On The Globe Again

Seein' things that I may never see again…

Posts Tagged ‘amman’

Rejoining Hot Rock in Wadi Rum, Jordan

April 6th, 2008

After four months back in the “real” world, I found myself on a snowy Easter Sunday heading to Heathrow again. This time, I moved entirely out of my London flat and all of my stuff is either donated (again) or comfortably nested in two good friends’ storage spaces in London. I will be forever indebted to them. While I do plan on returning to London, things are in limbo regarding timing etc… so best to put everything on hold for a bit.

On my flight from Amman to Aqaba, a girl watched in alarm as I stuffed a ridiculous amount of duty-free loot into the overhead bin and meekly shuffled into my seat. I noticed she had a Mountain Hardware fleece jacket and an outdoorsy-style backpack. We were the only two women on the plane. I knew that another girl was joining Hot Rock in Aqaba, so I decided to take the leap and ask “Are you Hannah?” Her face flashed about five different expressions in the space of two seconds, from “How the heck did you know that?!” to “Whoareyouthisiscreepingmeout!” to to a final understanding of…”ohhhh, must be Hot Rock!” It was hilarious.

Yes, it turned out it was Hannah, joining Hot Rock, and we embarked on a three day wait for the truck. We were so excited for it to arrive that it was all we could talk about. Every time we heard the loud rumble of a diesel truck on the neighbouring road to the hostel, we’d jump up and look to see if it was BiRT, even though we knew there was no way it could have been. We helped pass the time by exploring town a bit and I went on a couple of dives in the Red Sea. Overall, it was a long three days, but BiRT finally did arrive at about 1am on the 27th of March, and we were woken by Hot Rockers banging on our door.

BiRT Arrives

Sunset in Aqaba

From there we travelled to Wadi Rum, a spectacular park in the desert where thousand-metre cliffs tower over a sandy valley. We spent about ten days there, exploring gulleys and canyons and climbing a LOT. After not having climbed for a while, it certainly was a shock to the system (but a good one).

My favourite adventure, however, did not exactly involve climbing per se. It was on our second day, when former Hot Rocker Matt Barratt led us through a very well-hidden route in a canyon. He knew the way, thank goodness, from having gone years earlier with a guide. In fact, looking back I am impressed he remembered as well as he did.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into. We scrambled over some very exposed terrain, swam through a chilly bog, and finished with breathtaking abseils. It was definitely an Indiana Jones type of day, and a great introduction to the area. If you ever find yourself in Wadi Rum and you are OK with heights, find a guide (I can recommend Matt, if you can fly him there!) to take you through Kazali (or Khazali) Canyon. It is hands-down the best day hike I have ever done.

Overall, Wadi Rum was absolutely fantastic – I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking. The below are all credited to Duane Kracke.