When I went on the pilgrimage a few months ago with the Chaldean Church, one of the most striking natural aspects of the trip was the road from Salt in the north to the Dead Sea. It's a valley called Wadi Shu'ib (after the Biblical character Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses) and it's a long valley that eventually lets out in the River Jordan. I estimated that from Salt to Shuneh al-Janubiyya (a jumping-off point for Bethany, the spring of Moses, or the Dead Sea) was about 15km. That'll be a nice and easy hike.
Despite my compass and usually sound sense of direction, I got us stuck at the top of a big ridge, looking down on the road we wanted to walk on. After trespassing through someone's olive grove (where I found shotgun shells), we were so very close to the road. We jumped into a pile of rusty metal and trash, and we were once again on our way. Crisis averted.
The hike was beautiful. While the ridges on each side of the canyon are rocky and without any greenery, the valley has a small stream and is almost tropical. We snuck in/walked in to a citrus grove and ate clementines for a while before moving on. Later on, we made it down the creek, a little muddy stream that was running cold in mid-November. After several hours hiking, the sun went behind a ridge, it was getting dark, and despite our rigorous training regimen of shisha and shawarma, we were exhausted.
I flagged down a car to take us the rest of the way to Shuneh. The driver told us he had seen us hiking earlier. Crazy aja'nib, foreigners. We had walked something like 22km before quitting. The bad news when we arrived in Shuneh was that there was no bus to Amman. However, the guy who picked us up said he was going back to Salt and was glad to take us. Both Andrew and I fell asleep during the drive back to Salt, which is always a good decision while hitch-hiking.
We got on a bus in Salt and were back in Amman in no time. Though I like to think I'm better than eating at western establishments in the Middle East, nothing seemed better after 22km than Popeye's Chicken. Andrew and I demolished a family meal, before retiring to my apartment, satisfied on all fronts.
------
Sorry for the lack of pictures. I was too lazy to upload them here, but they're all on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034349&id=19101971&l=bfcec0f41e
They cover Kerak, Umm Qais, Makawir, and this adventure in Wadi Shu'ib.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment