Another brick in the wall

When I'm traveling, introducing myself is always complicated ! For some reason poeple have a hard time to pronounce my name. In English it's "Mail", in Spanish "Mayel". I got tired of it so I often introduce myself as Ismael, here it got easy since it's the Arabic translation of my name 😀

The project that I m joining is a small farm doing some permaculture outside of Ramallah. The project is linked to a hostel in the city, it belongs to two brothers (one deals with the hostel and the other with the farm). The hostel and the farm are both functioning with volunteers and one or two permanent workers. We all live in and eat in the hostel in exchange of our work.

I'm arriving on short notice since I just changed my plan, I was in touch with Bubu ( one of the brothers) he is not in Palestine so put me in touch with Yara, who's working and running the farm at the moment.

I arrived at the hostel, the place looks pretty empty, the volontueer that welcome me is new and never heard about Yara. The place looks very cosy but I'm not so sure where I have landed : good or bad spot ? I've learned from experience to not judge only on first impressions, so I ll see how it goes tomorrow after seeing the farm and meeting Yara! 🤔

In the meantime I decided to go explore a bit the city. I walked randomly, a lot of things are happening in the street, lots of people everywhere, traffic is obviously working without any rules 🚛🚐🚗🚙🚕

In the morning, I meet Yara she comes to pick me up at the hostel. Tall girl, short hair wearing a hat and a piercing driving with confidence The feeling is good, she seems to be pretty relaxed 😉

We are driving to Bil'in the village where the farm is located. On the way it's the occasion to see a bit of the ambiance in Palestine.

For example we stopped to buy something for the breakfast, on the opposite of the street a guy is yelling from is car trying to order from the traffic jam to the bakery where we are😂

We arrive to the village, it reminds me what I v experienced in the country-side of Maroco : the Bled!

She's introducing me to the farm : the organization of the place, the philosophy, the work, the history of the place.

It belongs to a man from the village that lended it to them for an undefined period of time. The place was pretty desertic, the soil is bad, there is not much water but they have worked it hard for 4 year's and the result is pretty impressive!!

They have about 1ha, every inch is used ! They have five different sections with a large variety of fruits vegetables and aromatics (passion fruit, papaya, lemon, orange, mandarins, apple, few variety of salads, carrot, betterave, spinach, zucchini, eggplant, coliflower, broccoli, onions and more) They have 3 differents green houses and also some olives trees.

They don't use any chemicals or machines in the day to day of the farm and are very strict about it!

The place itself is very beautiful and peaceful ☮️✌️

What we are seeing is the green line (with the wall) and behind a settlement that is keeping increasing. So when we work in the farm we are hearing the noise of the work going on in the construction site across the wall. Very particular situation!

For the record the village is in zone b and the field in zone c wich means they could be removed any time by Israeli government.

For info :

Area A – which would be under the Palestinian Authority’s full control and include all Palestinian cities and surrounding areas with no civilian Israeli presence.

Area B – which would be under the Palestinian Authority’s civil control and Israel’s security control and include areas of dense Palestinian population with no civilian Israeli presence.

Area C – which would be under full Israeli control, except over Palestinian civilians. This area includes all West Bank settlements and their immediate vicinity as well as strategic areas dubbed “security zones.”

Bil'in is also very famous because they have protested against the settlement and won partially in the court against the settlement. The area they "won back" is where the farm is. So this whole context gives a very symbolic aspect at the project of working the land ⚖️

For more information there's a documentary about it : https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2125423/

I had a very first good day, I have learned a lot about different topics, the farm is nice and the project has an interesting philosophy. I have a good feeling about it ! Yara is leaving for one week on holiday after a big season, so it will be a bit different as usual. Here we go driving back to the chaos of Ramallah !

I must go to sleep early cause my alarm is set up at 5h30 for the next days 😅

In the morning, I meet Guilia an other volunteer that was off my first day. She's from Italy traveling by herself in the middle East and has also studied international cooperation, we started on the right foot 🙂

The city doesn't work with a bus company, it's all with little van call "service" that goes from point a to b and goes when they are full, you can stop anywhere on the road. It creates the zizanie of the place but it's working!

So we're taking the service to Bil'in to meet Mahmoud that lives there and works at the farm. Then we have a 15-20 min walk to the farm.

We are working on the classics farming tasks, wedding, watering, planting, taking care of certain plants, compost etc.

The work mood is good, she's very sweet and he's very outgoing person that likes to talk and exchange ideas

We go back to the hostel and cook a meal for all the others volunteer to create a friendly mood. It's working pretty well plus Guilia is a good cook as well so we make the team happy 😋

I'm starting to get Into the rythmin of the work and waking up early. We arrive at the farm around 8am drink a tea a talk about what we are going to do. We take a one (ish) hour break at lunch and finish around 3pm.

It's real work but not to hardcore as I have experienced in the past in other places. Plus it's winter so the weather is not to hot and the day finishes early.

I like what I m doing but doing the go and back every day is a bit tiring and loose of time. I like the cosy ambiance of the hostel but going back from the field to the city is a bit hard 🚐

There is a little wood cabin on the field but it's full of stuff because a volunteer burn out the kitchen tent a month ago. So I started the project to put some order In it and fix a window to be able to stay sleeping at the farm ⚒️

I finally finished after working on it a little bit every day ! So I packed my things for the next days! 🎒

I finish my work day and can enjoy the sunset peacefully ✌️

I got to met two guys from the village that were chilling next to the farm so they invited me to join them for a narguile 😎

I have everything I need to cook and eat, lots of time to read and it's super quiet, I love it!

I wake up early but have a lot of time to do my morning exercises and eat a good breakfast while looking at the sunrise 😉

Guila and Mahmoud came with Zay a friend from the village that is gonna help because today is harvest day.

The farm has a group of 15 family that is member and receive every week a box of differents veggies and fruits. This is how they finance the farm. So we're gonna make the basket and bring them back at the hostel for them.

And now day off!!

I enjoyed my day off chilling at the hostel, taking the time to do some exercise in the sun, reading and writing but more than everything : cooking a nice dish!

I decided to practice my humus making. I tried a lot of version back home but never reached the texture I really like. Guila showed me her version and it's real good, perfect texture !! I had to come to Palestine to learn with an Italian 😅

I wish you a good humus to all of you ⛄🕯️

I start to get use to the rythmin of the farm, taking my bearing in the day to day life at the hostel. What I didn't really except is that Palestine experience a real winter time. I had in mind the very hot summer of middle East but I was a bit optimistic about the rest of the year... It gets sometimes near 3 degrees at night, wind is powerful and the houses are not prepared at all for that!

With this cold and rainy weather I can't stay at the farm but good thing is that we have a nice rythmin going on with the volunteer at the hostel. We cook and eat together every night. It feels cosy in the kitchen/living room with the fire place going on and the dog resting on the couch ⛄

Unfortunately, Paul and Emrys are leaving and no more volunteers are coming at the moment. So it seems that the little group ambiance is over.

Before they leave we go for a drink and to watch the sunset in a spot that I have found in Ramallah 😇

I thought this winter would be the one but no, i managed to catch a cold just before new year 🤒 anyway I didn't feel like partying. I decided to escape at the farm to rest and be in an environment healthier🙏

It was a great idea, I got to rest, enjoy the sun during the day, just be relax. It made way more sense for me to start the year like that than drunk in a club, glad I got out of the social pressure of partying 😇

Anyway, not the judging the others who want to party, hope everyone had a good time with family or friends 🍽️🍻

Happy New year to all of you 🎉🎊

One day I got back from the farm and I got a message from my cousin asking me news. I answered giving a bit of the last stories and mood. He answered telling me that he's in Israel at the moment and that he would like to come to visit me ! Totally unexpected 😅

Of course I'm happy about it so we arrange to meet during my days off. So nice and at the same time so strange to see some one from back home in this environment.

The first night we go to a nice local restaurant to have typical food and your belly full of foul 😉

After that I take him to a nice little bar where young Palestinian meet to chill. Very surprising to see how similar the mood is from every bar you could find in Europe ! We have a image of Palestine as a moslim country very religious. It's partly true, but the Christian community and the young open minded generation balance very much this reality.

I haven't moved much inside Palestine excepted for Bethlehem, Bil'in and Ramallah. Si we decide to go the next day to Naplus, less touristic than Bethlehem, less international than Ramallah but more authentic.

Less poeple speak English which is nice for me as an exercise to practice my Arabic. We feel quickly welcome, once we arrived and we're looking for the center. A guy came naturally to help us and showed us around (not asking money, just beeing Nice). We walk around in the old City and the market. Stop to eat in a really narrow place where two guys barbecue continuously some meat : delicious 😋!!

We kept walking and decided to go outside the city to have an upper view of the Valley. We first ended up to a archelogic site belonging to Samaritans community. That's how we learned that this small community of Jewish believe in this old temple as the holiest place instead of Jerusalem. They live appart from the rest of the Jewish community. It s a very small group ( about 800 poeple) 300 live here outside of Naplouse, it seems that they leave peacefully there ( but couldn't find one to ask).

Nevertheless, the view worthed it !

We go back to the old City to have a piece of kunafa ( traditional Palestinian desert made of cheese and a sweet layer) it is originally from the city of Naplouse. So we go directly at the source 😅 when we finished and we wanted to pay the guy tells us : "nothing, hospitality".

It is completely the opposite behavior of what we are used to experience in the touristic areas ! It feels good; a girl even stopped us in the street to ask where we from and then just smiled at us, saying : welcome in Palestine !!

Time to go back to Ramallah and finish the day with a good pitta falafel ! Yes it's all about food 😉

The next day Julien join me at the farm to visit the place. Very happy to be able to present the farm and sharing what I have experienced those last weeks. He seems to really enjoy the place, as a gardenner he's sensible to the natural environment and all the plants.

It is also a good opportunity to observe the wall from the other side, see the village's situation of Bil'in and experienced and other reality.

After that I drove him back to the village where he will be going to Ramallah and then direction Tel Aviv.

He shared with me his thought : "waw the shock is going to be quite big, from harvesting salad in a farm next to the wal in the morning l to be drinking beer In Tel aviv at night in the same day !"

It was interesting for me to see someone else experimenting and realizing those mixed feelings that were in my mind those last weeks.

One of them was, the surprise facing this information sign that you find at many checkpoint. Why would it be forbidden to cross ? Maybe a advice for safety matters but still... I guess that is part of the tough game that is beeing played by Israeli government 🤔

As I told you previously, Bil'in got famous for his non violent civilian rebelion. The spirit of the protest stayed even after that the wall has been moved backword. Poeple kept the feeling of injustice, the dead won't be forgotten and the land stay zone C.

They tried to keep the rythmin of the weekly protest they use to organize every Friday. Now, it lost a bit of energy. Years passed, the revendications are not so clear anymore and poeple lost interested.

You can still see a few poeple protesting every week at the gate. It became a bit "sad" to watch. Once some Europeans tourists came to participate, so they burned some tires in front of the gate. It a almost looks like it became an attraction for foreigners.

Still, the impact of the oppression is real and present in the day to day. For example, in the morning we always stop at a bakery on the way to the farm, the guy is super friendly. Once, we stoped and his brother was there instead, we asked why ? Because he was in detention for using flour coming from Israel. They are a lot of economic regulations on dayli product that makes life more complicated. Simple example but strong!

It's always a big contrast with the good mood at the farm !

Anyway, life goes on and everybody keep doing his own thing.

At the farm we had two new volunteers for two weeks, with Bubu back from France we've got some new energy. The sun was even back for a couple of days 🙂

The previous week, I decided to go a bit away for the weekend and go check out Haifa. Paul that was volunteering at the hostel is in a project over there at the moment. So it was good opportunity to go check something else.

The morning I took the bus to cross at Jerusalem, it was pouring rain, it gave a dramatic background at the checkpoint.

What a shock, on the other side ! I didn't realized that it was a month and a half that I was in the Westbank. I got used to it! Passing the check point and seeing old poeple dealing with young soldier that are younger than me got me thinking. What a strange power experience for a teenager ?!

In the arab bus of Jerusalem ( because they are two differents companies) I'm looking around me and thinking that the old man that I m seeing looks so familiar that ( out of context) I could not tell if they are Arabs, Jews or even Italian... It is a strange feeling from my perspective!

This day we even got some ice rain in Jerusalem !

I finally got a bus from Haifa, dried my feet and admit that I might have been a bit pessimistic, everything was not that bad. It was even sunny when I arrived in Haifa 🙂

Haïfa, is very different from the other cities from Israel. Thirst it's more a "working class " city by opposition to Tel aviv. Then it is way more mixed inside of the cities. Arabs and Jews/ Israeli live closer to each other than in some others areas of the country. For example, It's not a big deal when you enter a shop and you Shalom or Salam to say hello. Most of the time, it seems that poeple were pretty chill about it. So I walked around the city with Paul to have an idea of the area.

The city has it own charm, it is not the most beautiful place I've seen but there is something. Even the industrial port from the upper view is kind of cool !

I heard a nice story : there has been a criminal fyer at one of the ( kind of liberal) synagogue. So the rabbi was a bit desperate. One of the imam of the city, friend of this rabbi. Helped him with some members of his community to rebuild the synagogue and offered him some trees to plant in the garden !

