Desert Storm

A climbing camp to Jordan was a great excuse for me to escape the stifling Jewish holiday of Passover. If my ancestors supposedly spent 40 years in the desert after escaping captivity in Egypt then spending a week in the desert to commemorate that, makes much more sense than obsessively cleaning the house from bread crumbs and starving for a week (although actual history probably has little to do with this fairy tale). Anyway, read on!

Go Pro Pic by Kfir Amir

Go Pro Pic by Kfir Amir

Passing the border was a long and tedious affair on both sides. The Israelis want you to pay 100 NIS to leave the country and the Jordanians want you to be registered with a ‘guide’. Luckily the organizers of the camp had everything under control so after standing on lines in the heat for a few hours we were on our way.

The small Bedouin village in the Wadi Ram desert seemed to have gone through a zombie apocalypse of sorts. One story half destroyed houses covered with graffiti and littered with junk, spread out in the middle of nowhere. Women clad all in black, only their eyes peeking behind their veil, darted around in the background, quickly disappearing whenever someone saw them. An occasional man on a camel or jeep could be seen passing through.

Some boys playing soccer in a makeshift playground proved that there was some life in this seemingly dead village. A few young girls, still unveiled, were playing in the dirt at the outskirts of the playground. They waved to me and smiled. I did the same hoping that perhaps seeing a grown ‘free woman’ will help them change their future even though I know it won’t.

A few moments before we nearly flipped over. Go pro pic by  Kfir Amir:

A few moments before we nearly flipped over.
Go pro pic by Kfir Amir

On the way to the local store I got a marriage offer from one of the young men. No, I didn’t asked how many camels I was worth. The store itself was pretty basic but did have snickers chocolate bars which are turning out to be the one constant food source I’m encountering everywhere I go!

The rock cliffs and canyons are massive and beautiful but the sand stone is crumbly and some holds literally fall to pieces in your hand or under your feet so it’s not for the faint of heart. It is also only Trad climbing and I couldn’t really find people to climb with so I only went climbing for one day and spent the rest of the time bouldering or hiking.

The most popular thing to do in the area is Jeep trips and a few days into the camp we took a jeep into the middle of the desert to camp out there for the night.

The jeep driver was probably 70+ and seemed half blind and deaf. He almost flipped the jeep over trying to reverse down a steep sand dune. Some of us managed to jump out and he just kept driving without noticing he’d left us behind! The rest of the group banging on his window was the only thing that saved us from being stranded there.

The desert seemed endless and empty but actually walking for only a few minutes brought me in contact with other groups or jeeps jumping traversing through the area.

The next day I awoke to a sand storm, rain and an upset stomach, so I cut my trip short by a day and hitchhiked from the Israeli border in Eilat back to Jerusalem which is always a great way to travel.

 

I Met Kfir and some other High lingers so I have these cool pics that he took.

I Met Kfir Amir and some other High liners so I have these cool pics that he took.

 

 

One thought on “Desert Storm

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