Hiking the Wadi Rum

Trip Start Jun 30, 2008
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Trip End Aug 22, 2008


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Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Today four of us, Nick, Joe, Sheryl and I, went on a 9 hour hike. Guided by our wims alone. One of the guys at camp outlined a route for us to follow (22km! in the desert.) We decided to take a shortcut around our first big obstacle - El Qattar (see map.) Wadi Rum Map
Wadi Rum Map
 We were staying at sunset camp (#3) and were suppose to walk counter-clockwise around El Qattar before traveling in a large semicircle from its Western edge through the wilderness zone to Wadi-Fur'a before coming back to camp. By 'suppose to' I mean it was recommended, but we were free to do what we liked as long as we showed up in camp in the evening. We took the map, pictured, with us but failed to actually read the legend, therefore spending the entire day climbing through El Qattar, literally the only Closed Area in the entire Rum.

Needless to say the landscape in El Qattar is brutal (as you will be able to see from the pictures that I will post once I get them from Nick and Sheryl.) View from the side of El Qattar
View from the side of El Qattar
 We managed to get lost in the middle (expecting to see the camp in the far distance, only to come over the next ridge and find more mountain.) We were about an hour and 2 liters of water from having a bit of a situation on our hands when we finally made it out. It was only that evening (fortunately not the middle of our ordeal), looking at the map, that we realized we'd spent the entire day inside the red lines. Needless to say that it was completely worth it.
Where I stayed
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