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Unfortunately I have no photos of this as my phone is not waterproof. I have included photos of Karack Castle and Feynan Eco Lodge which I also saw today. Anyway, there is a great video of the experience by some Canadians here and more information and another video here.
The siq trail in Wadi Mujib is a fantastic way to have fun, you must do it if you go to Jordan! You can see it as this gorge in the satellite imagery here. It's basically a walk up a river that flows into the Dead Sea. Starts off mild, you just walk along the flat river bed amongst small stones and sand - hopping across the water as it meanders about side to side. Then gradually the water takes up more and more of the bed as you go along and you end up having to spend most of your time walking in it. Then, as things continue, the gorge that the river has worn down over centuries begins to close in over your head. It must be 50+m above and you have trouble seeing the sky in places as the sides are not perfectly vertical. Check out the videos. Come to think of it, in a couple of blog posts I talk about Petra where the entrance has a similar gorge cut by river, check the photos there. Combine this with the constant sound of running water and a faint deeper sound of a waterfall every now and then and it made me wonder if this is where I was supposed to go. Before long though you will come across a worn out looking elastic blue rope tied onto some metal eyes bolted into boulders across the river. This is simultaneously reassuring and disconcerting, as it seems people intend you to go this way but also I remembered no instructions or introduction about scrambling over boulders in a river.
I somehow thought it would be a simple self guided hike with signs every now and again confirming the way... something that I asked about and the guy at the start must have only jokingly confirmed because there was not a single sign the whole way. Anyhow, basically it was turning into an exciting challenge, the water - whilst there was lots of it - was not flowing particularly quickly or powerfully and the pools weren't deep on the downstream side of the boulders plus I was wearing a life jacket, so on I soldiered. What a lot of fun clambering up rocks holding on by a rope, then sometimes up ladder rungs bolted into other sets of boulders further up stream. Each obstacle wasn't hugely challenging but there was just enough risk and excitement having to deal with the flowing water that I just wanted it to keep going. It was like those TV shows where contestants have to tackle obstacle courses. My favourite one of those was Wipeout, it is one of the few shows I've ever wanted to make sure I watch every week. They should have had contestants go up Wadi Mujib as one of the challenges.
Eventually I got to a maybe 3 storey high clutch of car sized boulders which completely blocked the gorge. There were 2 waterfalls spewing out from gaps between them, but I wasn't going to be able to climb up through them. Again there was no sign saying what to do but the absence of any ropes or rungs seemed clear enough evidence it was time to turn around. I hadn't brought my watch and they had said it was 2 hours return... it didn't seem like an hour either but there was nothing to do but turn back.
This was just as fun and a bit more of a challenge as I had to go backwards down some of the boulders and dangle my feet over the edges blindly in places searching for a ladder rung that was on an inward sloping face. There was one section where it was basically abseiling ... without a harness or winch, just your bare hands holding the rope and ensuring you had your bum hanging down enough to push your feet against the rocks for a solid grip. There was an added challenge here of a few inches of fast flowing water going over the rocks disturbing your feet, but over to the left a bit there was less water so it wasn't too hard to get down. Coming up this it's easier as you can see where you're going. Another tricky spot to descend was amongst a couple of deeper pools of water between a few boulders. There was a rope along the side of the gorge here and I figured what this meant was I was supposed to float across the pools on my back holding the rope, letting the current carry me to the next boulder. Worked brilliantly! On the way up it had been easier as I'd hopped across the boulders and somehow found my way up but it was easier to float on the way back :-)
I finally made it out and had such a good time I almost went again but thought I'd better get going to Karack Castle. As it turned out, this is a fairly boring place and another go at Wadi Mujib instead would have been the better option. The day ended by heading to Feynan Eco Lodge, a beautiful remote place to stay.
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