Wadi Hasa

So I was wearing my bathing suit, had my backpack on, life jacket secured, and water shoes ready for the wet hike of Wadi Hasa. But something was wrong with this picture...We were standing in the desert. No water was in sight. From where we were standing, the landscape was just yellow hills of sand. Of course, we had to joke about this. As we were making our way down the hill, greenery began appearing, but it was just little tomato gardens. Then we heard the sound of rushing water. One by one, our guides prepared us to slide down a natural water slide made of rock. It was angled in a way that we couldn't see what it was like when we made it down, but once we did, the beginning of our adventure began. We ended up in a pool surrounded by large rocks. So it was like a big tub. All we could see when we looked up was blue sky. Once everyone slid down, we swam to another pool where the current was calm. There was a big rock that everyone was jumping off. Probably about 20 feet before hitting the water. After having our fix of the wonderful adventure we were about to embark we continued our 5-hour hike of swimming and walking.

We did some more jumping off rocks in a couple places, walked under a little water fall, and floated under rock tunnels. It reminded me of a Disney land ride coming to life. Other places felt like we were in a jungle...I do believe the reference to Vietnam was used a lot since we had to walk chest-deep in water brushing away long leaves from our faces. And trampling on bushes when we were on dry land. No joke, it felt like a jungle in the middle of the desert. Also, there were goats grazing as their Bedouin owners were near by getting a kick out of us. I remember finally reaching an open spot after walking through tall plants with long leaves and a Bedouin was right above me chilling on a rock watching us American students laugh every time we tripped coming out from the plants.

When I heard "water hike" I didn't know that it meant being fully emersed in water most of the time. It's hard to imagine such a place existing in the valley of a desert. It was a 360 degree view of a natural oasis. We took a break sun bathing on a rock while people enjoyed the thrill of jumping off from it into the water. Isolated in the desert in this environment was not all half bad. It was hard coming back to the city of Amman later that night. But the best part before leaving, was hanging out in the hot springs for an hour. The sun was setting and we were getting chilly from the cold water so resting in a natural spa was a perfecting ending to the day.

Obviously, I couldn't take my camera so I found some pictures on google that can show you what Wadi Hasa is like. I hope you can imagine this random oasis running along the valleys between sandy hills in the desert.