A dive in fear! lessons learned from the field!

Olongway, Malawi

"Discovery is the privilege of a child: the child who has no fear of being once again wrong, of looking like an idiot, of not being serious, of not doing things like everyone else" - Alexabder Grothendieck

Growing up we only learn to fear things, it will take you one time of touching the fire to recognize its pain, our memory of pain will never allow us to do it again! that;s not a choice, it is there in our subconscious mind!!! this is how we grow all of our fears in the life!

The Jordan Trail Ownership ملكية درب الاردن

In Jordan as communities recognize the social, economic, environmental, and health benefits of hiking, trails development is becoming more prevalent.

ان زيادة الوعي لدى المجتمع بالاهمية الاجتماعية و الاقتصادية والبيئية و الفوائد على الصحة العامة للمسيرة في المسارات و الدروب البرية أدى الى زيادة العمل على تطوير المسارات و دروب المسير و المغامرة في الاردن.

The involvement of the local communities must be considered in the early stages of the trail development. Instead of adopting a top down approach where agencies plan and implement the development of trails with limited input from the public (which is the traditional way of trail development), an early involvement of the local communities should be considered to best serves the community and trail planners, as the combination of local knowledge and planning expertise creates a dynamic and interactive planning process.

Hike like a Martian

The Martian Film, Jordan, Wadi Rum.

In the outdoors I have been falling between two schools. Adventure and challenge school, where we hike, walk, run, or ride from A to B with the fastest time possible, a physical challenge for ourselves, body and mind, a way to cross the barriers in our minds that keep telling us we can’t, because this is how it has been programmed to protect us, and this is what it does all the time.

We tend to challenge our physical abilities. Go out to do a sport and have a healthier life style. The natural terrain makes it even more challenging. There in the nature we feel how we are small part of a bigger planet, an infinite universe. We keep searching for new heights, pushing toward new limits to prove the capability of the amazing human machine! (Just to mention Ueli Steck’s with his fascinating 82, 4000m Summit in 80 days project). We Human are setting new limits of speed and challenge for the outdoors. (READ MORE

Mount Washington

So my first weekend during the course have arrived, and all what I wanted is to make the most out of it!

So the decision was to take it to the extreme and knock the top of the highest mountain around! Mount Washington!

When ever I mention I am going to New Hampshire people start to tell me about Mount Washington and how crazy it's weather can be! The highest went speed and the most snow fall ever recorded were both on top of this mountain.

I believe it is time for a new adventure!

It has been almost two years since I came back from Africa. The first year went well, but the second year unfortunately didn’t go as planned, this doesn’t mean it was bad, but it needed a stop and a look to change the plans for a better one.

I believe traveling is another addiction I am getting dragged in (considering the first to be Adventure and Outdoors), and so I believe it is time to hit the road again.

The Jordan Trail (Hidan, Mujeb, Kerak, Wadi Rum, Red Sea)

Rum to Aqaba, Aqaba Mountains.

During the last couple of weeks The Jordan Trail team was out on the trail, Mapping, Photographing and keeping notes about the trail, we have done two amazing parts. The first was from Wadi Hidan all the way to Kerak City, crossing Wadi Mujeb which took us 4 days camping out, one night near Shqaiq Area and the other 2 nights down in Wadi Mujeb.

Wadi Al-Hesa

Wadi Hesa : the end side toward The Dead Sea.

Wadi Al-Hesa goes around 25 km from the potash mines near the desert high way, all the way down to reach to Ghor Al-Safi on the Dead Sea. Most of its Water comes from Sad Al-Tanur -Water Dam-, which took its name from the archeological site near by in Khirbet Al-Tanur. The water in most of the parts runs in a gorge that varies in the different areas going from Limestone to Sand Stone, and to sediment walls in other parts. Many water source seeps from its walls, some from hot sources while others are cold. Some of these water sources are even drinkable. (Check the canyon map below).

Wilderness First Aid - Hike Safe!

In outdoors you should always be ready for the unexpected. In an extreme environment with many parameters out of control, accidents may happen. And then you will need to be prepared as a trip leader to provide the help and care for people who become ill or injured far from definitive medical care, and only using the limited resources Available.

