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Published: October 26th 2008
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The Dead Sea Eco Reserve
This past Friday I headed out on the Dead Sea highway about 130 km south of Amman to Wadi Mujib and the Dead Sea Eco-Lodge. If you don't care about polished floors and international 5-star service of the Dead Sea hotels, I would say that the Dead Sea Eco-Lodge is hands down the best way to visit the Dead Sea. The Eco-Reserve is part of the RSCN (Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature), which is a government funded NGO that has small nature lodges throughout Jordan. As a student or non-national with permanent resident status, you receive a discount of up to 25%!o(MISSING)n lodging for the night, which includes breakfast in the morning. The staff is friendly and the rooms are simple but very clean with nice linens and include air-conditioning. But the best part is that you get the most beautiful view of the Dead Sea I have even seen. In addition, unlike the Dead Sea resort area where wade in the waters with every other Joe Schmoe who overpaid to have access to the Dead Sea, you are alone in the most tranquil and beautiful setting. I arrived on Friday afternoon, checked
into my cottage, and then waded in the waters for a few hours before digging up some of the purportedly therapeutic Dead Sea mud and covering myself in it.
Wadi Mujib - Going it alone
Saturday morning I woke up to sand that looked to have the pot-marks of a fresh rain. Sure enough, when I entered the guest house for breakfast I was greeted with the unwelcome news that I had slept through Jordan's first winter rain which had flooded all of Wadi Mujib. Wadi Mujib is a famous canyon through which a small stream runs during the spring and summer months. With a few week's advance reservation, you are allowed to walk down the length of the canyon from April through mid-October and end your hike by repelling down a waterfall. A few weeks back, another American guy on my same program had made a reservation and invited me along for the hike. Unfortunately, due to the previous night's rain the canyon had flooded and declared no longer suitable for hiking...or that's what the reservation guides thought anyways.
However, the group of 7 people that I was with thought otherwise. After surveying the amount of water
flowing from the the canyon's mouth into the Dead Sea, we decided to drive down the road a couple of kms and find an unofficial entry into the Wadi Mujib natural reserve. We pulled over our two cars, packed are bags with water and set out into the hill side in the general direction of the canyon hoping to find a back entrance to Mujib. Initially the hike was grueling, heading straight up hill for about 1.5 km, but eventually the it leveled out and we headed over the hill tops towards the canyon. Shortly thereafter we began to hear the roar of the water gushing from the rain and found just what we were looking for, the back entrance into Wadi Mujib.
The water literally looked like chocolate milk flowing down into the canyon. Most of the time the water was no deeper than mid-leg, but there were areas where the water went up to mid chest. With some stupidity and lots of curiosity, we slowly worked our way into the water and followed the current downstream into the canyon.
After about an hour trouncing through the water, we eventually decided to head back up stream and
to begin a scramble up to the top of one of the nearby peaks. Due to the nature of the reserve, the cliffs of Wadi Mujib are perfect for very difficult scrambling and pretty easy climbing. The nature of the rocks is such that there are tons of places to put you hands and feet, yet at the same time they are steep enough that they scare you enough to give you a good dose of adrenaline. All in all, I would say that it took us 1 hour of continuous scrambling to reach the top of one peak. After a rest at the top, we worked out way back to the car and then returned to the eco-lodge to bum a shower. It was at this point that the inn keeper of the eco-lodge informed us that we had not done a good enough job of hiding our cars and that the park rangers were looking for us for entering the park without a guide. (Thank God we had entered without a guide because they would have never let us tour the canyon nor scramble up the hillside.) He allowed us to take a shower as long as we
were quick and got on our way. We never saw the park rangers.
Ma'an Thermal Springs
After a quick bite to eat at a restaurant in the Dead Sea Marriott (why we had to go to the Marriott is beyond me, but in this case I took one for the team), we headed back into the hills rising from the Dead Sea to find a thermal bath. In the guide books, I had read that there were thermals baths in the area with warm water rising from the ground. Little did I know that when we would finally arrival to the bath area, a 3-story waterfall exploding with 65C water that fell into hot pools below would greet us. The bath had two sections, the female section and the "family" section. Although the family section is for everyone, it is clearly for men and women who dare to brave the warm water waterfall with blue collar Arab men in wet white undies. Although the water hurt a little as if fell onto your head, showers, and back it was almost like a hot message and the pools themselves were just warm enough to enjoy without any burning sensation. After
a long day's hike, a cold drink in the hot water was enough to almost send me to sleep on the spot.
All Pics Link: http://picasaweb.google.com/maikbyrne/WadiMujibOct26Oct27#
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Ona
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INCREIBLE!!!!!!
hOLA!!!!!!!!! ME ENCANTA VER COMO DISFRUTAS LA VIDA Y COMO APRENDES DIA A DIA!!!!1 TE MANDO UN ABRAZO ENORME! GRACIAS POR COMPARTIRLO!!!!!!1 ONA