With my REI hiking socks, sunscreen, and backpack I was ready for my first ever hike in Jordan. It would be a two kilometer hike, which is equivalent to a four mile hike through loose rocks, boulders and streams in Madaba.
The morning of the hike, I met with all the others that would be hiking with me. As people came, I wondered what the hike would be like. I was hoping it would be like the canterberry tales where people would talk about their stories as we all ventured through the hidden canyons of Ma in. All together there were six of us, three Spanish dudes, one cigar smoking Italian, one Canadian lady and lastly this crazy guy called Paulus. In addition there were four guides whom with out the hike would be impossible.
With the guides, we were set to move into the canyons. As we walked I saw these huge massive black rocks, something I had not been accustomed to seeing in Jordan. They were awesome and I wanted to climb them. But I figured I could always come back plus I was wearing shoes that wouldn’t work well w climbing. Moving through the bushes and the streams, the guides pointed crabs and frogs that were hidden from the naked eye. Its amazing how ecosystems can grow here, in such a dry place. From that point on I was blown away by how incredible Jordan’s nature is and how it should be a top priority to be preserved.
Moving on from the crabs and frogs that bounced from rock to rock, we were now entering the part of the canyon that had ponds of water. I decided it would be best to put my hearing aid in my dry pack because I didn’t want to get it wet. I had made a mistake doing this because I had not told anyone yet that I could not hear with out my hearing aid. So with out my hearing aid, I told the others to wave at me if they needed my attention or I should go a certain way. I felt I should have done this before hand and not after I took off my hearing aid. As we started walking again I noticed that one of the guides, was trying to talk to me. I had to tell him over and over that he should point instead of talking because it made no use. Then finally I stopped and I thought how should I deal with this. So had a small talk w the guide and was like when you need my attention tap me on the shoulder or something. After that he was pointing out where I should be going and I told him to walk infront of me instead of behind me. Later another guide was behind me. And he figured that talking to me would nt do me any good s he started gesturing where to go and not to go. I thought that was great on his part to solving the problem. Later I noticed that slowly I was becoming more tired because I was constantly loosing my balance. I know that the shoes were not appropriate for the hike but there was nothing else I could do. I had no other shoes. The same guide told me that I should just slow down and take my time instead of trying to rush it, and it worked out really well.
From that I learned a simple lesson that just listening to people who know what they are doing can really help improve things. I thought that it was great that they were giving tips to hikers as we made our way though.
After jumping though different ponds, it was time for some kick ass rappelling. This was the part I was waiting for. I would be basically going down a fifty foot cliff with my back facing the ground. Not knowing what is right under me. That feeling kicked in the I got to do this carefully feeling.
The belay system that was used was entirely different from what I had been taught. I felt that that guides knew what they were doing and I trusted them, so when it was my turn to go down. I decided to go down with out my pack on my back. I had about three liters of water in it, which made it heavy and it made me feel uncomfortable. So I decided to go down with out it.
There were two descents, the first decent was down a large waterfall, as I rappelled down I was baffled by the awesome view of the waterfall. I noticed also there was a fig tree growing nearby. If I had the choice I would have stopped the rappel and picked up some figs to eat.
Touching the ground, I was in waist deep water from the waterfall, I looked up and I was in disbelief that I actually made it down alive and well.
At the bottom we all took an hour long break, this was a great time to learn more from the guides. One of things that I wanted to know was how they knew their way through, because the land formation changed. I found out that is simply done by using tactics used by Sheppard and Bedouins. Tactics that have been used for centuries. The first is by goat droppings, yeah you heard it right goat droppings. Just by following goat droppings you can find your way home as well. But my dear goat Floyd which can be seen in my photo album did not know this, and his life ended tragically.
The second is by piling up stones on top of each other in a tower formation. Comparing this to the way it is done in the US, where paint is put on trees to mark trails, it is a whole lot different. I think it would be useful to have a guide to different types of trail markers.
Having discussed markers for trails and other small talk, we packed our things for our next descent.
The second descent was nothing I had ever ever ever seen before. Basically you look over the cliff and there is nothing there. And everything looks really tiny. For this descent I would going down a fifty foot drop, this drop was a lot longer then the second one. I had to really breath before jumping into action.
Once I was tied in, I looked down and I was thinking wow I m actually doing this for the first time and with a pack on my back. This time my bag was a lot lighter because had drank most of my water and ate all the food I had. As I went down, my rope stopped. The guide told me to brake and hold my self in position. Now I was really happy that I had experience with doing emergency rappel. Where you would stop and weave your rope between your legs. Then the guide yelled go ahead go down. So doooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwn I went. Another thing I noticed that scared me was the ropes rubbing against each other it cause a little smoke to rise from the ropes. I had seen a lot of things that I hadn’t seen before that day and that was one of them. Reaching the bottom of the climb I told the guide at the bottom about it and he said it was fine. So I felt a little better after that.
As I waited for the others to do their descents, I spoke to the one of the people that were on the hike w me. She noted something interesting. She had gone on a hike w a bunch of Jordanians. And one Jordanian told her how he didn’t like hiking because it was hard to talk to people while hiking. She told him hiking isn’t a social event, its more of a journey where you have your own goal and you are aiming to accomplish it. I felt that I accomplished my first four mile hike in Jordan. I had not thought about setting up as a goal. I just went there to have fun and hike. If I had a goal, it would be to climb up all three cliffs in Ajloun something that I had in mind.
Towards the end of the hike, the weather became more hot and we were all walking in direct sunlight which made it more challenging to navigate. During this time I got to speak to another guide. And we talked about how long the hike was. I mentioned that my friend did a thirty mile hike in two days. He thought it was impossible, that cannot be done. I feel like the impossible can always be done if we try it. I am always reminded of how when I was a kid and the doctors told me I would never be able to walk, talk or do things normal people do. So when I get back Im going to do a thirty mile hike with my friend that already did it and prove that is possible.
Altogether I noticed that the guides never thought it would be impossible for me not to complete the hike. I fell over at least fifty times during the hike, not once did they say we cannot go on if you keep falling or because I could not hear them. They just gave me good advice to become a better hiker. And that is what I thought was awesome about them. They were all working together to make sure everyone would complete the hike.