The minute the guide accepts a participant to be in his group, he takes all the responsibility for bringing him back safe. In general, few simple acts of first Aid can make a difference between life and death, the lack of understanding these acts can put everyone in the outdoor group in danger.

King of the Jungle

There are no words to describe the feeling when you stand in front of a wild animal when you are in a Walking Safari, what if this animal was the king of the Jungle?

I still remember the first time I did so in my course in South Africa. There is nothing between us we stood there and looked each other on the eyes.

The whole feeling differs when you are the guide! Here you have to be aware of everything around you, every single move, not only that you have to be ready for the worst, if thee lion decided to attach –which not supposed to happen if you know what you are doing-, and above all give your client the chance to satisfy their lifetime dream.

11 DAYS, 11 MARATHONS TO GIVE HOPE TO CHILDREN IN JORDAN

Amman—After his run around the world, David Christof will cross the Kingdom of Jordan in eleven marathons from the 15th to the 25th of March. David hopes to raise money for Jordanian and Syrian children’s educational needs such as school improvements, supplies and equipment.

Over a third of all Syrian refugees who have found refuge in the Kingdom are children and Jordan is struggling to meet the needs for teachers, materials and space to provide them with an education. Informal schools run from garages and other ad-hoc locations attempt to provide education to the children who cannot enroll in the Kingdom’s over-crowded schools.

Why You Should Hire an Adventure Athlete?

I was reading some reviews for the book “Business Lessons from the Edge”, which talks about how extreme athletes use intelligent risk-taking to succeed in business, when the idea of this article came to me.

Why would anyone hire a crazy risk-taker who risk even his own life?

In a previous post I discussed the reasons that make us take a high risk action –as a sport-.

Well what does it take to succeed in business? Risk taking. Preparation. Self-confidence. The same principles that drive extreme athletes to the highest peaks of performance.
.......More..

Age is never a limit

Few years ago, I been to some area near Al-Karak in an exploration trip -as I prefer to call it- to find a new canyon -was new for me and still not well known for mass hiking groups- with one of the local guides in the area. Early in the morning we prepared our gear, Ropes, helmets, etc... since the Canyon supposed to have 3 abseils

Before we head off, he told me we need to wait, his friend is going to join us, few minutes later an old man appeared, all grey hair, without any teeth in his mouth, he was 68 old then, it came to my mind is that the friend we are waiting for!! and the surprise was yes.

He had his own backpack and harness which he made himself. With all the walking, climbing up and going down he only needed two breaks, one for a cigarette and the other for making tea.

I wont talk about safety in the picture, we tried to convince him, but he wasn't interested in it. :)

Why we risk it? the reasons for taking high risk actions.

An interesting article on fox news under the name “New research shows what motivates people to do high-risk activities” was the motivation for me to write this post. The study that was conduct to investigate what pushes people to do Adventure Sports which involve a high risk factor, risking losing their own life. I quoted most of the article but added my comments to it. 

Photo By": Wolfgang Streicher - Canyonwolf (Saut d'Accomat, Guadeloupe)

The list of adventure sports is growing longer and longer, and the risk factor is even going higher. It is believed that all these adventure lovers and thrill-seekers are just sensation-seekers with the tendency to pursue sensory pleasure and excitement. It's the trait of people who go after novelty, complexity, and intense sensations, who love experience for its own sake, and who may take risks in the pursuit of such experience. Sensation seekers are "easily bored without high levels of stimulation," explains Sam Gosling, a psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin. "They love bright lights and hustle and bustle and like to take risks and seek thrills." 

This new study that was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, has found that risk takers are not all of the same ilk. Some participate in high-risk activities as a way of controlling their emotions and their lives.

Can't it be prevented? -Canyons of Jordan-

It took me too long to publish this post even it was ready since 16/5. but the main reason behind it was that the responses I got on the previous "Can't it be prevented?" posts were mainly from people from outside Jordan, I do appreciate all the responses since it is for the benefit of all, but I was hopping for more local involvement from the local canioneers of Jordan, it is bitty though but I will keep posting for the benefit of all.

