We did it!

It's going to be difficult to express the magic of the experience with only the written word as my tool, but I'll try...

Jordan is a place filled with beautiful, mystical and hysterically funny people. Everyone in Jordan is a comedian, which made difficult moments easier - our guides edging us forward with jokes and enormous smiles on their faces.

We began our trek at the Wadi Rum village, where we met our Bedouin guides, and started our walk into the beyond. On average, we spent 6-8 hours walking and climbing each day. Averaging between 15-25km. It was hard, hot, and tough on our legs - as sand dunes don't make the most hospitable walking surface - but each step we took was a personal and group challenge which all of us met without complaint. 

There were more blisters than can be counted - safe to say each of us had at least 4 on each foot. Our Guide, Dave Lucas (henceforth known as Doctor Dave) spent considerable time each day caring for our tired and blistered feet. 

We slept in a Bedouin camp our first night, and thereafter pitched our one-man tents each night. It was six days of hard walking, which culminated in summiting Jebel Khazali on the final trek day (my 40th Birthday!). Our climb began at 5:30am, and we returned to camp at 6pm. 12 solid hours of climbing and abseiling, which stretched all of us to limits we thought not possible. It was the hardest thing I have done to date, surpassing Kilimanjaro by a mile, largely because the skill of rock climbing and abseiling was completely new to me, and staring down a sheer cliff face with a 60 meter drop was something we all had to gather courage to do.

My Birthday was nothing short of wonderful. Waking up to my teammates singing Happy Birthday to me, then letting me be the first to summit Khazali, and then returning to camp to find a chocolate cake waiting for me - in the middle of the desert! I have no idea how they managed to do it, but understand a Bedouin called a baker 3 hours away and then drove out and back to bring the cake to us. It was an emotional moment for me, realising the effort that had been put in, and I will be eternally grateful to the 11 girls, 3 Bedouins and two amazing guides who made the effort to make it possible. It's going to be very, very hard to trump my 40th...

I returned home on the 14th November, disheveled, covered in red sand, with filthy hair, hiking shoes which had lost their soles and a feeling of accomplishment I've never before known. 

Though the challenge was certainly enough to make it a wonderful journey, the friendships developed between the 12 women on the trek are ones which will be life long. All of them beautiful, courageous and kind to a fault. I am so grateful for the chance to get to know each and every one of them.

It wouldn’t have been possible without the generosity of each of you, and I can’t thank you enough for the support, both financially and emotionally. Through this challenge we have, together, changed the lives of hundreds of women around the world. That’s something we can all be incredibly humbled by and proud of at the same time. Thank you again and... until the next time I decide to get off my sofa and do some good!

Erin