Stage 1

1 Mar - 7 Apr

Wadi Rum to Cairo

Hot Rock Africa 2010:
rock climbing in Jordan and Egypt

Jordan

Bang! The expedition starts with one of the world's great destinations: the legendary rock climbing in Jordan's Wadi Rum.

Every visitor and climber will be overawed upon entering the Wadi. The crimpy black and red cliffs soar out of both sides of the valley, offering everything from overnight mountaineering expeditions to the summits, to surging cracks and terrifying face lines.

There are plenty of easier offerings, many of them early Bedouin trade routes, and also some sports routes.

Some classics of the earlier development of Wadi Rum, such as 'The Beauty', 'Merlin's wand' and 'Alan and his Perverse Frog,' provide a nice introduction to the climbing, being typical of Wadi Rum with their sparse protection but fantastic situations.

Later additions such as the 22-pitch E4 'Strubel Peter' offer massive outings. There are also some hard single pitch sports routes dotted around the Wadi for those needing some finger pain.

We will have lots of time to explore the area fully, and tick many of the routes that have caught our eye, before we hit the road, and make our way to Petra, the 'rose red city, half as old as time'.

More famous for being the temple in the final scenes of ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,’ Petra is actually a huge lost city and in my view the most impressive ruin anywhere in the world.

Dating back to 2000BC, the only access to this hidden city of the Nabataeans is through the Great Siq, a 2-mile long canyon, over 100m high and often only 2-3m wide.

At the end of the siq, the canyon widens to reveal ‘the treasury,’ an enormous building carved out of solid rock.

There is a famous magazine front cover of Don Whillans climbing the square-cut notches next to the treasury back in the 60's, at the invitation of Jordan’s King Hussein, to explore the myth of treasure in the urn at the top of the temple.

It did indeed prove to be but a myth, but this doesn’t diminish the splendour of Petra, nor the impact it will have on you.

On the last hot rock expedition to visit Petra, we found an uncommon route in, via a beautiful remote gorge that required exposed grade 3 scrambling for several kilometres before appearing in a little known corner of the ruins.

Petra will remain eternally burned into your mind, a massive area of ruins rich in history. We will spend a couple of days there, soaking up the ambience during the day, soaking in wonderful Turkish baths and steam rooms during the evenings.

Then we drive south, across the border into Egypt, heading straight to Dahab on the Red Sea coast of the Sinai peninsula. Dahab is one of the best places in the world to kick back and relax, dive and explore the stunning Sinai mountains.

Egypt

In Dahab time passes like in no other place in the world, weeks seem like days and all too soon it's time to leave before your arms rust up and brain turns to jelly.

For those not feeling lazy, Dahab has lots of things to do, with some of the best scuba diving and snorkelling anywhere, it's a cheap place to get your PADI certificate.

There's jet skiing, wind surfing, water-skiing and quad bike chaos out in the desert. It's a good place to chat to other travellers before we continue into the interior of the Sinai as Moses and the Israelites did (although they had more important things to do than find good rock climbing).

Before we head into the interior of the mountainous Sinai peninsula, we will spend a day or so on the bolted routes at Wadi Gnai, just outside of Dahab.

Sinai has not seen the development of the other major Middle Eastern climbing venue, Wadi Rum, but it has at least as much rock. Sinai does have a long history of climbing; as far back as 1937 a party including the famous Italian climber Comici climbed Jebel Ghara (1,900m) and many of the faces in the area.

Tony Howard, the guru of Middle Eastern adventure, has also climbed throughout the region. More recent development by British, Israeli and French climbers has started to touch on the vast potential that this place has to offer.

Catherine Destivelle climbed around St Katherine's monastery at Mt. Sinai, the fabled mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments. There are a number of bolted sports climbs in the area, and in contrast, vast unclimbed faces to be attempted with a sense of adventure and a full rack. We will base ourselves near the monastery for a while to attempt such routes as 'Billy the Kid' or 'Joshua three.'

The potential for trekking and exploration in the area is also huge; the highest mountain in Egypt, Mt St Catherine, is a long day’s walk. One option is to go on a fantastic 4-5 day camel trip southwards through the desert all the way to Sharm El Sheikh.