Later on, it is the mosque that has been the victim of some fires. So he called the rabbi cause he didn't know what to do for the preach day. In response to that, he invited him and his community to pray in the synagogue and transformed it temporary in a mosque 😄

We go on in our exploration of the city to go in direction of the erithreen and Russian neighborhood. It is a other style, it's a mix between a "cheap" neighborhood where different immigrants community live and some cafes and restaurants that starts to be a bit trandy. It is just next the market, I a way in reminds me my neighborhood in Molenbeek 🙂

The project where Paul is volunteering is in this area. It's a restaurant that cooks only food from the waste of the supermarket and shops. They only serve vegetarians dishes and the food is free price ! I feel quite familiar with the concept 😉

We arrived at the end of the day so I could not eat there but I got to visit the place and the kitchen instead. The restaurant is really cute and the working areas are quite nice for a small project !

It was the end of the week, so I stayed for a cup of tea and had the time to speak with the team manager and some volunteers. I got to understand a bit the structure and the organization of the project.

They are 6 workers to get paied.

The main part is the restaurant, that works with a chef, second, team manager and a lot of volunteers. The have in permanence about 20-30 volunteers in the project coming from abroad and sharing the shifts of the week. They have some more volunteers that are locals : who help with the hosting of foreigner volunteer, play music or even cook.

The rest of the team is working more on the volunteer aspects, communication and workshop organisation.

From what I could understand, they are at about 90% self sufficient economically speaking! They have only a bit of subvention from government, quite impressive. All of this with a small team and a restaurant working on a free price, I say : mazel tov! I have an pretty good idea of the challenge that they are facing 💪

The guy that started the project, came to pick up some stuff but didn't stay cause he was in a hurry. Very funny: he's the same size as, me a beard and hat, kind of ginger, pretty friendly and dynamic. Felt like looking in a mirror, strange but interesting feeling ! Good to be watching 😅

I stayed in Haifa for the night and been hosted like a king 😉

I left Haifa with a very different feeling than when I arrived!

On my way back to Jerusalem I was very much in my head thinking about the level of complexity that reach the situation of the area. To illustrate it, in a coffeeshop in Haifa the worker and the owner were speaking Arabic together. It seemed that the worker was not speaking in his mother tongue so I assume that he was a israelian but learning Arabic with his boss. So I told them : " that is cool, you speak Arabic together ?" And answer :" yes of course". I go like : " waw and you're Palestinian and you Israeli". They both answered : " no we are Arabs Israeli".

They are big differences between, Israeli, Arabs Israeli, Palestinian with Israeli residance cart and Palestinian. I had a good example of the importance of the difference, they were insisting on being Israeli. When on the other side most don't want to have anything to do with Israeli government...

This is just on the social aspect, not even talking borders or political right!

In Jerusalem, I was so thoughtful that I took the tram in the wrong direction. When I changed to go back, there was a guy with a big back pack staring at me. Then I walked to the arab bus station to take the bus to Ramallah. The same guy was there. While waiting for the bus, I was speaking with someone and talking about the farm. The guy from the tram, comes to me and said " sorry couldn't help myself to hear you speaking about the farm" and I was like yes, how can I helped you ? He said :" I'm Bubu"! He was just arriving from France and by coincidence we end up in the same tram 😅 that is how we met ! He was looking at me in the tram cause he saw some pictures of me on the Facebook of the farm.

I can't believe that 3 months have passed already ! Time goes on so fast 😀

We can start to feel the end of the winter comming and the spring slowly starting. At the farm, the nature is waking up : birds singing, insects coming and flying, flower blooming !

It's time to prune the trees

New volunteers arrived

Some mystery came to light

Vegetables are still beautiful

Learning new skills with professor muhab 😉

We even had the opportunity to go to a workshop about rainwater collect. It was interesting and a fun experience to be with all Palestinian farmers. Drinking tea all day and seeing some others groups ambiance!

We hosted one about natural soap making at the farm as well. It was something to have a lot of poeple in our little farm 😀

I really became use to my farmer day to day, my hands are speaking for me !

Some part does not go away ! The soil is part of the skin 😅

Said goodbye to the farm, hoping to come back soon !

Enjoying my last days 🙂

In Ramallah, I have my spot that I will miss too! The group at the climbing gym 💪

Went to a little concert before leaving, good mood🎶

Time to leave 🤠

Direction : Jordan

First stop : tel aviv

Funny story : I ran into a Belgian couple that I v met in Ramallah at the hostel. I join them later for a drink, as we talked we discovered that we have actually a few friends in common ! Small world 🙂

Then Nazareth, really good surprise ! Beautiful and unique. It's a arab city in Israel. It's again a different mood of all the other ones I saw around!

That's it for now, we will see how it goes ✌️

It has been now a few days that I'm here at the camp of Salaman at the entry of the Wadi rum desert.

The place is nice and chill, I live in a small room of the camp. Im' eating a tasty dinner with the guest when we have some Or with the work team when there aren't any tourist. So I'm having a good time and finally practicing my Arabic !

At the moment it is pretty calm because of the corona virus. So there aren't much tourists coming to the camp. Still you can feel there is some activity going on, there are more than a 100 camps in the area !

My work mostly consist in helping the boss with his different platform of online booking. It's a huge mess in his organization and he doesn't really speak English, so it's quite challenging but not hard work. 😅

I'm having a lot of free time, that I spend mostly doing yoga, meditation, reading, trying to communicate in Arabic and enjoying the luxury of having freetime to think freely. I also like to go explore the area Wich is very beautiful and particular!

I'm really enjoying the lifestyle and the the free time. I got to finish a few things that I was trying to do for a while ! So I can say that I m pretty well here but one thing is missing : climbing !

If I came in this area, it was mostly to meet some climbers 😇

It is not easy to find the poeple, I'm not in the village, the camp's team are not climbers and I'm not really willing to pay for a personal guide.

The other thing, is that the area is known in the world for it's wildness. It's not easy ( if not impossible) to reach most of the spot without a car. Majority of the routes are "trad climbing" wich I have not done before.

[When rock climbing started to be developed, people where setting (temporarily) themselves the bolt as they were climbing. In opposition with what we call now "sport climbing" it means you're on a route where the bolts are settled in the rock for long term. Now people do both, depending of the spots. We keep saying "trad" for "traditional climbing", for the purist this is the real way of climbing. Plus you don't interfere with the environment by drilling deeply in the rock.]

That means : a lot of the foreign climbers come for the trad climbing here. This reduce my chance to find a partner or a team...

One day, as I m working with Salaman a group of seniors tourist arrived. At first I didn't really pay attention since I was busy doing something else.

At the end of the day, I ran into one of the person of this group. I stopped to say hello and to see if he needed any help for something. We started chatting a bit and Richard asked me if I was a climber ? I said : " yes I am, how do you know ? "

- because I am also a climber ! I have all my gear with me. You have your material ?

- waw nice ! I've got my shoes and harness.

- that is all you need! You do trad climbing ?

- I wish ! Do you ?

- Yes of course, I do proper climbing 🙂 You know what I'll teach you ! You want to join tomorrow ?

- Of course!!!!

Not kidding, this is exactly how the conversation went ! Then he introduced me to this climbing partner : " Nigel" and the rest of their group (age between 65 and 74 years old). All members of the Lancashire mountain club, friends and climbers for a long time !

After dinner, they started to discuss the organization of the next day. Richard invited me to join the conversation. It was bit ackward for me because I was not sure I had the knowledge to keep up with their projects. Plus they payed for a guide and transportation. But Richard took me in as a member of the group even though I understood it was a bit touchy between them. It appeared that Nigel, Richard and I will do a route while the others will do some hiking approach and we'll meet at the end of the day.

So it's set up, we will do sunshine route on Budda's hill, a 300m route multi-pitch tradstyle!

After a briefing with Richard I went to bed super excited about the next day 🤸💪🌛

A good breakfast and let's go with the driver and his team to the the spot in the desert !

We arrived nearby, the rest of the group went for the hike. We started preparing the gears, it's a long road and the book's description is very short so we had to pack smartly and light. We made our backpacks as light as possible considering that we have to hike to the beginning of the route and carry them to the top !

Plan was to be back around two for a late lunch. The climb is about 3 hours and the way down (hiking) 1 hour.

[ This is the only picture I have from that day, since I didn't take my phone with me. I will use pictures from others days to illustrate 📷 ]

It took us at least a hour to find the beginning of the route, the book is not very accurate. Nevermind, we finally started getting ready for the climb. As we putting our shoes, I discovered that Nigel has one artificial leg due to a mountain accident he had when he was young. I didn't even noticed when we were walking, I was so impressed ! 😯

Richard gave me an explanation of the devices they use for trad climbing. I won't be setting up since he will be leading but I needed to know how to clean behind him.

So here we were starting to get up as the sun started to get pretty hot. We had a good rythmin going on, Richard was pretty quick setting up the route and Nigel was behind me in case of any problematic situation.

It was very impressing to see both of them climbing ! I mean, I could see when we were walking that Richard has his age but when we were climbing it was like he immediately lost 30 years. His body seemed to be still so fit and well trained that I could not believe my eyes.

Nigel, is a tall guy verry strong. Same I could not tell about his leg when I was looking him climbing. By the way he told me he learned skiing after his accident !

The beginning of the route was pretty easy, it was not to hard to read the way and the level of climbing was pretty straightforward. Except the heat and the feet that where swallowing, it was pretty fine. 🌞

I was having a great time, it was a very good context to learn trad climbing. I was a bit surprised by the setting up of the devices, it was looking in a way very easy but you need to be very confident since your life relays on it !!! If you think that rock climbing with bolt already settled is crazy you should check this out 😅

We didn't see the time passing. Multipitch takes quite a long time, every time setting up the rope (60 meter long) , climbing and taking it back.

I did once multipitch in Belgium and we were also three people, we did two routes of 80 meters in one day with one rope and each one climbing at his time.

There we were with two ropes. Nigel and I climbing with a small interval of time. So when you make the math, 300 meters is quite long route!

Around 15:00 two of the friends were down, telling us that we had around 3 hours to sunset. Richard and Nigel evaluated that we were still on time to finish the road and join the others. The book was clearly a bit optimistic since we were going up on a good rythmin.😎

We kept going up, the route started to be a bit more complicated to read. It was delicate since depending on wich way chosen we would ended up on, a level that could be very different to finish to the top.

At 17:00 we were very close to the top but not sure at all of the way. We were discussing on taking left or right. The book was not helping at all since they were no precise descriptions!

The friends at the bottom of the mountain started shouting to stop the climb and get down. Richard and Nigel were having a technical discussion : Richard was saying that we could still make it to the top before sunset and Nigel was saying that It was time to teach me how to go down in rappel. The conclusion was that the route was not fit for rappel and they were not trusting the rock (since it was sandstone).

[To rappel without bolt, you need to set up a piece of rope on a rock as fixed point to put it through the main rope in order to get down.

Since the hight of the route is longer than the rope you will need to get down in several times. So you need to be sure that you are in a good spot where the rope will not get stucked ]

--> There was a lot of small pieces of rock that were not reliable and also a obstacle for the rope to get down.

I could feel their was a tension with them and the rest of the group, probably existing from others experiences. They didn't want to pay attention to the recommendations of their friends. They were doing the climb, so the decision is their !

So we decided to reach the top quickly and once there wait for the moon to show up to have a "good light" to go down hiking. It was full moon a few days ago so it should be alright !

It seemed to me doable since we were maybe at one or two pitches from the top. They seemed so relaxed and have both 50 years experience in climbing that I was not feeling worried at all about reaching our objective ! 😎

We did one pitch and then where looking for the next one that was supposed to be the last one. It was not very clear if we had to go left or right around a big rock. The night was starting and we where still climbing with one head lamp for three. At some point it started to be really hard to see anything and we could not see far enough to decide which was the good direction. So we took a break to wait for the moon. We waited quite some time and still no moon ...

So we took the decision to find a good spot to spend the night. We went just a little bit before where we had seen a place that was flat and big enough. Their were some little bushes that we smashed to make a soft and cosy place to sleep. We had almost no water, just a few nuts, dried fruits left and a biscuit that tasted like the best ever ! Last meal was breakfast and we had no camping material but the team mood was still good, we were making jokes and laughing. I decided to sleep with my harness tided up to the rope, since I know I'm a deep sleeper. The two others slept without 😁🌛

It was a very cold night but I could fall asleep and get some rest.🥶 We got woken up by some rain, so we went all to a corner to protect the rope and the gears to prevent them to get wet. Luckily it was a small rain !

As The day started slowly to start, We were trying to stay warm in the meantime. We started to do some warm up and talking about the strategy of the day. We knew the forecast was announcing heavy rain for the afternoon, so we had to be careful to not get caught in the bad weather.

Here we are going back to the same point where we were stucked yesterday. Richard was looking for differents options, went up and then down right, and then Left to finally find a way ! You had to commit to the moves but it was doable. We passed this part and were finally able to see if we were on the right way or not. What was in front of us looked like a way that was used before, they were evidence of people climbing there before. This was a good news !🙏

We kept going up and started to see on the top a specific rock described (it forms a bridge to go from a part of the mountain to the other, pretty impressive!) in the book that was confirming that we were reaching the top. The last part in The book was supposed to be very easy. What we had in front of us was not "really easy". That meant we were probably next to the route we were planning to do.

Anyway way, not the moment to get down, we could see far away that the weather was starting to get bad, it seemed that some heavy wind was coming to us! So Richard went looking for a way 🤠

As we were waiting while Richard started opening the route, the wind and the sand were hitting us strongly. 🌪️🌫️

Then it started raining heavily! 🌧️🌬️He was not giving up and finally got to a safe point to belay us. So, I started climbing under the rain, it was not an easy part and wet was even harder. We finally got to Richard's spot. The rained stopped but the sand was still hitting with the wind. We could see the top from where we were. We kept going and finally arrived to the end ! We congratuleted ourself with the last sip of water we had 💪

I said : " well gentleman, thank you for this beautiful experience!"

