend the night. The next day I could return to this spot, probably spend a night and retrieve the water and food I now stashed in a crack.
By 8:30am I was on my way. At this early hour I had the place to myself, the groups on safari in bedouin driven jeeps were only roaming around later. The canyon was spectacular bordered as it was by huge massive blocks of rock - real mountains with enormous climbing potential. Actually it was in Wadi Rum the first time during my travels that I wished I were with company so I could have gone rock climbing or dared some more scrambles. As it was, whenever the exposure was increasing I was turning around slightly frustrated. But I simply could not afford to get into trouble alone in this remote area.
I stopped many times to take pictures, dropping my big heavy pack and wandering around with my camera for half an hour at a time. This is how I discovered the delicate beautiful white desert lilies. What they are exactly I don't know. I just know they have bulbs and are unexpected and beautiful. The first I saw sticking out of the sand took me by surprise. I stopped, looked again, closed my eyes, looked elsewhere and back. Maybe it was the heat playng tricks on me. But no, there it was lonely, delicate and beautiful. I stopped for pictures and later discovered another one nearby. Over the course of the following days in the desert I noticed a few more, about five or six. I'm sure none of the people in the jeeps noticed them. Not at the speed the cars were driving around.
It was on this second day around noon that suddenly a jeep coming the opposite way through the canyon headed straight for me and stopped. A broad smiling Mohammed greeted me. He had been looking for me everywhere, worried. I had disappeared from the Rakabat canyon camp and he had been driving around looking for me in the desert until 2am last night.
Oops, all of a sudden I felt bad. Why all these worries?
He wanted to drive me around and show me some plaecs, ore beautiful than these.
But I didn't want to go elsewhere, I didn't want to go by car.

Anyway, I felt so bad about him looking for me for so long that I gave up resistence in the end. I would go with him to those places but tomorrow.
No, he wanted tonight, he would come and pick me up from some place.

After a while I simply gave up. OK, tonight at 5:30pm at the beginning of Barrah canyon. We used the map to make sure we agree on the spot and then off he went.
All of a sudden my mood switched and I was furious and frustrated. here went my freedom away. Why did people not trust me and worry about me unnecessarily? I hated deadlines and here I was in the middle of the desert having one. I had to be back at my starting point in 5 hours time. And I had not even made it to the end of the canyon in these 4+ hours( which was supposed to only take 2 hours, by the way). This meant that I could not spend time taking the pictures I wanted, could not wait for the best light and could not spend the night as I had planned. I was so mad that it took me a few hours to calm down. I actually only forgot about this on the way bck when I bumped into another lily.

I think my appointment with Mohammed deserves a separate post and so I will skip it for now. Suffice to say that, fortunately the next day I could continue my trek without any help or a car!!!

Day 4. After a pretty much sleepless night the next day I spent around Khazali. I scrambled up a couple of domes in the area and overcome by heat and exhaustion I had a 3-hours nap under a boulder on a rock in the shade. Then I stayed there for sunset pictures and returned to my stashed stuff by dusk. I made a little fire again, had dinner and slept like a baby.

Day 5. This day I decided to start heading back for the village. I had about 12 km to cover and sufficient water for another 2 or 3 days. I wasn't in any rush to return to the village. I loved the serene beauty and tranquility of this place, the sky at night, the unexpected flowers, the magnificent mountains and the fun scrambles.
Therefore in the morning I took my time with more pictures and breakfast, I burned the paper and finally headed back North. Walking at the foot of Khazali I couldn't but gaze up all the time at the sheer majesty of this giant, like a huge battleship in the desert. When I reached its Northern tip I dropped my big backpack somewhere beneath a boulder in the shade and started walking around to the East exploring. The small but interesting Khazali canyon was quite close, one of the main attractions on any desert safari. That you could tell not just by the guidebook but also by looking at the size of the parking area and soon by the number of people coming by. Hordes.
I reached the canyon early enough to enjoy it alone, but since I started taking pictures and that took ages I ended up overwhelmed by the many groups. What's so special about this canyon. Well, for once it's very spectacular and so short that anybody can come and "walk" it. In reality it's not quite so, but that's unimportant. However, this canyon preserves some fantastic Thalmudic inscriptions on its vertical walls, proof of the fact that these unhospitable areas have been inhabited so long ago. The inscriptions depict various animals and people as well as hands and feet. They are truly impressive.
After the canyon experience I enjoyed a efw cups of bedoui tea in the nearby bedouin tent. Set to offer tea and coffee to the tourists and some souvenirs, the tent was a comfortable place to rest for a bit in the shade. Too few tourists really stopped there. Never the groups, that's for sure.
After returning lazily to my hidden backpack I sat some more in the shade of a boulder pondering. I hd now a longer stretch of desert to cross in front of me. Maybe 4km or so. The village was about 8 km away and the views around were very inspiring. I knew that at sunset and sunrise I would greatly enjoy being around. Fortunately there was one of those mounds/domes somewhere midway and I set that as my target. I was going to try and stay there overnight. I clearly did not feel like returning among people.
After my rest I headed for the dome and found the perfect spot to sleep. I dropped my big backpack nearby and climbed all the way up to the top from where I had breathtaking views. That's where I spent the rest of the afternoon until sunset marvelling at this place and nature in general.
Back at my campsite I enjoyed dinner with great views at dusk compensating for the monotony in my diet: more processed cheese. The bread by now was blue-black with a very thick layer of mold. And I had nothing else left, chocolate or candies or almonds.

Day 6. I slept like a baby that night up on the flat top of the mushroom-shaped rock offering awesome 360 views. In the morning I was up for the sunrise, took some more pictures and only packed and got going late. Interestingly enough shortly after leaving my "dome" I bumped into another one of those stunningly delicate white flowers. Of course I immediately dropped all my stuff and spent about half an hour taking pictures and scouting for some more. There was no other around :-)
I returned to the village before noon and enjoyed a nice shower at Haya's home.

Everybody was happy to see me again. And I was actually also happy to be back among them. By the way they talked about me and praised me I could notice that I had gained their respect with regard to the desert. I enjoyed playing with the kids and planned already my next desert outing.

But the desert at Wadi Rum had put its spell on me. I was in love with it and no later than that same night I was back in the desert for one night thanks to Awad. This time we went to his uncle's "camp", ie their current location for goat herding, a beautiful spot in a different area.

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