Waddi Hassa

This past Saturday for our group's final trip we did a saWEET hike. We met up early in the morning at the tour company's office, which can only be described as a hippy man-cave. The name of the company was done graffiti-style on the wall, and our shaggy tour guides were totally awesome and cool. I felt like I'd been temporarily transported to Santa Cruz! We loaded up the bus and drove for about 3 hours before finally arriving at Waddi Hassa. Now, I was a bit apprehensive about the hike. You see, I'm not exactly the intense outdoorsy type; on Boy Scouts hikes I was always the lone loser in the back stuck with that week's poor unfortunate bishopric counselor. This time around I was still slow, but most of the time I wasn't last! Progress people, progress. Anyhoo...

Our hike was way fun, and reminded me a lot of Arroyo Seco back in California (I believe it was Bro. Hickey who was stuck in the rear with me for that one). After walking a short distance, the first challenge was to go down a waterfall water slide thing which landed us in a narrow canyon. From that point on we alternated between swimming, wading, and hiking through gorgeous, although fly infested, terrain. Not even an hour into the hike was the high point for me, quite literally actually. You see, I've never been cliff/rock jumping. The idea actually terrifies me. However, I was able to watch a few other people do it. They didn't die a vicious death by plummeting into shallow/jagged rocks, and so I was semi-filled with confidence. I climbed up. I counted to three. I counted to three again. And then I jumped. I landed safely in the water. And I didn't die. It was actually pretty fun! Who knows, maybe I'll try it again sometime. The scariest part of the hike for me was when we were supposed to fall backwards into a stream. Like, put your back to the stream, cross your arms, make your body go stiff, and fall straight back. They told me and I was "You want me to do what?" Eventually they convinced me to do it, although I still wasn't happy. Oh well. I lived through that too. At the end of our journey we ended up at some hot springs. I found a nice spot where I could lay down and rest my head, and there I stayed for a long time. Glorious. The only thing to mar the experience was the ri-freaking-diculous fly population that seemed particularly interested in my face. Oh, and I did end up with some pretty fab blisters. (But I got my used sandals for 2JD. I suppose blisters were to be expected). So, all in all, it was a fabulous day. We were hiking/swimming for about 5 hours, but it turns out we only went 2km (maybe a mile and a half). That deflated my ego a bit, but ah well. It was a wonderful trip to finish with.

يرمي