Alan_to_RSCN

22nd February 2002

Dear Sir,

I was recently in Wadi Rum (for my fourth or fifth visit) , and I was disturbed by some of the things I heard and experienced there about the new rules which have apparently been brought in for the local guides.
I am a rock climber and, like all visiting climbers, if I hire a "Beduin taxi" to take me to a particular rock climb, I need someone to take me there who knows the route.
This is particularly so in my case, as I am climbing the more difficult routes which are not done very often, and thus only the climbing guides, and a few of the trekking guides with an interest in rockclimbing, know where they are.

This has never been a problem before. But this year, local guides are telling me that they are "not allowed" to take me to the climbs unless they have a paper to say that I have booked in advance with them... otherwise I am supposed to take the next person in the queue at the Rest House.
But this is ridiculous !! I am sure that all the people in the queue at the Rest House know the local area and are capable of taking tourists on the standard desert tours, but they often do NOT know particular rock climbs. If this absurd rule is enforced, it will lead to a lot of frustration for climbers who end up in the wrong canyon looking for their climb. it could even be dangerous !

I imagine that this rule has been conceived by some person who is concerned that the system should be fair and that everyone should get their turn. But they do not understand the difference between a "guide" who takes visitors on a standard jeep tour of the desert, and the guides who take climbers to the climbs, or who guide them on climbs, scrambles, and hikes.

As an experienced and skilled climber, I personally do not need climbing guides to take me up the climbs, but I do need someone to take me TO the climbs who knows where they are and who understands what I am doing. If I am to be forced to take the "next in the queue", I would prefer to hire my own four wheel drive and find my own way to the climbs, using the guide book. But this would be a pity, when there are local people who could take me there if the "rules" allowed it.

As far as less experienced/skilled/confident climbers or hikers are concerned, it is even more important that they need to be able to choose an experienced guide to take them up a rock climb or a mountain or through a canyon safely. Several relatively inexperienced friends of mine have had wonderful and memorable experiences doing easy climbs with local guides. But it is essential that these guides know the routes, know how to use ropes safely, and most of all have a good rapport with their clients. It would be ludicrous and very dangerous in this situation to imagine that these clients could be told they should take the "next in the queue", whether that person has the skills or not - and yet that seems to be happening !
Surely this must be a misunderstanding of the rules ?

Many climbers return to Wadi Rum more than once. They build up relationships with their guides, and want to be taken out by the same people on their next visit.
But now, apparently, this is not to be allowed unless they book in advance.
How about those of us who make friends among the local guides ? If I climb with one of the local climbers, as a friend and equal partner, am I breaking some new "rule" ? Or if a local guide uses his jeep to drop me off at a climb (without being paid), is he breaking the rules ? If he takes my wife through a canyon as a favour, whilst I am climbing with someone else, does that break the rules ? My wife is certainly not going to go out into the desert with someone we don't know, the next in the queue. But she was upset by one of your Rangers when she went out with a local guide who is a personal friend. One of the guide's young relatives, who had gone with them and was waiting for them, was questioned for apparently being in a "suspicious" place.

I did go into the Wadi Rum RSCN office, to try to find out why this happened (when my wife and the people with her were doing nothing wrong) and also to try to find out what really is the new policy which has the local guides so worried.
But the person in the office spoke very little English - unlike the Wadi rum guides who all seem to speak excellent english - and so was not able to help me.
I do hope that you can explain to me what is happening. This policy seems so misguided and is perhaps the result of a lack of understanding. I feel sure that the problems caused by these new rules are not what you intend.
I look forward to receiving your reply.

Yours faithfully

Alan Carne