Camping out in the desert at night with our local guides and trusty ‘ships of the desert’ we will explore the multitude of rock walls and canyons for new routes and repeat the routes put up by previous Hot Rock camel explorations.

Below is an extract from the diary of one of the people on the camel trip:

“We had trekked in from Jebel Musa (St Katherine's monastery) for the last five days, climbing whenever the rock showed its ‘face’. My camel and I had reached an all-new high in our relationship; his biting has been replaced by drooling on me. He seemed happy with this crazy Englishman on his back and did 80% of what he was told to do.

We had stopped for the night as it was almost dark, the shadows gathering in around us. In a narrow canyon, the only sky that remained visible was a central strip above our heads. The moon was 'taking off' using this strip of sky as its 'runway' and its light illuminated the great walls on either side of us. We went to sleep with great anticipation for what the next day would bring.

The sun burst through the mesh of my tent and washed over my face. I crawled from the tent to the fire where my morning hit of caffeine was being brewed to obscene strengths and the bread was baking within the fire’s embers. The sounds of morning prayers were echoing eerily around the canyon walls.

The breakfast of fresh fruit and bread had been washed down with the coffee and all was packed for an assault on the wall just 100m from the sandy hollow where we had slept. I had spied a crack that appeared continuous for about 100m. It didn't look too bad, so I roped in a couple of willing friends and began thrutching my way up what was rapidly becoming a flared protectionless grimace.

I eventually completed the first pitch, at around E3 5c. My two, now less cooperative, friends had joined me on the belay. I began the second pitch, which was impeccable climbing involving high quality face and crack climbing. It finished at the end of the line at an astonishing finger crack, giving the new route 'Camel Song' (E4 5c, 6a), so named due to the gurgling coming from the sex crazed camels’ throats below.

The others had abseiled off and I was left at the top, alone, looking out on a view that until that moment no one had ever looked on before, at the top of a climb that no-one had ever climbed.

I left my Camelot 4 in place and abseiled off to join other climbing teams who had been just as successful. We left a few days later atop our camels and searched for new 'pastures' rocky and dry to carry on the epic adventure.'

And the epic adventure will carry us on to Cairo, Africa's largest city.

Cairo itself? Some love it, others hate it. It's a huge heaving hectic city where nothing works and the noise of car horns necessitates ear plugs, or surgery upon leaving.

But there is plenty to see and do, be it visiting the citadel, the ancient Arabic quarter or the many bazaars and roadside cafes.

A visit to the Cairo museum is a must, to marvel at the jumble of ancient Egyptian art and Tutankhamen’s solid gold funeral mask.

After a couple of days in the city we will take the truck out to the Pyramids at Giza, one of the true wonders of the world.

As you wander past the Sphinx and gaze in awe at these colossal monuments, time stands still and, as a climber the one over-riding thought in your head will be, can I climb them? The answer is no, in theory, as the many signs boldly say. Those few who do sneak up claim it's about a V.diff (5.4) set of mantles and high steps that lead to a view that's hard to beat.

Out at the pyramids it's possible to take horse or camel rides, and to ride these trusty beasts for three hours through the desert to explore the even more ancient stepped pyramids at Saqara. Another worthwhile excursion from Cairo is the short train ride to Alexandria on the Mediterranean. This old colonial town has wonderful architecture, and being at the end of the Nile, marks the end of our source to mouth journey following the longest river in the world.

And this is the end of Stage 1 of Africa 2010. We'll have a huge final night party, to bid farewell to some and hello to others, before pointing our nose south up the Nile, out of the Middle East and into Africa...

For loads more photos of all these climbing areas, click on "News and Current location" and scroll through the trip reports...

Africa 2010 expedition:

expedition overview

Wadi Rum to Cairo
Cairo to Addis Ababa
Addis to Nairobi

Kenya loop
nairobi - lilongwe
lilongwe - harare

harare - windhoek
windhoek - cape town
south africa loop

further information

dates and prices
budget planner
joining instructions

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