71. Wadi Mujib, 1999 - Splash!
In which Eleanor makes a splash.
The friends go to Jordan for a camping trip. No cattle rustlers this time.
Eleanor
Splash!
My backpack slams into the pool of water below me, while I hang upside down in my climbing harness next to the waterfall, overhanging the pool below.
A pause. Then choruses of “Everything all right?” from above, and “It’s all okay,” from below, while I hang silently, catching my breath. With the weight of my pack gone, I’m now able to swing my body from hanging downward, to being vertical. Finally upright, I start laughing.
“That was awesome!” I shout to Jamal above, “Lower away!”
We’re on the third day of canyoneering through the Wadi Mujib in Jordan. It’s just the six of us—Jamal, Rajji and Gillian, Thomas, Patrick and myself—the others in the gang either not being able to get the leave, or not being up for this crazy adventure Jamal and Rajji have cooked up.
The first night we pitched our tents on a sandy beach at the head of the wadi. We took a long time to settle in for the night, excitedly talking over the small campfire Rajji built. We fell asleep listening to the frogs, the rustle of dry seed pods and reeds rubbing against each other in the soft evening breeze, and the burble of the river. And woke at sunrise to the sound of birds, the sky above us growing quickly lighter, but the sun hidden by the walls of the canyon.
For three days we’ve hiked deeper and deeper into the canyon, the walls getting steeper, higher, and narrower, and the wadi more and more spectacular. The colors and rock formations keep changing, varying from sculpted red, orange and yellow sandstone cliffs, to the white, gray and yellow of limestone, chalk and marl. In places we’ve walked on the wadi floor, in others we’ve waded, or even swum, through pools, floating our backpacks alongside us. We’ve scrambled over, around, or under large boulders, slid down water slides, jumped into deep pools, and lowered our backpacks by rope when it was too far to just drop them. For the higher waterfalls, like this one, Jamal and Rajji set up anchor points and belay us down, sometimes through the waterfall itself, the water tumbling over our heads, shoulders and packs.
Today, on day three, over-confidence has me over-balance in my harness on this rappelle and I flip upside down. Tiredness and the weight of my backpack mean I do not have the abdominal strength to curl myself back upright. Until I unclip the chest harness, release the belt buckle, and my backpack drops with a resounding splash into the pool below.
Once we’re all down, Jamal gives me a playful punch in the shoulder. “You scared the death out of me when I heard that crash, I thought for a moment you’d fallen or something. I couldn’t see what was happening.”
“Yeah, sorry, I should have told you what I was going to do,” I grin back at him. “Thanks for catching me.”
“Not a problem,” Jamal says, picking up the rope to start coiling it. I walk over to my backpack to grab some water and a snack.
“Hey guys,” Patrick calls out a few minutes later, “there’s a hot spring over here. And it's big enough for all of us.” Soon our backpacks are abandoned on the rocks, while we soothe our tired bodies in the warm pool.
When Suheir picks us up two days later, we are filthy, we are tired, we are achy, stiff and sore. And we are elated.
“What shall we do next?” Thomas asks the question that is on all of our minds.
We’re not sure. But we’re looking forward to it, whatever it lands up being.
Bonus Material
The Wadi Mujib in Jordan: Truly special, truly spectacular (photos), and something “The Gang” still reminises about to this day.
Wonderful to have such an opportunity! Beautiful there looks like. But my first thought is you were all nuts! A significant injury would have been quite difficult to deal with...but you got away with it with just great memories!!