Hiking Wadi Karak with “Have a Hike”

Friday 13th I joined an international group of 13 hikers to explore the Wadi Karak. The Wadi is located about a 1.5-hour drive with a bus from Amman. It is near the Southern end of the Dead Sea. A bit further on the Dead Sea Highway you can find Wadi Assal, Wadi Numeira and Wadi Al-Hasa or could continue your drive to Karak Castle. We left at 7 am from Cozmo and started our hike after a short coffee break on the way. We had a short delay because of the Dead Sea Marathon.

The entry point to the Wadi was near to some observation station, I assume. Pretty quickly our feet got wet. We walked through the valley surrounded by constant water flow from a small creek. In Spring pink flowers are blooming around you throughout the walk. As we walked deeper into the Wadi, the walls changed in color and got higher around us. We heard water splashing as we were wandering through ankle-high water.

Lunch Break at Wadi Karak

After about 3 hours we reached our lunch spot that provided a great view inside the valley. A waterfall and huge rock walls surrounded us. Yousef and his team cooked a typical hiker meal (Sajiyat) to perfection for us. It included meat, tomatoes, onions, green peppers, and lots of spices. Ahmed and a friend cooked the food over an open fire until we were able to eat it with khubz, the flatbread. We spent quite some time at our lunch point, which could have been a bit shorter. However, it really allowed us to take some rest, take pictures, or explore the valley further. After lunch, we had Bedouin-style tea with (too much) sugar…

The Trail of Wadi Karak

The trail in Wadi Karak was about 7 km up to this point. There is not much elevation and you do not need serious climbing skills.  Here and there you need to climb up or down some rocks. However, you have to accept that your feet get wet. It is also possible to get into the wadi from the other side and have an abseiling experience to get down. Our group, however, returned the same way as we got in and walked back to our starting point where our bus waited. We changed back to dry shoes in order to get ready for the sunset at the Dead Sea. If you look carefully you also might see some frogs, crabs, fish, or grasshoppers as we did. There is also a small variety of plants.

Stopover at the Dead Sea on the Return Way

I do have to admit, I mentioned before in my blog that I think the Dead Sea is a bit overrated. Also, I do not like the fact that you usually can only access it through the hotels. However, this time we accessed the Dead Sea pretty much at the most Southern point. Near there we walked from the street towards the water over an everchanging landscape that truly has a unique character. It sometimes sounds like walking over ice or snow. It looks fragile and rough at the same time. You see spikes, cracks, plates of salt, balls of salt, and all kinds of interesting structures, patterns until you reach a pretty much white, salty ground with clear white, blue water. It provides a good opportunity to take great sunset pictures before we finally started our return to Amman. It was a long day but included two nice diverse but equally interesting areas Wadi Karak and the Dead Sea.

I would like to express my thanks to Yousef from #Haveahike, who did an excellent job on this trip, for inviting me for this adventure. You can truly see his passion not only for outdoor adventures but also for his excellent customer service. He is a young entrepreneur who takes the security and well-being of his guests seriously and provided a more than fair value-for-money. I wish him all the best for the future success of his business. Other than hiking Yousef also focuses on the traditional sites of Jordan and also some first-hand experiences with locals, such as Bee-Keeping, Farming, Zataar making etc. Check out his next event on Facebook.

See here where we started our hike