They both smiled and answered " wait we are not down yet 🙂"

We took of our climbing shoes to put our hiking ones, rolled up the ropes and started looking for a way to the rock bridge. It was something like 12:30. Thanks to the previous rain we were able to collect some water along the rock to get some energy.

We saw some signs (piled of rock) so we followed them but they were leading nowhere... Richard started to be tired, since he leaded the whole way up ( means also pulling both ropes up all the time). Plus the hike implied some down climbing with the little piece of rocks that began to be weak with the rain (damn sandstone). So we ropped ourselves Alpine style. We kept looking for the way but the sign didn't seem to bring anywhere. We were not down yet!

Finally Nigel saw a bolt a bit down from us. It seemed that it was a way to go directly down to the bridge area. So we went to the bolt secured ourselves and he taught me how to go down in rappel 🧗

We arrived to the bridge (beautiful place by the way!), crossed and started going down looking for the trail. It was still not very evident but we were on the right way.

When suddenly we heard some voices ! We answered back and met two of the guides that were there looking for us. They welcomed us with some waters and dates. Then we follow them to the way down, they knew a short cut 🏞️

At the bottom, the whole guide team was there waiting for us with a little fyer, a falafel pitta and some tea. They literally took me and putted me next to the fyer and made me ate the pitta. 🥙

I felt so happy to be there surrounded by this bédouins handing me food and drinks 🙂

On the other side, two friends of the British group were there. It didn't go well between them and Richard and Nigel. They were worried and angry at them, while for the duo everything was under control and no reason to get worry. I understood both perspectives but could feel the tensions of the situation inside of their group.

When we got to the camp we went to shower and having a good nap ! At the dinner I ate the equivalent of three people's dinner 😅

Later on I heard that the guides came three times to the top of the mountain during the day looking for us and that my boss and a co worker as well!

I started to understand better the mood that was at the camp during our absence... From our perspective everything was fine and under control, we thought they understood we were taking the choice of finishing and exiting by the top. But it seemed they didn't experienced it the same way!

To be honest, I never felt the panic or the danger during our journey. They seemed so relaxed that I felt we were in control of the situation. It's true that in a way we were trapped by the mountain but in a strange way I think I never felt that free of my life !

For me it was a good lesson of the strongness of the mountain and the elements but also how you have to react in this imprévisible situation. Always stayed calm and focus on your objective!

It's amazing what your body allows you to do, with the little amount of food and water we were still in good condition!

It was the a good context to learn trad climbing, mountain skills, spirit of emergency but without a real risk. People knew we where there, the way down was a hike, nobody was injured and we were having a good time 🤠

The following morning, Nigel showed me the book : we apparently ended up on an alternative route that was harder, with (quoting the book) " belay points are almost none existent". We tried to match with an other book and figured out that our route was most likely 400 meters high. The book was old and not accurate, this was maybe our biggest mistake !

In the end my two teammates defined more this Ascension as alpinism than climbing. Anyway, I've learned a lot in 30hours 🙏

After that they left for a other camping site. I thanked them for the experience, we shoked hands and hope to meet for a other climb 😎

The following day, it was very bad weather, so I spend my day resting and processing all the emotions. My body was so tired, I slept so much ! At night Mousa offered me a glass of camel milk to get better 😁

Well here some news from the desert:

Life is very slow here😎

The following days (I'm not going to lie) were pretty shity.... Abdullah's mood was getting worst and worst. He was barely talking to us and he had totally closed himself. You could tell from his face and body language!

I really didn't like this ambiance, Plus he always had a comment on Mousa's way of doing things. So I could not understand all the words but I could see that they were arguing. Apparently he wanted to leave the camp to go live in the village.

One day I decided to clean the kitchen ( wich was extremely dirty) to do something nice for the group. So here I am ordering, cleaning everything ! When Abdullah saw it, not even a "thank you", he just started moving some stuff back and mumbling some stuff... Unbelievable!

I even understood later on talking with Moussa that when Salaman saw the kitchen, Abdullah claimed he did it.

So when he realized that Moussa started to be angry with Abdullah because he was misbehaving with me. He told me don't worry I ll talk to Salaman!

I really wanted to avoid conflicts and tensions and here I'm stuck in it.

I don't really speak the language so I don't get everything that is going on. I cannot really express a opinion. Hard exercise for myself! Sometimes I feel a bit isolated because not able to communicate properly.

Like that in a few days, this paradise became a jail ! I thought that for sure the lockdown would be longer than expected. I would become crazy before the end...

One day, Mousa was out of the camp working with the camels. I decided to talk to Abdullah ( in Arabic) let's try to be smooth and smart.

I told him that "I want to speak to him from my heart. That I understand that those are hard time for everyone and that I don't know what are his situation at home. But if we are going to get stuck here , we might as well make a effort to be sweet and polite to each other."

He did not take it well, he claimed that it was not making sense and he did not do anything wrong. That he always has been a quite man and his mood has not changed. Then the conversation started to go non sense because he was talking so fast in Arabic that I would not understand anything. On my side, because I wanted to answer back I started talking in English. Completely crazy 😅 I finished saying, ok I doesn't matter, at least I tried. We went each one on our side.

I was about to regret having tried talking to him. I told the story to Moussa and he was just about to give up on him. I fought let's give him the time and be the bigger man. After all we are playing our mood life for the next weeks coming!

Then, he slowly digested it on his own rythmin and started to be more polite and even nicer with us !

The mood started to be more relax again and just like that we got back to a nicer environment. I was really happy for the effort and release this worked out 🙏

That doesn't mean his behaviour is perfect now, but you can not expect people to be like you wish. Plus sometimes looking the other and their way of doing, reminds you who you might be. It is kind of looking in a mirror and see what you want to see 😉 ( I mean that I might have been Abdullah in an other group, other context).

My mood was getting better again and the days started to get warmer, so I have more energy !

I thought ok, if the mood is getting better, how can I improve my time here, since I'm going to be stucked for a while?

I realized that I gained some "weight", to much bread in Palestine 😅! So I started adding to my routine some work out to keep in shape 💪

But that is not enough, I looked at my hand and I saw my climbing skin starting to leave. I thought I should do something about it! I wanted to train but the mountain experience let me a taste of danger and I do not trust this sandstone. I felt frustrated to be surrounded by mountain and not able to train...

One day I decided to have a walk and looked more carefully for a spot. Just at 5 min from the camp I found a perfect bouldering spot! I checked every looserock on the route. I m now able to train every day 😁

This little episode made me realize that I was so bummed by the bad mood the previous days that I didn't even think about opening my eyes and check around me.

This lead me to a other simple realization :

I m actually in the desert in a beautiful place surrounded by nature, the only noise are the sounds of the wind and the birds. I'm leaving with people that only speak Arabic. I have a space to train yoga and working out. I got all the time to study Arabic, doing meditation and read. I have a room for free and I don't even have to cook. Plus now I found a spot to climb just next to me!

Wait, that is exactly what I could wish for during my travel 😂 How could I not see it before ??! Obviously I realized before some of the good side, (that were the reasons I came here) but I never looked at the whole picture.

It's only after passing the frustration of beeing stuck ( I did not choose to stay here) and getting over the abdullah's situation that it just hited me : This is the perfect retreat-spot for me ! 😎

And just like that this hell turned into a paradise!

Life here is sometimes crazy, I don't really know how to describe it. The rythmin is so slow, nothing is happening around us. Sometime I don't even see a car or a other person during a whole day!

It is so big and so empty at the same time. You could try to picture this classic Western scene where you just see a man sitting on chair, the wind blowing, a bush passing and no noise at all.

Well, this in Jordan with a Soudanni smoking narjile and an Egyptian napping all day. So not quite the typical Western.

I could say there is a bit of the Belgian touch, in a surrealistic movie where some randoms characters are on an adventure where nothing particular is really happening 😉

Since I have almost no access to Internet and that my conversations are limited by my level of Arabic and Moussa's patience. I m a bit isolated in my mind, so here some thoughts to share :

Sometimes I think : when we are working we are complaining to not have enough free time. When we have a lot of free time we complain and not knowing what to do with it.

We are very used to enjoy freetime by opposition to work. But when you take out the work, the balance is not there anymore.

I look around me and tell to myself :

In a way it is not easy to do nothing and stay positive ! Reading, watching TV or talking doesn't count. Really doing nothing ! Specially if you didn't chose it...

Really enjoying the present moment for what it is and not because we are satisfied to take a rest after making any kind of effort. It's Something really hard to deconstruct from our education " l'éloge de l'oisiveté".

I'm someone that loves having freetime to think or taking the time to do things slowly. This always go with a balance with the fact that I'm someone active that like to get things done. Here I have to look differently at my day.

I knew already I was looking for this balance. Before leaving I was to busy, always something to do! Now I am seeing the other side. I hope I will find the balance when I will be back home 🙂🙏

Except the news that I get sometimes on my WhatsApp and what I try to understand from my colleagues, I don't really know how the world is doing ?

I use to read a lot the newspapers and felt really interested by the news. Little by little I started reading less and less the newspaper. Until reaching a point before my trip where I got disconected by most of the Media. I could not really explained how and why it happened. At first I tried to fight it because it felt weird. Then I got use to it and my life was not worst. Maybe better ?

I still got some news by talking with friends and family, watching documentary and when a subject really interested me I would look it up. I haven't found the right balance yet about getting informed.

For sure to much small news is pointless less and stressful. On the other hand, I'm thinking I should know about some important things that are happening around me ! Why? to have a opinion, being able to have a conversation ? I'm thinking until Wich point it is really making a difference ?

What is the point for me to digest so many information ? Recently it made way more sense to read a book than the newspaper

Now with the corona virus, the question comes back more than ever !

I don't want to spend my day reading about it (even if I had internet) it doesn't make any difference and I will just end up anxious!

But again, being in the bubble where I am and enjoying life, when I know that so many people are struggling. That the world is facing a general crisis without being sure which will be the end is a very strange feeling. Almost as is I was selfish not wanting to know !

I still think there is a balance to find, digesting to many information is not good for the mind. I think there are a lot more of valuables thinks to read in your dayly life. If nobody told me about corona virus it would took me a long time before I read about it!

On my side, one of my biggest challenge on my reality scale is : food!

We don't have a fridge so nothing really fresh, cheese or whatever.

All the stores were closed for a while. We had to back up bread for few days.

I'm not worried about quantity, we have a good stock of rice and beans!

We naturally went down to two real meals a day.

The highlight of the meals is when we have a tomato or cucumber on the side😂

Now then opened again the stores ones in a while just for a few hours but they are very limited on products. So we are just happy to get some onions, garlic and a few tomatoes.

Sometimes Salaman comes with a chicken and I think even if I was still vegetarian I would eat it 😉 !

I'm not complaining, some people in the country have a really hard time accessing food. For the first time of my life (during the total lockdown) I went to check the kitchen, looked at the food storage and thought : " how long can we live with this ?"

Well the answer is long enough to be safe! 🍲🍴🤸 Strange feeling that I never experienced outside of hiking.

Richard send me some of the pictures of the climb. I forgot to tell that the British accent during this adventure was just delightful ! 😎

Well I think that will be it so far for the "sharing thoughts".

They just announced two more weeks of lockdown but I'm not surprised. Looking at Belgium, I guess they will add some more time soon!

I hope you are all doing alright and staying positive ! ✌️

The rest of April kept going and the mood was good. I stopped cooking and let Abdellah doing his thing. We reached a point of peaceful respect, I doubt we will become best friend but we can live together now.

Life is still sweet here, I keep doing my things and try to enjoy life.

Moussa let the camels walking freely in a spot where there are bushes to eat. But after some time he couldn't find them anymore. He went many times to different spots but no signs of them...

So once, we went for a walk looking for them. We took the teapot with us and stop to drink some tea in the shadow. It was a nice afternoon and felt good to go a bit away from the camp.

It also gave me the opportunity to know better Mousa. I thought he has always been working with camels in Soudan and came to do the same in Jordan. Wich is part of the story but I got the rest of his path.

His family owned a camel farm since a long time, that is how he learned to work with them.

Back in the days he was russeling, he showed a video of a tournament where he won the fight. But his father didn't want him to continue in that direction.

Then, he used the money of the championship to get a job in the police forces.He was a police man for 8 years

After that he fought in the army during the war in Soudan for three years. He saw some horrible things there. He described scenes " where blood was going on the ground as if it was a river."

Tired of all this violence but motivated by the need of money he started looking for work abroad.

He worked in Chad, Libya, other places in Jordan, tried to enter illegally in Saudi Arabia

After he decided to go back to working with camels and enjoy a calmer a life. That's how he finally ended up here in the desert of Jordan.

Now I understand a bit more his life experience and the character. He's always in a good mood, sweet and carrying for others but his eyes are sad. I could tell he saw some hard things but I was far away to guess all of that!

To have water we have to go to the village where there is a purification station that pumps the water for the area.

So every two weeks we have to go get some for the camp. I joined once Moussa to help him with the job . To do so, we have to go with a very old citern-truck (maybe 50 years old) and full the tank.

It looks easy when you say it like that. Of course the engine is old, the battery dead and Salaman to steangy to buy a new one.

