Eid Trip Part 03: Wadi Mujib

An hour and a half, two Snickers bars and half a packet of Ulker biscuits later we were back on the road to Wadi Mujib, which is a nature reserve that sits on the Dead Sea. On the drive down (very windy very dangerous – especially in a car with bald tyres) we made the unanimous decision not to hike that afternoon, but rather to swim in the Dead Sea and chillax in our chalets.
We arrived at the chalets, dumped our bags, prayed and rushed down to the water. Any hope that it would be a nice and refreshing dip were dashed as we quickly realised that the water was not only as warm as a bath, but burned every millimetre of skin that it came into contact with! With 9 times the salt concentration of a regular sea, the Dead Sea is certainly salty. Accidently swallow some and you’ll feel like your throat is closing. Get it in your eyes and you’ll swear you’ll never see again! AGONY! But beautifully relaxing once you get passed all that. Truly you do float – no effort required, but it does feel strangely oily... One of the girls can’t swim and she was floating in it for hours! There was one rather serious issue, but I don’t think I can mention that in public... I’ll let you know when I get home!

We swam for several hours and al-hamdoulillah did not see one living soul even pop their head over the stony cliff above us. It was all for us! When we were tired, dehydrated and burnt enough, we headed for the showers and got ready for dinner. We ate at the reserve dining hall (there is no where else to eat) and the food was surprisingly good. We had soup, salad, a huge plate each of chicken and vegies as well as soft drinks and dessert (all for 12JD)! On top the waiter and manager were excellent!

So we wandered back to our chalets to pray and agreed to meet at the chalet I was sharing with one of the girls once we were ready for bed. Amazingly there was only one other couple at the reserve – whereas it had been booked out the night before (there are 15 double chalets)! So we sat together and watched the stars and stared out over the West Bank (of Occupied Palestine). Once the couple went to bed and all the lights were off on the reserve, we chillaxed sans hijab and felt the ever stronger breeze in our hair. Really beautiful. Two hours and one traveller passed out in a hammock later we made for bed.

In the morning we did breakfast and then headed off into the Wadi for our hike. Now the trail we took was described as follows:

“The Siq trail, a lovely 2km splash up into the gorge, ending at a dramatic waterfall.”

Glorious. The splash conjured up images of wading (at most knee deep) through idyllic waters. Not exactly the honest truth of it. Sure the first few hundred metres were at most knee deep and the water only required you to walk at a slight angle to push through, but that description said nothing about navigating mini-(5-10metre)waterfalls often without guidance or ropes! So we all banded together, encouraging each other, pushing each other and guiding each other through the more difficult parts – at one point the water was so deep and current so strong that you couldn’t touch the bottom and had to pull yourself along using a frayed rope that was nailed into the side of the canyon. At this point we dumped our bags, cameras and all behind a rock – everything was getting soaked and Jordanian snaplock bags can only be trusted to keep things dry for so long.

Looking into the Wadi (before the hike began)

Looking back to the beginning...

It seems we weren’t the only ones to have an issue. We had just finished climbing what was the most challenging waterfall (probably a little over 11metres with water rushing everywhere) – about 45minutes – when three other hikers popped out of nowhere, obviously they caught up to us as we were navigating said challenging waterfall. So we stayed to help them up to. First we directed the young lady and then with three of us working as a human chain hoisted her over onto the rocks. Then we worked with her to get her husband and father to the same point. For the rest of the way we stuck together. They were really nice. The woman was German, her husband was Jordanian and her Dad and Mum were visiting them – although her Mum didn’t come on the hike.

Pottering along...

One of the kinder obstacles...

Finally we reached the end waterfall and promptly sat down in the middle of the water – not the brightest idea as it carried me about 10metres down before I managed to get afoot wedged on a rock. So we sat. And talked. And sang. And then a group of about 20 rounded the corner and we decided it was time to head off. So did our friends. We helped each other back down – her Dad was particularly concerned for us which was quite cute. Back at the beginning, totally drenched, with see-through clothing we sloshed our way back to the visitors centre where the chalet manager picked us up in his ute – not before I gave my email to the German lady so she could send me her photos of the waterfall (she had one of those old school waterproof cameras we used to take on school camps). Insha’allah we’ll get pics soon (first the camera is returning to Germany to be developed, then the photos will be emailed back and then hopefully on to me).

Back to the chalets and one final swim in the Dead Sea before showering and clambering back in the car for the drive back to Amman.

Wadi Mujib was amazing – better than Petra even! We are even planning to do the “medium” trail at Wadi Mujib in the coming Eid holidays (yes both Eids will fall in this term) *yay* But we’ll have to see – with the Aussie dollar as it is I can barely afford to feed myself let alone blow the equivalent of $180 Aussie a night on a chalet! Kheir insha’allah.

So that was the trip. Hope you enjoyed the read, sorry about the pics being everywhere – blogger has serious issues.

Much Love and Ma’a salama.