Walking Up Wadi Madabah Above the Pools
Walking Up Wadi Madabah Above the Pools



Walking Up Wadi Madabah Above the Pools

Visitors to Wadi Madabah, deep in Wadi Agran, usually visit either the waterfall below the escarpment or the pools above. For this trip in 2004, we drove to the plain above the falls and hiked up the wadi bed deep into the mountains.

We were rewarded with some spectacular scenery capped by what we believe was the sighting of three tahrs as they scrambled over one of the high ridges.

We now refer to this walk as a 'three-tahr' event!

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The "bedrock" is laced with intrusions
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Some of the magnetite is more crystalline than other
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In many places the wadi bed was a narrow channel with bedrock on either side
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Water was flowing at many locations though it had not rained in months
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Plants enjoy the shade and humidity in the wadi bed
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This plant appears to be a healthy example of
Schweinfurthia imbricata
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The pools were filled with wadi fish, toads and insects
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Will and Brigitte looking for different wildlife around a small pool
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Several varieties of grass were recorded
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The wadi bed is about 30 meters deep in this section
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Footprints noted on a gravel bed; we believe these were tahr
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The droppings nearby were similar to those of tahr
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Some of these droppings were collected to confirm the presence of tahr
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Deep into the mountains there was no sign of habitation
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We believe this drainage system backs on to the wadi near the copper mines of Wadi Jizzi
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Wadi beds were consistently deep
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The wadi bed for most the walk consisted of large stones
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A good example of the gravel plain draped over the 'bedrock'
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A more conventional wadi bed with exposed rock on one side and conglomerate on the other
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Like most Hajar mountain wadi beds, this one was constantly twisting
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Unlike many wadi beds, this one was often wider the deeper we went inot the mountains
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Footprints of a small mammal in the clay
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Many rocks were fractured
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An example of the moving water undercutting an exposed tip of 'bedrock'
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Evidence of two waterfalls (left and above Geoff)
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The layers of gravel deposit were visible in many places
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Another stretch of wide wadi bed
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Two side wadis left this sharp point of conglomerate
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Erosion created many caves along the way
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Will negotiating one of the narrowest sections
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Stagnant water where the ponding occured on the impermiable bedrock
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Smooth channel of a waterfal (left)
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Many of the views were simply breathtaking
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The wadi bed stones were large making walking challenging
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Another example of exposed conglomerate
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Salts left lines as the water eroded in this dry pool
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Another view of 'rings' of salt on stones
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A 'fotk' in the wadi bed
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An example of bedrock meeting conglomerate in a vertical setting, as opposed to the more common horizontal setting
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Will inspecting another stagnant pool
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Geoff, Will and Brigitte
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Geoff making his way through some especially large boulders
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The largest of the caves discovered.jpg
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The hikers are tiny figures inside the cave
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At some points we had to climb over and around obstacles
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The setting sun on the upper slopes
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An excellent example of the fractured bedrock



 


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