So it s a real adventure to drive this truck in the sand. I assisted him to change ( I should say " kick " ) the gears to 4 wheels drive at some strategic moments. it was like : " 1,2,3... now kick!" We also had to stop oftenly to change between the two batteries and turn on the engine again. We finally arrived to the spot. It's just a big pipe where your can freely fil up and go.

On the way back we stopped at his cousin's work he also works with camels here. In his case it's racing camels. Yes there is an arena here and they organize races every weeks as we do with horses!

We stopped to drop him some milk and fill up his water tank.

Of course the engine's truck wouldn't start again. So while we waited, we drank tea and cooked a meal.

They made a dough with flour and water and bake it in the ashes. It gave a type of bread very consistent ( the bread looks good and tasty). Then you break it in small pieces, mix with milk, add salt and olive oil and... Voilà !

The first time Moussa cooked me this I thought he was making me joke and trying to make me eat a random meal. But no it's a traditional dish in the area and they love it !

After a while, a friend came with his car to help us to start the engine again. We finally left and the motor broke down 5 min after. He came again.

We had to go back to the water point ( because of mistake they made while feeling the tank of his cousin). Of course the engine stopped at 5 meters of the water source...

We had to a wait for another truck to come to help us. On the way back we were praying that the truck wouldn't break down again. We finally got back to the camp with water. It took us whole afternoon 😂

If I had the feeling that time was slow, now it has literally stopped! Ramadan has started and the few people that are leaving in the are a being very calm during the day.

It also had a big impact on how the day go by, they are lying around most of the day (me too) and we don't really spend time together until the sun goes down.

Before we were eating together, drinking tea, sometimes going for a walk. So now I'm spending most of my day by myself.

Actually, I'm in a strange position during the day regarding the two others. Even though, Mousa told me straight ahead at the beginning of Ramadan : " don't worry for us, you do your thing. Eat, drink and take what you wish in the kitchen!".

But still, I try as much as I can to not eat or drink in front of them. Now it is too hot to eat in the kitchen that is under the sun.This lead me to find spots in the shadow not in front of them. It's a bit strange but I found my ways. Mousa even asked one day if I was eating ? Because at the beginning he never saw me 🙂

The dayly scenes were already a bit surrealistic but with Ramadan we ve reached a new level !

One day, I heard a noise from a truck close from the camp. Wich is normal since the others camp also go once in while for water supply. But it was very noisy, so I went to see what was going on.

When I arrived, a camel was passing by at this moment (as if he was coming to see what was going on also) and I could see that the truck was stucked in the sand. A car came to help them. First thing they did was all getting of the vehicles and pray. From my perspective the scene was very "décalé" 😀

The good side with Ramadan is that Salaman brought us more food and a chicken every day. So finished with foul period 🙂

Still, the Ultimate hope is to eat "real" meat and not chicken. For them chicken doesn't enter in the category of meat ( it's even in the vocabulary of the language, the word meat describes all the others animal but not really chicken). So is hear Mousa Evey day on the phone talking about "lahma" ( meat) !

The rythmin of Ramadan is nice for the night part, we stay until late drinking tea, eating and enjoying the weather.

I have to say when I look them during Ramadan : Respect, it's not easy at all!

Some days Mousa go working or he even went walking in the sun to go to the village. Even with water it would be hard with this heat. He is still smiling when he comes back!

I can see how it gives them a structure, we are not so use to it, and we don't always see religion and faith as a good thing in Europe. But I have no problem with people that practice on their own path and don't bother anyone.

I'm aware of all the bad consequences from religion in the history but believing in nationalism as a religion doesn't seem better when I look at Europe.

In the daylilife, on humuan scale it gives them a code of behaviour that is mostly about being kind and respectful with people around them.

I would even say that it gives them a confidence in life and destiny that makes them calmer. If you follow the basics of religion you may live a pretty "simple" and honest life.

Plus lately I have been in an environment without alcohol wich I found very healthy. I don't drink oftenly back home but I saw so many people going the wrong way with their drinking habits. It gets easely ugly, it doesn't bring the good side of people (nothing new here).

So here, It increases the chance to deal with healthy humans not trying to get by. You don't get to see the devil out of people that oftenly alcohol brings into light. Of course, there are people drinking in Jordan but not around me here.

Remember the little dogs ? Now the family got bigger !

We have cats that live around the camp and come to eat (they miaw untill we give them something) the rest of our meal. In the end, We started feeding them every day as they were part of the family.

One day we heard a noise and discovered that one of the cat had little kids!

So cute and very funny to look them growing up and discovering slowly the work surrounding them. They slowly explore the area and play all day.

Mousa convinced Salaman to get a new camel : a mother and her child. So now we can drink camel milk every day.

It's pretty tasty, I would say between cow and goat milk. We drink tea with camel milk. It's the Jordan version of the British tea 😅

I got to see also how he takes the milk. It's a good opportunity to realize what it truely means. During the day the mother wears something that blocks the kid to drink. At night we come, take the milk and then let the kid drink after us.

I knew already what you have to do to be able to get milk, but to see it makes you realize in an other way. I'm not even talking about the horrible practice of the milk industry!

The camp is soon going to be a shelter for animals ! Anyway It's brings a nice energy to have animals around us.

🐪🐈🐕

I slow down a bit my rythmin too during the day. I was doing much more physical activities at the beginning of my stay. I focused lately more on reading.

Plus the hot season started to kick and it can get very hot during the day. It's not possible to do anything from 11h to 17h! I'm staying in the shadow whole day. You can't be in the sun or inside, it's to damn hot 🙂

Still I don't really understand the weather here. I thought once it's hot, It's like this all the time. But no !

There have been some days where the sun is there but with a lot of wind suddenly coming. So the air is full of sand. You can not be comfy outside or inside. We had a few days were it got cold in the evening and at night.

This last week it seems that the hot season has really started! It's hot day and night. 🌪️☀️⛅

My climbing shoes are dead ! At the beginning I was climbing every day and sand stone is really aggressive. I knew this day would come, it's normal when you are climbing on the rock. Normally, I could be able to fix them in a shop but my only option is in Amman. I tried with all the means I have here (silicone, pvc glue) but nothing stay more than 10 minutes...So now I still go climbing a bit with my hiking shoes but it's not the same. That was a bit frustrating at the beginning.

I had the dilmena to climb or not until my shoes are completely destroyed. Thinking it's just material and I had them for this purpose. I hesitate a lot, in the end I thought I can still save them if I stop now and fix them later.

Took me a while to arrive to this simple conclusion. It's impressive how we get attached to objects and how they can represent something symbolic to us.

If I had to describe the group with actors I would say : Belmondo, Louis de Funès and Bourvil.

Abdellah is a grumpy version of Belmondo, Salaman is Louis de Funès and Mousa is Bourvil.

When they are all together it's the Jordan versions of "la grande vadrouille".

Kind of a "vaudeville" act between them. Talking about each other. Salaman did that, said that blabla blablabla. Abdellah is this is that etc.

Then when Salaman comes at the camp it is all the salamalek. He wants to sit there, then not finally there. And so on 😂

I stay out of it, I fixed my problem with Abdellah, get along well with Mousa and Salaman he's hosting me for free. So I have nothing to say even though I understand what can be hard to take from his behaviour regarding the workers.

Somehow, Mousa and Abdellah found a balance in their common insatisfaction with Salaman. Talking about that brought them together.

Strange how hate can be a motor for "love" ?

Now Issa the cousin of Moussa (the one that made the dish with the bread and the milk) quit his job because his boss didn't want to pay him. So he came to live with us in the meantime he will find work. With corona virus and Ramadan there is this solidarity between people that is nice to see. Salaman welcomed him within no questions!

He is a small man, from far away he looks like a kid but when you look closer you see an adult with the body of a teenager. His face (and the scares on it) also tells that he lived some serious things in his life. He has a serious look but he is sweet and respectful.

When he talked to me about his work and mentioned that also works with horses, I could see stars in his eyes. I get to know him slowly.

So let's make the math, if one comes there is one that will leave.

Indeed, it was a bit complicated between Salaman and Abdellah lately. He's unhappy here but stays because he can eat for free. They talked a few times about the idea for him to go live some places else (he s renting a room in the village with other Egyptians workers). So one day , Salaman came and "suggested" him to go to this house. He agreed.

I was surprised when he told goodbye he was very nice and polite. I was not expecting that from him.

So now it is me and the two Soudannis !

Sometimes I feel like I will never be able to speak fluently Arabic. For sure I have made some progress.

Oftenly, when we improve a situation we are tempt to consider the level that we passed as granted. We forget quickly where we coming from a previous state inferior. This applies in life in general, when a situation improves, we look forward and only think of what we should reach or get.

(I read that about social progress in western Europe. Once we got a new law or right, it becomes in the mind of everybody as if it was always like that.) It made a lot of sense for different life's aspects. It pushes us forward but we shall not forget were we coming from !

Nevertheless, at night around the fire, I always listen to the conversation between them and try to understand as much as I can. Sometimes I m completely lost, sometimes I pick up words and sentences that allows me to get the subject.

Then just like that, there are times I realized I got most of the story and can even comment something!

Now with the Soudanni, I don't get anything when they speak together ! Barely some words and I could even doubt that they are speaking Arabic sometimes ! 😂 They truely have an african accent. When Abdellah and Mousa were talking together They were adapting their language as we would do if we speak French with some people from Congo or Quebec.

When I think about it, in English and Spanish I have a level that allows me to express myself in many situations and have a conversation about a lot of topics. But when I m surrounded by native speakers with differents accent talking about things or people I don't know I can easily get lost.

Well, a Soudanni and a Egyptian talking together is quite a hard exercise 😀

Not loosing hope ! I'm curious to see what will be my level when I get back to the city.

When we talk a bit about the actual situation :

They are thinking : work - money - food

I'm thinking : travel - freedom - adventure

We always understand the situation from our perspective, even if we try to truely put ourselves in the situation of the other. We never really understand his perception of his life.

I m tempted to say that Humans are a strange creature and as all the animals pretty egocentric?

It's just a detail but I realized that when they are talking on the phone and They say who's here with them, they referred to me as Ismael the "foreigner". None of them are from Jordan but they all come from this part of the world, share a language and a religion. Beeing different made me the foreigner even though they are also. Nothing bad about it, just interesting to notice. 🙂

I was thinking the other day about my situation. A lot of my friends and family asked me if I was not becoming crazy here and why I was not coming back home?

It's true that I experienced the limits of loneliness considering that I don't speak the language, have a really a limited access to the outside world (internet and physically speaking) and we are only four people. But I somehow enjoy the calm and my peaceful time here.

Plus my situation in Belgium won't be really better. Of course I would be happy to see my family and friends!

I won't be able to travel around the world like I wanted at the beginning but I can still live an experience and learn. As I learned with the "boat situation" things don't always go the way you planned or wished but it doesn't mean that something good cannot come out of it ? Hopefully, I will soon be able to travel inside of the country!

My guts tells me to stay here and see what the Destiny has for me in the future.

Plus I came to experience a different life away from my comfort zone, discovering new places and living unsual situations with people I m not used to be with (and not "tourists").

Being here in this context without knowing what will happen is kind of a challenge. I think I will be able to remember the patience I needed here to apply it in others life situations!

I believe that when you travel you have to learn to react in a lot of new situations, away from everything you know. This teaches a lot about life and somehow makes you "stronger" when you get back home.

At the beginning of my travel, I had so many options and kind of a " plan ". Now I truely have no idea of what will happen, I m so far away from my comfort zone and I'm learning every day.

Living in incertitude with people that are not tourist is a real adventure from my perspective.

Some nighs we were sleeping outside with Mousa when the weather was good. Falling asleep looking at the stars is the best!

Lately the night is the best moment of the whole day.

You know when it's really hot during the day, the moment where the sun goes down, there is this little brease that starts. The air is still warn but this little "wind" makes the weather sweet, just perfect to be outside!

This last week I saw falling stars every night 🙃🌠

I think I have said it already to different people but it is worth saving it again : thank you so much for this very useful gift !

I read already about 7 to 8 books since I'm here 😅

Here is a text that Nigel (English climber) send me, he wrote for the newspaper of their climbing club. I found interesting to read the experience from someone else :

The Dilemma

To climb [on] or not to climb [i.e. abseil],

That is the question.

You have just finished your fifth pitch and are a bit over two hundred meters up what according to the guide book is a three hundred meter route. However, looking up at the head wall this is hard to believe even allowing for some foreshortening as the route so far has been predominantly slabby, steep slabs with short walls. This perception is reinforced by shouts from two friends, now watching from the sand dunes below, that it looks as though you are only half way up. Anyway it is a relief to have for the first time a decent sized ledge with a huge boulder for the first bomb-proof belay. A chance to have a handful of nuts and raisins, a drink and assess the situation. It is already mid-afternoon, darkness falls sharply shortly after six in these latitudes and the last couple of pitches were a bit longer and trickier which, together with the heat, rope drag, anno domini and that this is a party of three, have all contributed to slow the progress. The book time is two and a half hours but as a rope of three it had already taken at least four.   First instinct, it’s time to ab. off?

Let’s back track a bit. It was not an early start (you could rightly query the competence of this). The drive south from the camp in the desert took longer than anticipated and it had taken at least another hour to walk from the drop off spot, locate the start and get established on the route. The rest of the group are going up the long, complex, scrambly ridge above with the help of a local guide then hoping to do a shorter route on the same face further down the ridge. The ridge is the planned descent. The weather is fine, perhaps a bit too hot in the middle of the day, and rain for three days is not forecast till the following evening. Today was probably going to be the only chance of a climb! The rock is sandstone sculpted by the desert winds; not a familiar environment.