In the previous two posts of the series (Cant it be prevented?) we had an introduction to canyoneering and its hazards in the first post, and then we discussed the need of a code of conduct that set a base of understanding for the minimum level of accepted standards for both canyoneering operators and their guests.

Can't it be prevented? -Why we need a code of conduct-

In the last post "Can't it be prevented? -Introduction to canyoning and its hazards-", I talked about some of the accidents happened in the last 2 years in Jordan canyons as an example of these accidents happening all around!

Wadi AlWaleh- Hidan

Maybe most of these accidents I mentioned occurred with individual Travelers who are not supervised or not joining groups, but some happened with people who promote themselves as professional guides!

I agree with a comment I received on that post, accidents is the word used to excuse the lack of professionalism, a professional is one trained to leave no chance for accidents.

Even with the extreme nature of the canyon, a professional should be able to read the signs of the nature and be proactive to it, but in the same case he should be able to deal with any case to minimize its impact.

In our case in Jordan, the biggest problem occurs due to random access to hazards area by none trained and none professional people.

Many calls were made to have a control on accessing these places by sort of land owners or so. But without the existence of a set of standards there won't be a way to differentiate between the good and the bad.

Life is Either a Great Adventure or Nothing

I am not sure if it was normal for a little child of a four years or even less to answer the classical question of what do you want to be when you grow up, by “Emperor”, but this was my answer, I even couldn't pronounce it right but since then I learned to dream big.

At the age of five I was fascinated by science, if I may call it science, but I stared to collect pieces of metal, wood and any electrical devices I would find on the street because I was planning to build a spaceship that can take me to space, but in every time I will collect some, my mom will come and throw them away, because it was rubbish J

When I grew up my dreams started to take a more realistic shape, but it is still big. I still remember that TV show about a group who was discovering parts of Africa where no other people has been before, the show was in French but I remember I have watched all the episodes , the images of their four wheel drive cars stuck in the mud still in my mind. It was always nice to see it in the documentaries, about the different cultures and the wildlife. Back then I never knew that my life is going to be the next real documentary.

Mulanje Mountain (1)

Abdulla, Nadia, Osama S, and me –Cori- were still waiting to know where each of us will be spending the five months of our lodge placement which is a part of our year course we were doing in South Africa when the news came that me and Abdulla will be travelling to Malawi to do our placement in one of the lodges for wilderness company in there.

With the very little I knew about Malawi –indeed in my mind it was a group of islands in somewhere that I wasn’t sure where exactly- I started searching the internet for more information about this country and the surprise came when I found it was a landlocked country with no access to any sea or oceans which was the complete opposite of what was in my mind.

Republic of Malawi:

Or Nyasland as it was formerly known sets on the south east part of Africa and bordered by Zambia on the North west, Tanzania to the north east and Mozambique on the east, south and west.

Even though it is a landlocked country but one fifth of the total area of the country which is 118,484 Km² is covered with water.

Lake Malawi

Malawi is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by one of the largest lakes on earth, Lake Malawi or Lake Nyassa –the old name-.

Lake Malawi is considered the southernmost lake in the Grdeat Rift Valley system, the 3^rd largest lake in Africa, the eighth largest lake in the world, the 2^nd deepest lake in Africa and above all it has more fish species than any other lake on earth.

The Warm Hart of Africa

Maybe it is not only the wild life, nor the lake, neither the mountains of Malawi that made it to be the worm hart of Africa but the worm hearted people above all, their great hospitality and the warm smiles on their faces all the time.

Even with it’s being one of the world’s least developed and most-densely  populated countries (almost 15 million with 128 person/Km²) with more than 80% living in the rural areas with a low level of education and health care but people are still the greatest treasure of Malawi.

These was the information I found about the country but for me the most interesting piece of information I found was about Mount Mulanje, with its Peak Sapitwa the second highest peak in the African continent with an elevation of 3000 m with the mountain itself is globally considered as an Ecologically important area, not only that but with the many streams that descends from the mountain with the pools and the waterfalls all makes it sounds a great next adventure to be done.

I will Start my trip to there today and i will be adding more blogs telling you about the Mountain and the spiritual believes on the mountain which i found so interesting.