That’s a Siq trail man!

Yes, you can hike rivers in Jordan! Didn’t know it? Neither did I but it was spectacular!

While preparing for our trip, we wanted to include as many adventures as we could and so we stumbled upon the canyon hike at Wadi Mujib. It offered hiking upstream in rock carved canyons while fighting waterfalls.  Oh yeah, that was made for us!

I have to say, I was really pumped with this particular day as besides the trail we had also planned to visit the Dead Sea and as we drove out of Amman with sun shining, I was in high spirits. Outside of Amman, we stopped for water as the day was going to be a scorcher and right there I was given the first surprise of the day. At the station the very kind clerk asked me where we are from and upon hearing of my nationality replied in my own native language: Portuguese! It turned out his mother was Brazilian and that he was just as thrilled to speak Portuguese as I was to hear it. It may be a small thing but in effect I took it as a sign that the day was going to be good.

Fully stocked with water, we drove through the desert highway in order to get to Wadi Mujib. In all it was about a 2 hour drive through desert canyons and by the Dead Sea. It was impossible not to stop occasionally and just gasp at these barren places. With almost no vegetation and just the occasional tree magically escaping the soil, it was a beautiful sight to behold and this was made even better by the fact that the roads were almost empty.

If I wasn’t excited enough, the buildup was just making it better and better!

Almost arriving there though, we got the second surprise of the day: a mounted machine gun on a pick-up truck looking at us!

Ok, fair enough, it wasn’t just looking at us, it was an outpost looking towards Israel but it was still pretty scary even from a distance and A was a bit paranoid that they were looking at us. Fortunately, if they were, they decided to spare us. Which is nice… 

When you get there you can actually choose from several trails but for practicality’s sake we chose the easiest one which also does not require a guide: the Siq trail. Having paid for the entrance, the highly recommended waterproof shoes and the dry bag to a pretty uninterested clerk, we were finally in.

Fully equipped with the newly acquired shoes and a lifejacket, we climbed down the initial stairs and started walking upstream filled with excitement!

After walking past the first corner, we were in a new world where we were the only inhabitants. We were walking upstream of a river that had sculpted its way through rock creating a canyon. It was a beautiful sight that mother nature was giving us.

Besides the shallow sound of the stream there was this ominous silence in the air that was both peaceful and unnerving. What was coming next?

Waterfalls and rocks!

Going up the stream there is a really cool sequence of obstacles you need to navigate through and I can imagine that when the tide is stronger it may not be doable for all. We had to fight the river using ropes, climb rocks using shady ladders and a couple of times climb up waterfalls. The waterfalls were the hardest but also definitely the cooler places to go through. There was this particular place where first you used a rope to climb a rock, then you climbed stairs unto another plateau of rocks and then you moved onto another set of stairs all the while being thrashed with water. 

In all it probably took us over an hour or hour and a half to get to the end of the trail and the prize was fantastic! At the very end there is a large waterfall and you can just walk into it as a celebration. I sure did!

Lucky to arrive at the very end with no other tourists around, we took a moment to appreciate things. It was super chill and if you do it, I hope you are as lucky as we were.

But coming back is actually as much fun as it is going up.

Most of the waterfalls are made in a way you can slide down them (which to be clear we only did because the tour guides there showed us how) and so the water fun didn’t end there. And when the major obstacles are passed, you can literally just lie down and float downstream. Personally floating down the canyon was one of the best experiences I had in this trip. 

You can just relax inside the cool water and watch the world go by…