Back on the ledge you are at first taken aback by the firmness of the lead climber that abseiling is not a good idea. Together the three of you quickly review the pros and cons. The belays and runners have been dubious often requiring backing up to give the confidence for a trickier move. The sandstone is often soft so that even a well-placed nut or friend was still worrisome. Three, probably four abseils would be required and there had been no signs of good stances, threads or bosses. There had been plenty of small regosities, in this case projections of the softer rock capped with a harder layer. These had made runners of sorts but some had partly crumbled or snapped underfoot. They would also present ideal opportunities for the rope to snag round when being pulled down, particularly in these off vertical conditions. Reclimbing or prusicking back up to sort out in difficult conditions (possible darkness in this case) is never a prospect to relish! Perhaps a lesser consideration is that your new young friend, though he has proved to be an excellent climber and unphased by the situation, has only climbed before on bolts and never done more than the occasional single abseil. This was clearly going to take some time and involve some risk but presumably your friends would watch and wait and the vehicle headlights might help if darkness fell.

How about the alternative of climbing on? The terrain ahead looks much steeper and daunting but a study of the topo photo on the camera indicates that from now on there are grade 3 alternatives to any harder pitches, initially to the right. Perhaps there is easier ground out of site behind the rib to the right? There must be at least two long, more likely three, pitches to climb. Route finding does not look as though it is going to be straight forward but at least grade 3 should be climbable in the gathering twilight and importantly there should be plenty of gear placements which, even if a bit dubious, would give a greater sense of security. It is also a couple of days passed the full moon and so in due course this might help. However a benightment, hopefully after reaching the ridge, seems inevitable. It will be a cold bivi as you only have light weight gear but it may be possible to find the way down the ridge by moonlight or at dawn. You know from the topo that there is a short pitch of 3 to descend by a huge rock arch but the guides have told you there is a fixed rope in place to assist. You are acutely conscious that this option will likely ruin your friends plans for the following day and hugely inconvenience your host who are fixing and arranging your stay. This now reinforced by cries from the friends below, now joined by the others, to “COME DOWN”.

So what to do? You probably have less time to discuss and come to a decision than it has taken to read this. Also not all the influencing factors might occur to you in the heat of moment. However, I have tried not to introduce anything with the benefit of hindsight but it should be clear that no such detailed discussion could have taken place but rest assured that even if unspoken all this was racing through our minds. Neither option seemed attractive to us and you will have to wait for the full journal article to discover which we chose and how it panned out. At least you know that I am here to write this and none of us will ever know how the alternative would have played. Send your decision to nigelanthonylyle@gmail.com with your choice of critical factors. Please indicate if you are happy for me to use and if so if you wish to be anonymous!

I met again the guide that came to help us when we were going down from the mountain. He gave the picture from that happy moment 🙂

It's been more than two months now that I'm in the desert!

Time flies so fast. You always hear it from older people when you are a kid but you cannot truely understand it. It's like the fire, you have to burn at least once to feel it and get it !

I heard Belgium is starting slowly to de-lockdown, happy for you, hope it will be fine !

We should follow soon behind you if everything goes well. Like they say here : " boukra inshallah" ! Wich means tomorrow if God wants. It's THE answer they give when you when ? It can be a day or a year 😅

Peace and love ☮️

Well, well, well time really passed quickly since I got out of the desert ! It has been already a month and a half.The way I'm using my time and my perception of it changed so much.

So let's see what is to be told 😀

I arrived in this flat that Noemie helped me to find when I was still in the desert. I got to meet my roommate : "Ed". A great local guy with an interesting story!

My first morning, I woke up when out on the balcony to drink my tea. I heard someone calling me from across the alley. It was Noemie! I hadn't told her yet that I arrived and she didn't tell me that her place was just in front of mine! So that was a funny start 🙃

When I arrived in Amman there was still a carfue from 19h - 06h, I didn't experience that feeling when I was in the desert. But I could feel that the city had been sleeping for months and that people were tired of it. They decreased the hours of the carfue a few days after. The limit got pushed until midnight. So this night we went for a drive with Ed just because we could. We drove outside of Amman, just enjoying the ride, the freshness of the night with some good music. There was a real taste of freedom in the air ✌️

I realized that I was not use anymore to be around a lot of people. Usually, I'm a pretty social person but my ability to to interact with people was really aleterated.

It took me Some time to adapt to the city and the social life again. I Tried to live the same rythmin as in the desert but it was not working here. Slowly I adapted myself to this new reality. Luckily Noémie and her roommate introduced me to their friends and I got to know a lot nice people. Just like that, I started to feel good In the city, in my neighborhood, hanging out with a group. Life became sweet and chill 😎

Since it seemed that I was going to spend some more time in Jordan, I thought I might as well kept focusing on the Arabic learning. So I inscribed myself for a month of private lessons in a local school. I've progressed a lot in the desert because I had to speak Arabic but no one could really correct me for the grammar. So I thought that a bit of structure should push me forward!

I got along really well with Ed my roommate ! I got really lucky, he is a smart, respectful and interesting person. We have a lot to talk about and his life path is pretty impressive, he came from a poor background and build himself a nice situation. We share interests in books, movies, sports, philosophy but more than everything : "cooking"!

He is a fan of French and Italian cuisine so he already had a lot of good ingredients at home plus some fresh herbs on the balcony. He is doing intermediate fasting, so he only eats once a day beginning of the evening. But he likes to make a proper meal ! So every night we were making real food festival, showing new recipes to each other 🙂

I struggled a lot trying to settle up my Visa situation. It was a mess because of corona plus my situation was complicated due to the desert set up. They send me to differents places, made me do my previous Visa until may just for bureaucracy, had to find an address for domiciliation, and end up paying a fee because with all of this step I ended up getting my Visa after the tolerance period ... Well now at least it's done!

After a while I started adapting again at the social life and found back my usual skills. So I adopted the "yes man strategy", basically every time someone would offer to do something I would answer positively. So after, a few days the girls offered me to they join them with their group of friends to a weekend in the country side. Obviously, I said yes ! For them it was the first time out of Amman after the carfue and for me back to luxury and party environment 🙂

My plan was to go to a farm after a month in Amman. But the contacts I had would either not take volunteer because of corona, either I had back feedback from other travelers. Plus I have to admit that I started Enjoying my life in the city and specially in my neighborhood. I started to bound with the people, getting new habits, so I decided to go with the flow and stayed here!

The group of people that came at the pool party started to become a group of friends hanging out all the time together. Since the mood was really good, they decided to go on weekend in Wadi rum and Aqaba, tough one for me ! On one hand I had a lot of fun with them, on the other did I really want to go back to the desert and that soon? After thinking, I figured what the hell ?! Better go back and have fun over there, so I'll implement new memories related to the desert.

So I went, really appreciated the road trip down there! We took a lot of small roads with beautiful view. I love just driving with music and looking at the sea 😎

We arrived quite late, we went to a camp even more into the desert that the one I was in. So the stars were amazing! We ate, made a fire after and stay up singing and talking until the sunrise 🌞

It was a strange feeling to be back there. The moment to enter again the area, I had mixed feelings coming to me.

Specially when I woke in the morning after a short night of sleep. It took me a few seconds to understand what was the context and where I was exactly. This made me realize that my time in the desert and the experience of the lock down had quite an impact on me. I will never forget that episode of my life!

Well the weekend was really sweet and I had a great time, so it was the right call to go back 😉

I tried to fix my climbing shoes to get back on the training ! Apparently it was not possible anymore, the only guy that was doing it stopped... So it meant buying some new ones. There is only one shop that sell one model at three time its original price. I started looking to buy some online but for some reason Jordan is one of the most complicated countries to order online from abroad. With corona it was not getting anyhow easier... I finally found a way but it seemed like I had to get ready to be patient!

So in the meantime I felt I had to keep training to keep in shape 💪 I kept stretching everyday but that was not enough. I discovered that one of my friend (Barakat) use to do parkour as well, so we started training together and explore the area !

Since I decided that I was not going to a farm project at the moment, it meant staying in Amman. My flat was really confy and my roommate pretty chill but the rent was too high for me. So I had to start looking for something else cheaper. I wanted to stay in the neighborhood cause I started a social life here and the mood felt right. My roommate was also thinking to move out, so he forwarded a few offers of flat that didn't fit his criterias. One looked pretty ok and a lot cheaper than anything else in the neighborhood. I had visited a other place for this same amount and it looked like a crack house so my expectations were pretty low.

I went, the place was really chill, in the same street as my previous flat. I had the good surprise to discover that it was located on the ground floor with a small garden/terasse. The guy that made me visit the place looked really calm and respectful, so good first impression. I was at two days of the end of my contract from the first place, so no time for hesitation. I followed my gut feeling since I had been pretty lucky in Amman.

It was the right call, I love my new spot ! It's clearly less luxurious than the other one but I have everything I need and " Sakhr " my roommate is a great guy as well. So for the few efforts I had to invest, the result was pretty good 😅

The only thing, is that even though I found a cheaper appartement, living in a capitale is costing me a bit to much considering the budget I have to keep traveling after this step. So I started thinking looking for a job.

My first idea was to check with NGOs since Amman is a center place for the international cooperation. Even though, the idea of trying a professional experience in that field made sense for me, I did not want to engage myself for a full time job on several months. For The others jobs the salary were very low so I was bit blocked on this one...

The other day as I was saying to my Arabic teacher that it was my last lesson with her cause it was to expensive for me. We were mentioning the idea of offering conversation table services in French or Spanish if the director was interested.

I was pretty tired this day, so I thought I will come back a other day to talk with him. As I was walking out, one of his co-worker called me and asked me what I was doing tonight ? Their teacher for the English language conversation just cancelled last minute. So she wanted to know if I wanted to do it ? I thought about french and Spanish but not English since they are a lot of natives speakers living in Jordan. I was a bit hesitating, she told me that it was for intermediate level and not too hard to deal with. So I decided to give it a try !

Well, it went really smoothly, I told honestly to the students what was my background to be transparent. But they enjoyed very much their time and gave good feedbacks to the director. So they offered me more work opportunities during the week.

I ended up with a part time job, that will cover my rent plus I get a free Arabic lesson a week 😅

It's a bit challenging for me because I have to review my grammar but I decide I would take it as a challenge !

So far everything was coming from the sky when I was asking for it. It seemed that some Angel was looking after me! I was expecting a bad news to arrive at some point...

Well, the other day I finally got my climbing shoes !!! I was so happy to get back on the rope 🧗 Just waiting the weekend to find a partner !

I met some people playing basketball every week, so I joined them thinking it would be a good idea to do a bit of cardio training. I found a pair of Nike from a previous roommate, they looked perfect for me. I played the whole match without any problems. At the end I realized they were a bit small for me and my feet started to hurt me quite a lot ! When I got back home I discovered that my feet were bleeding but nothing too bad.

The next morning when I woke up I couldn't stand on my right foot! It has been a few days and I can not Walk normally yet... I was expecting a bad news, I hope it's not a huge one 🙏

Except that I m still very grateful for everything that happened to me here ! I surprised myself to enjoy living in the city. It is working because my neighborhood is very chill in comparison of the rest of this big capital. So I will keep enjoying day by day, wainting to see a bit how the world is waking up from this massive crisis. Anyway I can't move from the country yet and even though I could, I want to think smartly my next move! Wouldn't like to be stuck again like in the desert 😉

A funny thing happened a few times my first month, sometimes some sand would appear from nowhere in the apartment. I couldn't understand where the hell that was coming from ?! Well, I discovered that there was a pretty impressive amount of sand that stayed stucked in my flip flops 😂 The desert never goes away!!

A few days passed and it seems that my foot is doing better ! Still haven't climbed yet !!!

My students and the boss are really happy about my work 😉

Seems like life is still good !

It is actually super warm in Amman, it's a heavy sensation during the afternoon but can't complain it's sunny every day, no matter what 🌞

I arrived safely in Antalya, i didn't really know what to except corona wise, how would be the situation in the city and how different it would be from this weird reality i only experienced a little bit in Jordan.

I realized that I went to Turkey because it was one of the few countries open and easy to fly in. But also because when I was still in Jordan, a friend had mentioned a trek in turkey that he was recommanding.

So I checked the region where it was to have a idea and it was just next to the climbing camping where I went a year ago. I had greats memories about this place that I had found by chance at the beginning of my trip. At the time I was a bit sad that I had not staid longer.

So my plan was to stay one night in Antalya, use the day to get the information about the trekking, do some groceries and go directly to this camping to be in the nature.

After the night flight i was pretty tired but I realized I was not only physically but also mentally tired. Leaving Jordan was very emotional for many reason.

I couldn't get all the information I was looking for and the old city center was pretty relax so I decided to stay and do a longer transition before moving to something else.

I realized I was really impregnated by my experience in Jordan and the Arabic world. My food habits, social behavior, the words that would stay even in while speaking in english,... I also realized very quickly that I was Missing speaking Arabic.

Fortunately at my hostel i met A Iraqi and a algerian so it was pretty cool For me to maintain a bit of that mood for a smooth transition.

Turkey is literally an in between europe and the Arabic middle east area i have been. But it's definitely a different story! It has its own style.

I losted The habit to not be able to communicate with people. A lot of Turkish people do not speak a word of English. So frustrated that sometimes I would speak Arabic to them. Since, a third of the turkish vocabulary comes from Arabic, i had more chance to be understood 😅

After a weekend in the city, hanging out with the guys i had met at the hostel, going to the beach, some drinks i quickly felt i had enough of the "Antalya experience".

