Time to continue my completely nonsensical comparison of Ethiopia and Oman.
Hiking Wadi Shab is a mixture of walking up the rocky terrain, hanging out in the pools (like the one above), and checking out the frequent palm trees. However, the really awesome part of Wadi Shab is the "cave" (or spot where a giant rock fell on some other rocks creating a covered pool) at the end.
First, you come to a spot where you have to swim to keep going. Eventually, you swim to what at first looks like a dead end, but then you notice a little keyhole entrance back into the "cave." Inside the cave, there's a waterfall, which you can climb up fairly easily thanks to the rope someone tied to an anchor point. At the top of the waterfall, if you curve around to the left, you come out above the pool in the cave where you can jump back in.
Confusing enough explanation? Just watch the video below, and it'll make more sense...
...well, maybe only slightly more. I don't know why everyone's videos of this on Youtube have been over edited and have random music attached. My roommate actually thought I was watching an episode of Glee. That's right, I'm now complaining about other people's videos when I didn't even take one of my own.
I know I said that was the end (and everyone else treats the cave as the end), but technically, when you climb up the waterfall, there's another pool up there, and if you climb up the cliff behind that pool, you can keep hiking up the canyon. Since I didn't bring shoes into the cave, I only went another couple hundred meters before turning back. Clearly, I need some sandals for next time.
Water features
Emma and I also visit Bahir Dar, which is on the south side of Lake Tana. Lake Tana (or, depending on who you ask, one of the rivers flowing into it) is the source of the Blue Nile (the shorter but larger of the two tributaries of the Nile that meet up in Sudan).
Best as I could understand, that is where the Blue Nile exits Lake Tana.
The Blue Nile Falls are about a one-hour bus ride from Bahir Dar. We took the earliest bus (6 am), which I highly recommend because then you have the falls pretty much to yourself (well, you and all the locals trying to sell you stuff along the path, but I bet that gets worse later in the day, too). There are conflicting reports about how frequently the falls are diverted through the large hydroelectric plant there. If you go on a day when the falls are being diverted or towards the end of dry season, the falls are supposed to just be a trickle (the guy at the hotel told me they call them the "Blue Nile Shower" then). This could also be pretty cool because you could actually get under the falls (I got close enough to get soaked in a poncho, but getting under them probably would have killed me) and check out the cliffs more closely. However, it's got to be a distant second to this:
Best as I could understand, that is where the Blue Nile exits Lake Tana.
The Blue Nile Falls are about a one-hour bus ride from Bahir Dar. We took the earliest bus (6 am), which I highly recommend because then you have the falls pretty much to yourself (well, you and all the locals trying to sell you stuff along the path, but I bet that gets worse later in the day, too). There are conflicting reports about how frequently the falls are diverted through the large hydroelectric plant there. If you go on a day when the falls are being diverted or towards the end of dry season, the falls are supposed to just be a trickle (the guy at the hotel told me they call them the "Blue Nile Shower" then). This could also be pretty cool because you could actually get under the falls (I got close enough to get soaked in a poncho, but getting under them probably would have killed me) and check out the cliffs more closely. However, it's got to be a distant second to this:
Sorry, I couldn't resist jumping ahead...back to the hike. (stay tuned hike part, though, because the close ups are later). For context, we went at the very end of the rainy season and when the hydroelectric plant happened to be broken (first time major infrastructure being broken in Africa has worked to my advantage), so this is as good as it gets (1997 Jack Nicholson reference).
Here's the view during the hike. That's right, even the most boring part of this experience looks like this:
Then, you come over a hill and around a corner and...bam!
As cool as these pictures are, I promise it's better in person. I'm not sure it's possible to get all the falls in one picture. Most of my pictures are missing the falls on the far left. At first you just see two of them, and then you look to the right and realize they keep going.
Anyway, then you hike along the other side of the gorge until you come to a long suspension bridge.
Then, you can hike right down to the falls themselves (at least the furthest right of the major ones). My plastic farmer boots (known to all Ethiopians as "booties") were definitely necessary. Best purchase ever?
I know those pictures aren't great, but I think Emma has one of me standing on the rock outcropping right by the falls (where I couldn't take a picture because it was like standing in a Midwestern thunderstorm), so this is my public plea for her to send me that picture.
For some reason, I forgot that my phone can take video too until I was already 100 or so yards away from the falls. Given my horrible shaky cam, maybe the lack of many videos is for the best. (Side note: It only took me 9 months to figure out how to upload video to my blog!)
FYI, the guide book's directions were not great, so if you want to avoid the expense of hiring a guide, I guess you'll have to see it with me (or anyone else who's ever been...nope, you definitely need to bring me along for free)!
In Oman, there's the ocean, which is super clear, though my pictures aren't very representative of that.
As nice as the ocean is, the real water features of Oman are the wadis (aka awesome river valleys between the cliffs) and other random inland water stuff (e.g., caves, sinkholes).