So I got my informations about the trail and took the bus and hitchhiked the last part to get to geyikbayiri (the climbing area).

It's funny to be in this place a year after having left Belgium. I see it kind of like a symbolic check/evaluation of the year that has passed.

As i was walking to get in the same camping i was a year ago, i had some flash back of me at the beginning of my trip.

I remembered that my step in Turkeys and specially here was when I felt i was really on the road and the adventure had started.

I realized being there, how much things happened this last year and how much my mindset has evolved. I'm not the same version of myself when I left that I'm now. This is a fact!

After a few days of climbing, chilling in the nature I really started to feel the transition from Jordan. I was trying to keep my positive mindset over there but not always easy...

Now that I m out in the nature, it's so obvious how it calms my soul. It's just so hard to do that in the city.

I'm becoming fully relax again. There is a river next to the camp. I went down there by myself and just enjoyed the calm, the beauty and the noises of the nature.

I really have a Great feeling about here !!! I love the place 🤩 i came thinking i would stay only two weeks. I asked them if they need a volunteer for that period of time

They told me that not really because they already have one, with coronavirus they have less guests plus they normally take volunteer for minimum three weeks. I was not sure to be willing to commit to the place more time. So I told them to think about me like a bonus if needed.

After two days, they called me to ask for some helps, i helped them with a few things. In the end the asked me to really be working as a volunteer in the restaurant.

I work as a waiter in the restaurant (two days on, two days off) in exchange i have food and accommodation. It's a small restaurant and the customers are all climbers super chill. Nothing to do with my previous experiences in this sector. The deal seems fare, plus there are really happy about my work so there are treating me pretty well.

My first days, i wasn't sure how my shoulder injury would react. It seems that on that side everything was alright. I tried not to push to much in the beginning.

Of course I'm stubborn person with high personal expectations. So I was thinking i would have the same level on the rock that my last progress in the gym.

It's a totally different feeling plus lead climb and tope rope are so different (when the rope is already set up at the top or if you setting it up yourself). I ended up quickly pushing myself in routes that were a bit over my level and expecting to flash all of them.

So I took a few falls and destroyed my fingers in my first 10 days. I got really into it and wanted to climb every day! Good introduction ☺️

I realized in climbing there is a nice analogy to life. When you are on a route, you need to be calm , believe your intuition to find your way through. If you are blocked, and start loosing it, you will just scrumble around and hurt yourself.

You need to stop, calm yourself and think that out. You do need to push your limit and gather all of your strength, courage and spirit to go over it. It's a nice mindset to keep in your life.

One night around the fire place, I was talking with someone about running. He was saying that he was doing it for a while but never got hooked. I was explaining how it use to be a big part of my life, as a sport but as well as a way of emptying my head. When my knee injury started to be really a problem and i had to stop i was missing something and couldn't replace it.

At that time one of my closest friend offered me to join him at the climbing gym. Since it was winter and I was looking for a sport to do indoor. I went and loved it. Then kept doing it and got hooked because I found what I need even more than into running.

It is interesting i never thought about starting climbing before. I always loved the outdoor, trekking and always dreamed to go on the top of a mountain. But somehow I never made the connection with sport climbing.

i realized though that conversation i was really sad a the time of stopping running. I really had hard time accepting that my body was letting me down. I would never had been able at that time to see some positive in this situation. Now I can say that in a way the "upside" of that story was that i got pushed into this passion.

A good lesson about unfortunate events in life!

I was thinking lately about what blocks me from trying or doing certains things in life ?

I realized that in my case The fear of failure is one of my biggest enemy! I do a lot of things in my life and in general I successed in most of the things I started. I usually go for challenge but knowing that i have my chances.

Beeing blocked by the potential failure is only human but again related to the Ego. Definitely something I m willing to work on 🙏

I was Thinking it again when I'm on the climbing wall. If you go on a route with expectations and/or fear of failure you won't climb well. When you go relax, embracing any obstacles, that is when you climb in a state of flow. Those are the best routes in climbing and in life!

I started to really make friends and feeling at home. It's really a nice feeling and my life is pretty good here! I know that this kind of happy place always have a "dark side" and I will see it at some point but so far it's a happy bubble.

It's like living in a little village with climbers, hikers and highliners.

After a month i really got into the rythmin of the place. My first 2 weeks i climbed 10 days in a row ! Which is way too much for the body.

It's a bit like the life at the mountains when you are going to ski. You want to make the most of it so you push a bit during your week over there to enjoy fully. But now that I know that I'm probably staying longer, there is no point of pushing. It's a other rythmin to apply if you want to last the whole season 💪

Of course being in that environment is hard to not be tempted. Plus climbing is a very addictive sport but it is part of it, finding the balance with your body to allow you to climb and enjoying your time.

When I use to surf, i was thinking about how much time and energy you put in for just those few seconds of pure freedom.

It's very similar with climbing, when you look at your all climbing session day, in the whole afternoon you maybe spent 30 min on the rock! (More if you trying something over your level) but still it's a very small proportion.

It's amazing when you think about it how much energy and time you put into a practice for a few minutes of pure happiness.

When you stay in a place like here that is filled with climbers. You have such a concentration of people focused towards one direction. It's' beautiful to see all of this people putting this effort.

When I look at the locals climbers living here I'm inspired by the simple life they live. They live in small houses close to the nature, have a lot of time, live in a beautiful area, are in a very good shape and seem pretty relaxed.

You could again compare it to the surfers living a simple life close to the ocean to be able to surf all the time.

Comparatively with surf world i think prefer the mountains environment. I somehow feel that the mood in this environment is less touristy or thriven by ego. I feel that surfers cliche attracts more people and the beach in general is more a place to be watched.

Sport-Climbing seems less popular to me and less impressive to watch specially if you don't really understand the level of technique implied.

Of course ego is still here but it applies to a different ways. Climbing is more a personal route with less of a competition aspect.

We live in a little bubble here for a lot of different reasons. It's a quite place in the nature surrounded by the mountains. People are here on holiday or on a long stay travel and both to climb and chill. Plus during this strange period people are here also to avoid the craziness of coronavirus.

Here we are leaving far away from the city restrictions, we don't really wear masks. The boss of the camping try to keep it a habit and the new guests when they arrived.

Of course we try to avoid to be to many in a closed place without ventilation but even that with the cold coming started to be less and less respected.

Slowly, the masks totally disappeared and a silent general consensus happened. We decided to live and not really face this part of the reality. Somehow it was nice to live "normally". I barely had to face this part of restrictions but a lot of people here are really happy to escape from it.

Then one day, one of the guest called the owner when he was out in the city for the weekend to tell them that he felt sick so he got tested and was positive covid-19. That was the beginning of the troubles in this little bubble.

Somehow nothing to be surprised, Turkey is open for tourism and do not even ask for a covid test to enter. So at some point, it was just a question of probabilities.

From that point, the steps were not very clear. If someone has it, who might have it and what should we do ?

First steps was : the group of friends of the first case had to be tested. In the beginning they didn't want to... Wich create a weird situations since not the whole camp knew at that point.

The thing is that if you are a tourist and you get tested positive, the Turkish government come to pick you up to quarantine you in a hotel.

They finally went after two days of discussion. The results came the day after and the were all positive except one.

So with that news, we decided with the volunteer team to get tested because we are constantly in contact with a lot of people from the camp so we had good chance to have it and spread it in the restaurant.

Starting from that point the whole camp had to know about the covid situation. So it started to be a huge change in the mood. Everyone started to be scared wearing masks, looking at each other like everyone represent a potential danger.

There was a big group of turkish students. They all packed and left immediatly after that news. Some guys were supposed to drive me to the city but then got scared and changed their minds

This crazy episode matched exactly when my brother decided to come to visit me.

So I ended up going to the hospital to make a test and then going to the airport to pick him up. A bit non sense but everything happened so fast that we just had to go with the flow and trying to act smartly!

It was so nice to see him after a year of being away from home. In the car as we were speaking about a bit everything, i had a hard time realizing that he was here around me.

Once we arrived at the camp and could sit relax without mask it was like we had seen each other for the last time the day before. Such a warm feeling 🤗

I had explained him the covid situation that just happened in the camp but it had not occured me that if I was positive, the government would come to pick me up and quarantine me for two weeks! What a bad timing... 😅

So we went to bed praying that everything would be alright. In the morning my results were there and everything was ok 🙏

Some other people got tested after and all negative, it seems that the situation was under control!

From there everything went pretty smoothly, my brother got along with my friends and totally fit the bubble mood of the camping.

I had the pleasure to introduce him to rock climbing. He had already some experience in climbing so it was perfect to start on this basis. He turned out to be really good and persistent, a true lion 😉 No surprises!

Unfortunately my back injury was hurting me a bit so I couldn't climb as i wished but was still really happy to be around and belay him to see his progress and having fun.

This little experience made me realize two things :

First i really enjoyed introducing someone to rock climbing, it inspired me for my future as something I could enjoy do.

Secondly, it was kind of intense experience to do it with my brother. Sure rock climbing represents a risk but when you are responsable for a member of your family, it's a different story 😇

#don't worry mul#

Things were going pretty well here and i could see that the break from the actual craziness happening in the world was doing some good to my brother. Plus everyone was pushing him to stay longer, so he ended up changing his ticket to stay one more week!

I could only be happy to have him around for more time ♥️

The visit of my brother made me think about a few things :

Many people as himself are trying to escape the carfue and covid mood from back home.

A lot of people are here for climbing but specially this year, people stay long term because it's a great bubble to forget the craziness of the actual world.

Beeing in this bubble all the time makes you forget about this reality and even the outside world!

I'm very grateful to be here right now 🙂

This episode also made me realize, i might have been sad or frustrated when the covid crisis started. I got stucked and all my plans of freedom around the world had changed.

The first lesson at that time was to work on accepting a situation where you have no impact on.

Now I'm also realizing that in the end, it was probably one of the best moments to be away from my belgian life and be able to find confort in many other ways. In the end I did not experience that much the covid reality and i made great use of that time.

Plus having no plans at all is pretty cool. Since it's impossible to know where it will be possible to go after, there's is no space for planing. I like to not know where I'm going after, not having to care about it and just enjoying what is coming to me.

A other thing is that I m not really discovering Turkey as i would normally try to visit a country. But I'm in a happy place that fits me right now, That is already a lot !

Seems that I'm going to stay here the whole season 💪 untill March - April !

A last observation about my feelings and impressions is that I'm not in a hurry to come back in Belgium. Of course I miss home and everyone! But i start to feel the results of that experience.

After a year of traveling i can really feel confortable in this experience, i haven't pay attention as much as in the beginning about the "time aspect of being away".

Not that I see myself embracing fully this lifestyle for the rest of my life but it confirmed me in the idea that beeing disconnected from your confort zone for a period of time (longer than the previous travel i have done) really brought me a true feeling of disconnecting with my previous life's chapter.

The goal is not to forget them, just taking enough distance to look at what you have accomplished, who you are now and what do you truely enjoy in life. So the future I'm looking at will be fitting the lessons of this experience 🙏

The other day, a memory poped up :

A year ago when I was in this area, i drew something about climbing and wrote down this sentence next to it :

"I don't want to learn climbing, I want to become a climber"

It's making more and more sense to me now 😉

When I arrived in turkey my plan was to stay two weeks in geyikbayiri to climb and then go hiking in the area. Obviously i stayed a little bit longer !

When the owners the camping asked me if I wanted to do the whole season, i said yes but that i still would like to do the hike in the middle of the season. So we agreed, i would do it around March and someone else would replace me during that time.

March was coming and i hadn't really started planning my trip, i had the book but hadn't checked yet.

So i started checking all the steps, in the book to put them on the map and in my map on my phone. Pinpointing where the water point were located. Wich steps were looking hard. I was particularly worried about the one with a lot of path down hill because of my knee injury.

Last time i hiked the mountain my knee was killing me at the end of the day. Mostly because we did the way down really fast and after a long day of physical effort. So i wasn't really sure what my body was going to allow me to do. I did my knee stretching everyday after this hike in order to put all the chances with me.

Here i was a couple of days before the trekking, gathering the last items i needed, thinking what should I bring or not. Finally i put everything on the ground as i did a year and half ago before leaving Belgium. Checking if everything was there and how to pack it smartly in my bag. Finally my bag was ready, a bit heavier than I wished but ok. I spent two days climbing and one day resting before leaving. Said goodbye to the people that would not be here when I'll be back and started my adventure.

The plan : 30 days of hiking, around 550km between fethiye and geyikbayiri !

If i finish everything i will arrive precisely at the camping in geyikbayiri 😅

I decided to hitchhike to fethiye to reach the starting point.

I started without knowing if it would really be a good idea. I was wondering if with coronavirus people would not really be inclined to take hitchkers.

I waited 5 minutes for the first car that got me started, then 15 for the second that put me on the main road for my direction and then half and our for the third one that brought me directly to fethiye.

When I was waiting for the second one, I was thinking why i decided to hitchhike ? There's a bus from Antalya direction fethiye, it's not really expensive. I was wondering if it's not the practical aspect or the money what is it really ?

I guess there's a part of challenge and adventure. It's always the same process of putting you in a position of not knowing and having to deal with the the uncertainty of a situation. It is every time the same exercise but I always go through some similar thinking. 99% of the case i reached my goal in a timing totally acceptable and met cool people on the way.😎

This time i faced a situation a bit strange, that i didn't get in the moment because of language bareer.

When I was waiting for the third car, there was a other guy (turkish) who was also hitchiking. Since he was there first, i waited that he would get a car to hitchhike after him. With what I can manage in turkish, i understood that we were going the same way. So we kind of hitchhiked together. He was sometimes moving to a other spot to see if he would be luckier.

At some point he went to the bathroom, at that moment a guy stopped. He wasn't really speaking English but he was going to fethiye. He let me in the car and when I sat i saw the other hitchiker coming back from the bathroom. He didn't know if coming so i waived at him, he came and talked with the driver. The result was that he didn't take him.

The driver was really friendly, so later on i asked him why he didn't take the other one. He explained me that he was not trusting the turkish hitchikers but only foreigner. Unsual, this kind of generalities are the other way around... The rest of the way went pretty well. He dropped me in fethiye just before sunset.

Time was running out So i took a small bus to the village where the hike was starting. By the time I got there it was dark, i started looking for the path and walked on it to find a spot to hang my hammock. I was walking through a bunch of hotel resort, not easy to find some good trees in the dark. Plus a lot of dogs were barking and i didn't want to get attention from people since I wasn't yet on the path. At some point I found a little shelter, that the taxi drivers use to rest while waiting for customers. Obviously empty at that time of the day. I thought : " perfect, that will do for tonight!"

There was a little bench to sleep on, even a plug to charge my phone. I started unpacking some of my stuff to eat and I saw my fingerboard (object to train fingers strength for climbers) thought I might train a bit. So I opened my hammock bag to take my slings and carabiners. Not there.... I thought, it's dark and late, I might be tired and not looking well, I wit check tomorrow better. I ate and decided to go sleep. It was a hard night, the dogs never stopped barking all night.

In the morning, i realized I was by chance, literally at the starting point. I gather my things and started walking. I was really happy but at the same time really curious and a little bit scared. I had no idea what was coming ahead. Two things were mainly bothering me : if my knee was going to allow me to complete at least a reasonable part of the the trekking and secondly, i read that there was a lot of shepherd dogs on the way that could be quite aggressive.

I started the walk with a lot of questions in my head. It reminded me a bit my mindset when I left Belgium. It's this mix of fear, apprehension and adrenaline. I realized that the fear of not knowing and not being able to achieve what we wish is really a big factor in those moments. To balance that feeling, you have the adrenaline of doing something that you dreamt of and push you over your limits. This weird balance put you on the road and you are just left with one mission : moving forward!

So here i was, walking under this march's sun that happened to be already quite warm. The landscape were already pretty nice and the path not that easy, but happy i was!

I quickly found my rythmin and was enjoying myself. Toward the end of my first day i met Yusuf that made me realize two things :

first, that i was not alone walking on that path and secondly, a bit after that i had lost my phone.

So i said goodbye to him and went back looking for it. Luckily I found it. Here was a first lesson. After that i look for a spot and decided to set up camp after this first day that was already tiring. I checked and no sign of my sling and carabiners.

I couldn't understand i checked all my bag before leaving. My hammock was packed since November. I had not open it, i couldn't understand that a part was missing. I contacted vic and confirmation came, i left them on the trees in the camp...

You see i was sleeping in my hammock only for the first weeks in the camping. When I decided i would stay longer, i switched to a tent that was more convenient for long time stay. After weeks my hammock was still hanging there, so one day i thought I should put it back. Apparently that day i was distracted... So here my second lesson, always check everything, even the things you things you though you packed! So I set up my tarp and no hammock. I tried to start my little routine, wich implies finger board training, stretching, meditation and reading aside from making a fire and cooking.

First night on the trail was alright, i started my second day a bit late, i wasn't in the rythmin yet. I was tired from the first night at the taxi spot. Full of entousiasm i started this second day. Arriving to the beautiful kabak beach i was looking for a small shop to buy food for my lunch. There i met Charlar that was looking for the same. We walked togheter and ate lunch on the beach.

We kept walking together and as we were talking we realized we were both camping with hammock. I told him my story about my hammock and he told me : " i don't worry i don't use carabiners, i can show you a technique".

The challenge was to find not only a knot that was safe enough but that's also easy to untight in the morning after a night of tension. Luckyly i had some extra rope with me, so he showed me when we set up the camp together. The trouble was that my rope was so thin than the knots was slowly moving during the night. Nevertheless, it worked and i could untight it. I slept without knowing if my set up would hold me all night. Hard to be fully relax 😅

I also had some small carabiners with me but seemed to small to trust so i did not use them.

Next morning he started a bit earlier than me and i caught him a bit later and eventually arrive before him to the next village. I waited for him there and had lunch. Afterwords we met Damian, a guy from Switzerland. We walked, all together after lunch. At the end of the day Damian wanted to go a bit further and Charlar and me decided to call it for the day. We set up camp and i had some time to do relax everything of my little routine. The next day, there was two options : one shorter and one longer than was going through some ruins. We had diferents plans so we split up m, hopping to meet again.

As I was walking down to the next village, happy about the different people i had met but also to be on my own again, i faced again some "dogs challenges". I stopped to take some water in the village and realized that there was a girl walking behind me. I kept walking since my envy was more on solitary mood. Through the village there was still a few dogs barking/following me. At one house there was one really aggressive that jumped out and ran directly at the girl that happened to be just a few meters behind me. She was panicking, so i threw some rocks and yell at the dogs and it ran away. I kept my way and was happy about my mission.

Later on, we met nearby the ruins so we had lunch together. So I met Rachel that is from the USA. She had a interesting life story. She also got stucked in an other country during lockdown (Ouzbékistan) so we could share on the experience.

She was also one very interested in the archeological part of the lycian way. So i learned a bit about that interesting civilization. They were a small population that had no interest in conquer others territory, they were a very early form of democracy, happened to be a matriarchal society and had a polyethist religion but we're not trying to convert other people. A lot of different empire attack them along their story but somehow kept existing for different centuries.

The whole hike is name after them and the region. It's quite cool, as you walk you pass a lot of different ruins on your way. There are no fences or paying fee, it's just there. Sometimes it gives a mystical touch to your day. You're walking on the same path as this old civilization and see the remaining of their cities.

As we were walking and talking about our different life experiences i learned that she use to work for secret intelligency of the army, later on became a pshycoterapeut.

We were talking about her spider phobia when she was in Thailand and it put me on the subject of my fear of the dogs. By phrasing it i realized it was actually a bigger challenge than i thought. I knew it would be a challenge for me when I read it in the book but i never thought it would at a level of a phobia.

It Is actually a fear that i kept with me since I was a child, it stayed with me all my life. Even it got better with time, it never went away. Until last year in jordan, when I went hiking and had this bad experience with the shepherd dogs. Since then, it was like if it had gone back to the starting point.

Because I wasn't really in an environment where it was relevant, i didn't really make the connection until this hike. This conversation with her made me realize the importance of that challenge but also that i was capable of facing the situation since I defended her.

We kept walking togheter and set up camp in the same place. At night I cooked a nice meal with some vegetables that I grilled in the fire!

Next day she started a bit earlier than me, I caught her up end of the morning. We walked together for a bit and then I kept going on my own. She was planning to stay sleeping in a hotel in the next village.

So I kept going and found myself a nice spot for camping, stretching and fire making. I improved my hammock set up with some little update I found myself. The technique charlar gave me was good but didn't solve everything. I could finally have a good night of sleep!

Next day, for once I woke up early and started my day with the good rytmin. Happy to be alone again and going at my own past I had a great first half of the day. I went through some nice forest and ruins. The rest of the day was supposed to be flat and easy through a village.

I started walking through this area full of green houses. At some point, i started seeing a few dogs every few houses but my mindset was good and so were my reactions, i even managed to pet some. As i kept going through the village more and more dogs were appearing and my mindset started to be less and less positive.

The way looked like it was never going to end and the dogs were more and more aggressive. At some point i was really on the edge,. I started to be in "stress mode" the landscape were not nice and i was not enjoying myself. So i decide to hitchike to go a bit further on. Someone took me and brought me to the next ruin's, where i had lunch and time to calm myself. So i though if I'm not enjoying the landscape and I'm just having a hard time there's no point. The physical challenge is still the same eventough i hitchike a bit. So i walked a bit and hitchiked to the next village since I could see it was still full of green houses.

Once there I was planning to do some groceries and look for some carabiners for my hammock since it was the first "town" i had seen in days. No carabiners and a lot of street dog. I met a other hiker that looked lost so asked him if he needed some help. We talked a bit and he ended up gifting me a carabiner that he had with him. He was looking for a bus to go to a other step. I had read in the book that my next step was going to be similar as the one I had just done. So i decided to go with him. So i met Andre from Russia.

As we were talking waiting for the bus, we got to know each other. He was different from his apparence. I thought he looked a bit superficial but in fact had a big life change a year ago when he discovered about deep mediation. He changed his life habit and his career. He became some kind of coach life. Helping people to go forward with their life and solving some traumas.

Later on we ended talking about my fear of dogs. And i explained him how i started this trekking challenge thinking that the hard part was the km, the heat, the heavy bag, the night alone in the woods but in fact the real challenge was actually facing the dogs on my own. We talked a bit about my experience as a child and what could actually be the worst for me if something would go wrong. Really cool talk ! He really changed the mood after this hard afternoon. 😊

He was planning to stay sleeping in the village and I kept going in direction of the path. I had directly some dogs challenges to face on my way but did pretty ok. I set up my hammock exhausted from this long intense day and decided to sleep early without cooking.

Next morning i woke up restless, as if I did not really recovered enough from yesterday. Nevertheless I started walking. I was not totally relax, I couldn't enjoy anymore as i was in the first days. It was like my fear came back but worst than the first day.

I was facing some questions in my mind about fear in life, how there are something that we try to avoid as much as we can and when we have to face them we do everything to minimize the importance of it in our mind. I'm someone that is trying to work on himself physically, emotionally, socially, culturally etc but yet I never wanted to or never could realize how big this fear was in my life. The conversation with Andre really got me thinking about the importance of all of those fear/problems that are the main causes to all of our stress, anxiety etc. And everything is happening in our mind!

Now the question was, how could I be able to trick my mind again to overcome this "fear mindset" and be able to enjoy fully the beauty of this experience. I was trying to think about a lot fear i faced in my life and to what are they really related more deeply inside me ( lose of control, feeling of failure, lack of freedom ?). I came up with some ideas but no conclusions yet.

Still the landscape was beautiful!

As i was gathering my good spirits during a break, I saw Damian ( a swiss guy we met with Charlar on the second day) walking down. He walked really fast because I cut one step with the bus i took. He was really happy to see me. We started walking together and talking. We realized we had the exact same experience with the dogs and was in the same mindset as mine now. Trying to free himself from the fear to enjoy again the beauty around us.

He told me that i made a good call to skip the previous store because it was full of agressive dogs. He also told me that in the application he was using, they were specifically mentioning that the last years that part of the hike was getting more and more problematic with the dogs. This information and the day together allowed us to take some distance with the previous day. We had a good sunny day 🙂.

He told me that in the morning he met a local that told him that he was welcome in his house if he wanted to rest. The idea of a house and a shower after 6 nights in camping sounded like a good plan. So he called him at the end of the day. We walked down the next village and met Hilmi. He was with 5 dogs and lived far in a village through a lot of green houses. We both thought oh my god!

But the the way down was pretty cool he was really funny and the dogs were really obeying him. Plus everybody in the village was so nice, we crossed an old lady that offered us some food she cooked and was distributing in the village. We walked past the perfect shop for my hammock set up, i found exactly what I needed. An old guy offered us some chocolate, it was like a happy village!

We went to Hilmi house, had a good shower, went to eat some pide (turkish pizzas) and some drinks. It happens that they both spoke french so funny for me to be in this set up and talking my own language. We had a few drinks and a nice evening. Hilmi is kurdish so we had the opportunity to hear a bit about his reality in turkey. We talked about many things untill we were just about to fall asleep.

We slept like rocks! In the morning we ate a good breakfast with all locals products. After Hilmi dropped us in the next village. Damian decided to rest one more night in a hotel because his feet were hurting to much. I decided to go already on the path to camp.

Since I saw it was going to rain a lot i waited at a cafe (that happens to be closed) before going on the path. The rained was mild but the cloud stayed so i didn't want to take the risk because a big storm was supposed to come during the afternoon. In the end the cafe's owner offered me to stay on his terrace to have a roof. Wich i accepted because it seems that the rain was delayed for the night. I ended up drinking beers with him and his cousin and got a other taste of turkey!😅

Happy to find again my traveler's spirit and getting ready for the rest of the trail. After a week i already learned so much! About myself, about what could really bring me this experience and how it's always good to move a bit a out of your confort zone. I love my life at the camping and enjoy climbing so much but maybe i needed to move a bit to see something else for a while. Let's see about the rest now!

The next morning, i started walking with a good spirit again, wondering if Damian was behind or ahead me on the path. It's a cool balance this trekking on my own because I m having mostly the good amount of the loneliness i wanted but i also met cool people. Each is going on his own rythmin. They are also willing to be on their own so nobody get in the private space of the others and when you meet someone after being on your own it's a cool feeling.

So far i never really struggled to find the path, mostly it was pretty well indicated and maps me on my phone helped me when I had a doubt. But this morning, the path was strange making me going on circle. There was to many signs and then no signs at all. I believe some locals changed the sign to make you walk through their camping to increase the chances to stop there. I bushwaged a bit but ended up finding my ways. I walked a big way up quite steep that brings you from sea level into the mountains. What a good a felling to see the landscape changing through the day!