About 1.5 hours south of Muscat is Wadi Shab, which is one of the most popular river valleys in Oman. On the way, there's a sinkhole in the middle of nowhere with a super deep pool of water at the bottom. How deep? Deep enough that we actually met a nut job who jumped in from the top (~80-100 feet) and didn't have any serious injuries (just a rash and bruising).
Anyway, back to Wadi Shab. My buddy Scott previously went to Wadi Shab (http://sehpayne.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/muscat-oman/) during his around-the-world adventure, and he raved about it. Somehow, his description (and I'm sure mine as well) came far short of the actual experience.
I decided to one-up Scott. He took his camera until the point where you have to swim to keep going. Given I knew I couldn't capture the best parts anyway and there were more people around because it was Eid, I just left the camera in the car.
Here's the pictures I took from the parking lot.
However, thankfully, other people take their very expensive waterproof cameras up Wadi Shab and then post their videos on Youtube. Thanks Youtube and random people!
Here's the view during the hike. That's right, even the most boring part of this experience looks like this:
Then, you come over a hill and around a corner and...bam!
As cool as these pictures are, I promise it's better in person. I'm not sure it's possible to get all the falls in one picture. Most of my pictures are missing the falls on the far left. At first you just see two of them, and then you look to the right and realize they keep going.
Anyway, then you hike along the other side of the gorge until you come to a long suspension bridge.
Then, you can hike right down to the falls themselves (at least the furthest right of the major ones). My plastic farmer boots (known to all Ethiopians as "booties") were definitely necessary. Best purchase ever?
I know those pictures aren't great, but I think Emma has one of me standing on the rock outcropping right by the falls (where I couldn't take a picture because it was like standing in a Midwestern thunderstorm), so this is my public plea for her to send me that picture.
For some reason, I forgot that my phone can take video too until I was already 100 or so yards away from the falls. Given my horrible shaky cam, maybe the lack of many videos is for the best. (Side note: It only took me 9 months to figure out how to upload video to my blog!)
FYI, the guide book's directions were not great, so if you want to avoid the expense of hiring a guide, I guess you'll have to see it with me (or anyone else who's ever been...nope, you definitely need to bring me along for free)!
In Oman, there's the ocean, which is super clear, though my pictures aren't very representative of that.
As nice as the ocean is, the real water features of Oman are the wadis (aka awesome river valleys between the cliffs) and other random inland water stuff (e.g., caves, sinkholes).
About 1.5 hours south of Muscat is Wadi Shab, which is one of the most popular river valleys in Oman. On the way, there's a sinkhole in the middle of nowhere with a super deep pool of water at the bottom. How deep? Deep enough that we actually met a nut job who jumped in from the top (~80-100 feet) and didn't have any serious injuries (just a rash and bruising).
Anyway, back to Wadi Shab. My buddy Scott previously went to Wadi Shab (http://sehpayne.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/muscat-oman/) during his around-the-world adventure, and he raved about it. Somehow, his description (and I'm sure mine as well) came far short of the actual experience.
I decided to one-up Scott. He took his camera until the point where you have to swim to keep going. Given I knew I couldn't capture the best parts anyway and there were more people around because it was Eid, I just left the camera in the car.
Here's the pictures I took from the parking lot.
However, thankfully, other people take their very expensive waterproof cameras up Wadi Shab and then post their videos on Youtube. Thanks Youtube and random people!
This Youtube search also yielding the following piece of random trivia: The cliffs at Wadi Shab are awesome enough that the Red Bull Cliff Diving Finals (yes, this is apparently a real thing) were at Wadi Shab in 2012.
Anyway, here's the main spot to jump in during the hike.
Anyway, here's the main spot to jump in during the hike.
Hiking Wadi Shab is a mixture of walking up the rocky terrain, hanging out in the pools (like the one above), and checking out the frequent palm trees. However, the really awesome part of Wadi Shab is the "cave" (or spot where a giant rock fell on some other rocks creating a covered pool) at the end.
First, you come to a spot where you have to swim to keep going. Eventually, you swim to what at first looks like a dead end, but then you notice a little keyhole entrance back into the "cave." Inside the cave, there's a waterfall, which you can climb up fairly easily thanks to the rope someone tied to an anchor point. At the top of the waterfall, if you curve around to the left, you come out above the pool in the cave where you can jump back in.
Confusing enough explanation? Just watch the video below, and it'll make more sense...
...well, maybe only slightly more. I don't know why everyone's videos of this on Youtube have been over edited and have random music attached. My roommate actually thought I was watching an episode of Glee. That's right, I'm now complaining about other people's videos when I didn't even take one of my own.
I know I said that was the end (and everyone else treats the cave as the end), but technically, when you climb up the waterfall, there's another pool up there, and if you climb up the cliff behind that pool, you can keep hiking up the canyon. Since I didn't bring shoes into the cave, I only went another couple hundred meters before turning back. Clearly, I need some sandals for next time.
That place with the caves and falls looks awesome!
ReplyDelete