It seems i talked a lot about dogs and fear but every day the landscapes were amazing, it's so changing from the sea, to some rocky valleys to small lonely villages, flat green fields and pine forest. The flowers, the smells, the birds singing, sometimes a few animals passing by just gave the magic i was looking for!

I was walking on a good path but this etape was a big one. Arriving to one village, i met two guys, Ozi and Yuma (a turkish and a Russian walking with huge backpacs. We stopped to chat and drink some water. They were a funny gypsy team with all their stuff. They were waiting for a third friend (a girl from ukraine, anastasia) so i kept going

I saw i wouldn't make it to the next village, wich was supposed to be the end of the day. So i stopped where i could find some nice trees. I was looking forward for a night of sleep in my hammock with my new gears. I had a good evening relax, cooked a great meal. Ready for the night but didn't go how i wished! A bunch of dogs were barking all night and coming very close from my campground. Plus it was probably the coolest night so far since I was around a 1000m of altitude. I barely slept...

The morning i packed quickly and decided to move quickly to catch up the way. So far i was doing relax morning but now i thought it's time to get in the real rythmin, walking early and fast to have time in the afternoon.

It didn't go the way i wished. The first part was down hill, pretty steep (wich is hard on my knee) and really confusing so i was going slowly, checking all the time for the path. I crossed a village and started going up hill again pretty steep again. I didn't see the usual signs but my gps was telling me that i was on the right way. I took a turn and was a bit hesitant because it looked bushy but i decided to trust my gps.

What a mistake! That's the time i really got lost! I was to far to go back and it was not getting better ahead...

Sometimes when you look at your map, it seems that it would be easy to cut to make it a bit shorter good though a bit of vegetation. There is a reason why the path exists!!! 😅 I don't if you have already try to go through some spiky forest with a big backpack and climbing some big rocks ? It's quite a adventure. I decided to embrace it and going fully in it. I finally made it through after more than an hour of indiana jones style.

Can you see the magic bush on the next picture? 😉

When I found the path, i walked quite fast up hill. Ending on a magical view of the valley where bi was coming two days ago. Then the path was going through some big flats green fields surrounded by spiky bushes. The weather was cloudy and It seemed that i was the only guy around.

Suddenly, a dog appeared. Behind him i saw a herd. I thought : " damn a sheppard dog, it's going to chase me." I decided to try a different strategy. Normally, i always walk with a stone in my pocket because they say it's the way to chase the sheppard dogs. I sat, put my walking stick on the ground to show the dog i was not taking his territory. It looked me and so i called him with a nice voice. It just came to me and I even managed to pet him. I couldn't believe what just happened 🙏 Then the sheppard came, we talked a bit (limited by my turkish level). Then we walked togheter through the herd so the dog wouldn't not bother.

Kept my way trying to find water and trees in this strange landscape. Found almost the only two tress next to each other in all the km i had been through 😅.

After my routine, when i was setting up the hammock. The gypsy team arrived. So they set up camp with me. It was the first night i spent with more than one person camping. It was cool , they had a funny vibe.

The next day was supposed to be a long etape of 7h30 of walking but the problem was that a storm was announced for the night and the next day. There was no shops in the village of the etape so we talked about doing ba double etape that would bring us to Kash. It's a small coast town very relax. But it would mean 10h30 of walking with a way down of 400m down in two km at the end, probably in the dark! Quite a challenge 😉

I slept so well and woke up early with my alarm! First night with a good hammock set up, not cold and no dogs. I packed quickly and said goodbye to the gypsy team that was going on a slow start.

I walked like a machine this day! At some point, I heard some dogs barking behind me coming closer and closer. So i did the same, i stopped and let them coming to me. It worked perfectly, they even did a bit of way with me. 🤗

I had not much food for my lunch but i met a family cutting some wood that offered me some tea, cheese and bread. Coming from the sky 🙏

I walked 11 hours that day, with max 30 minutes of break the whole day. The way was really beautiful but i had not much time to stop. I was facing against the daylight and the storm. There is quite a nice adrenaline when you have to walk fast because you need to be so focus. Checking for your path and paying attention to every step on difficult road without loosing the rythmin is good challenge for the mind and the body.💪

I arrived in kash just when the sun was going down. Found quickly a cheap pensyion to stay. Took a warm shower, " swallowed a huge warm meal and slept like a rock.

Not quite a palace, my room was in the basement but who cares about the seaview when you walked every day with a beautiful landscape. Just a warm bed will do.

Plus getting too comfortable during the break in a city makes it harder to go back on the trail. If it wasn't for the storm i would not stop in a City!

I couldn't not feel my feet at the end of the day. The morning i realized that my shoes were broken... Good timing since I was in the only town of the whole hike.

I tried to find new shoes but there was only two shops selling fake shoes low quality... It was like walking on plastic high heel. I hard time with trusting the new shoes and leaving behind the old ones that are the best shoes i ever had!

So like a good belgian, i made a compromise 😅 i fixed the old ones, good thing that we are in turkey and everything is possible ! And i bought a new pair for back up because I did not think the other would last to the end.

I got along well with the owner of the place, since I speak a bit turkish and got use to middle east politeness/communication they made me feel at home. Good feeling for resting fully. The next day i took it easy, ate, read and chilled. It didn't rain much during the day but i couldn't tell during the night because I slept really deeply.

It was funny because among the different people on the trail we almost all ran into each other but at different times. In kash i met Yuma the Russian guy from the gypsy team that told me they had to sleep up there the previous night and it rained a lot ( confirmation that the rain did happen 🤣) because they couldn't make it in time. I also saw later Yusuf, the guy that i met the first day. He came to check in in the same pensyion as me. Since they were full, we shared my room. Later on came Anastasia, the girl from the gypsy team. So funny to all meet in the same place again!

I spent two nights in kash to leave the storm pass. My plan was to check the next morning, how the weather would be. If not to bad, i would get going to keep moving forward. There was a other storm coming for the next day, so i wanted to make sure I would sleep under a roof again. Normally it doesn't rain a lot except during the rainy season (November- January) but there still a few days here and there that might happen. When it does rain, it's a lot in one day and then next morning, it's like nothing happened, full sunshine ☀️ Should be good for the rest of the month 🙏

The next morning, i woke up relax took my time. I knew the weather cast said it would rain until mid day. So i waited my window of opportunity to start under the sunshine.

My plan was to stop to a village 2 hours away or the next one 4 hours away from Kash.

Trying my new shoes and going slowly without being in the rush with this small itinerary i enjoyed very much this way. I went through some hills and then along the coast line into some small beaches. I walked fast enough to walk past the first village in less time than announced. So i kept going.

The sea was so agitated that i could see the storm coming...

Bad news everything was closed in the next village. Mission aborted 🤔 new plan : 3 more hours to go to get to the next village to find a roof. It was already around 17h wich meant for sure walking in the dark. I started walking really fast like the day to go to Kash. Timing was too stretch. I stopped at some place to take some water. There i saw two guys in front of a little shed drinking tea . I stopped to say Hello and the owner of the shed invited me to have a cup of tea.

I explained him my situation but his English was very limited. I thought i should get going to reach the village. We talked a bit, he explained me that this Land belong to his family and he comes here to work on The olives trees and enjoy sleeping by the sea. We kept talking and he finally offered me to stay for free in his shed, thank God!🙏

Just after that a rainbow appeared 😊 i was so released to have a roof for the storm!

Then he even offered me to stay at his house in kash, so i could wash my clothes and eat a warm meal and drive me back here the next morning. I thanked him but said i was very good here. He offered me some food for my dinner. He told me i could take whatever i wanted in the shed, food, drinks, etc.

We made a fire and stayed enjoying the view together. His cousin stopped by for a moment and they talked a while but i could not understand everything. His cousin was not really friendly.

Then just a bit before leaving i saw him being a bit agitated, like less outgoing. He asked me if I would be confortable leaving any contribution for staying. His plan was to stay but to help me he was leaving and coming back tomorrow to work. I told him i totally understood but i asked him why he did not ask me in the first place ? I would have said yes. I was anyway looking for a roof tonight with the idea of paying for it.

I supposed his cousin told him something to make him change his mind...

When I said that, he apologized and told me to forget what he just said. I felt bad and insist, i said :" look if you need the money, tell me. It's ok, i rather be honest". He told me he was sorry for his bad english (most of our conversation was through google translate), not to worry and to pray for him. Then he left...

I stayed with a weird feeling, wondering what would be the right reaction ? He really looked honest and genuinely nice. I thought maybe to shy or to polite to ask in the first place ?

I had a bit of time to think about it during the evening.

My thoughts were :

It's so nice when you are on the road to meet people that are friendly and welcoming.

It's definitely a good feeling to be outside of the "classics/mainstream" tourism.

It's really cool to be hosted by locals to jump into some realities.

What i want to see in the world as an ideal is not how it should be or simply how is the reality. Sometimes what i projet or what i hope for doesn't match the reality. It's my responsibility to adapt also to each situation.

I'm not doing some mainstream tourism but i am a tourist. As the other tourists I'm here to seek my own happiness/satisfaction.

Traveling as backpackers and trying to seek adventure often rymes with:

being uncomfortable, taking risks, putting yourself in situation where you avoid to pay for services and puting yourself in a position of vulnerability, hopping that people will help you.

Weird mix when you put it like this but this what i have been doing for a while.

Sure i don't want to pay three times the price in a restaurant or in a taxi or even paying a lot for some organized tours but as a young man from a western country, I'm a lot time way more "confortable" in life that the people that are helping me during my trip.

Sure i haven't been traveling in the poorest countries/areas and i have seen a lot of people leaving very comfortably in the countries i have traveled lately.

My point is that, sometimes it's just "normal" to pay for services. Even though I dream of a world out of the money-relationship, we still need some to live. Every time someone offered you or invited just to be nice, not because he wants to sell you something, it's such a warm sensation. But that doesn't mean that when you do pay in certain situations it erases the rest.

So my conclusion was that i wanted to believe the guy in his will of being welcoming but acknowledge the fact that he might need money as well.

I left a bill on the table for the amount of a room in a pensyion.

No electricity, no shower but nice gesture.

It felt right or i just felt better about it afterwards. Hard to say...

I was unsatisfied in the first place about paying and i ended up paying to feel i was doing the right thing 🤔

I slept really well and enjoyed the noise of the sea, while dreaking my tea and snacking.

I heard the storm at night and felt so grateful to be under a roof !

The morning, i left in a good mood, the sun was shining!

My feet were hurting a lot due to my new shoes yesterday. It really felt like i was walking on plastic high heels.

After a hour my knee started to hurt me... First time it hurted like that since the beginning of the trip. I was so happy so far that it never happened but i knew it would at some point. It was just a matter of time and maybe shoes...😐

So i stopped, stretched my legs rest a bit and switched to my old shoes. I kept walking but was paying to much attention to my knee and my mind too focuses about how many days i had left and if my old shoes would hold that much, and what would be my other options blabla blablabla...

Not the right mindset to enjoy the hike. I stopped to have lunch and try to ease my mind, accepting whatever would be the outcome. Also trying to be grateful about what i already had acheaved!

Kept walking with my new conclusions in mind. Then suddenly : A dog watching me!

I was not ready at all, i stopped didn't what were is attention yet. So i sat and try to call him...

He ran at me and licked me on the face. He looked so happy than he made me forget the rest😊

I kept walking and he kept following me. When i met him it was in the forest before a village, he had a neckless but seemed quite skinny to be a "home dog". I was wondering if he belonged to a house in the next village ?

There are a lot of street dogs in Turkey. Sometimes the have a tag on the ear and sometimes even neckless. So hard to say. Anyhow i kept walking and he kept following me. I stopped in the village to take water. I asked some villagers i met but didn't seem to know about it. Went out of the village and still followed by the dog 🐕.

Around the end of my day, i passed through a camping ( a lot of locals built their camping or cafe literally on the trail so you will pass through) i was looking for water because none of the sources i had seen on the map were reliable. I spoked with the guy of the camping that told me there weren't any except three hours away. The dog that followed and the camping's dogs were messing around togheter. So i told him : " sorry about the dog, it's not even mine". He answered me that he knew and had seen that dog before following others hikers.

Asked me if I wanted to stay in his camping and did not offered a solution for a water. I wasn't planning to and even less after the talk.

So set kept walking and set up camp in a place sheltered from the wind because strong winds were blowing that night.

Not super easy to do my stretching and eating with the dog. He's young and wild so he was jumping all the time to play with me. Was starving so really looking forward for food. I managed not so bad considering that I'm not really use to dogs. Never had one before.

I decided that night to not put the hammock because no good tree's and to much wind. So He slept next to me under the tarp and kept me warm during the night. Barked a few times when he hard a animal coming but got back to calm immediately.

He made me forget about my knee, i named him opöchuk (kiss in Turkish)😚

Next morning, the dog was still there. He even met some friends in the morning.

My mission was to walk quickly to find water. When i packed everything, he followed me and we started walking together 😊

So i went from scared as hell to more confident to end up being the "dog hiker" 😂

So far I've been pretty lucky with the environment. My hammock depends on trees and my cooking stove on dry wood. So far i had no problems thanks to the pine forest around me. For the rest of the hike, it looks like I'm going to be closer to the beach or higher in the mountains in rocky environment. We shall see 😉

I'm at the step 16 out of 29, so pretty much at the half. Some steps are a half days, some three days. The average time for the whole lycian way is between 25 and 35 days. I started the 5 in the morning and we are at that point the 16, so far I'm doing good ✌️