Wadi Guire hike

I've talked with some of the guides and let them know that I would like to do the wadi Guide hike. They tell me it is closed at this time because of the possibility of flash floods. It will open in May. But I won't be here in May. So I am contemplating of doing it by myself.
There are a couple of dangers. The worst being getting surprised by a flash when you are walking in the narrow part of the valley. The upper part of the valley is the narrow part, anywhere between four to twelve feet wide. The valley is carved out of the rock, which is quite high, 20 - 30 feet. So if you are hit by a flash flood, the force of the water is strong because it is concentrated in a narrow area and you have nowhere to go and nothing to hold onto. The other danger is that no one knows what the path is like. The pools are anywhere from 3 to 6 feet deep. Also since no one has done this hike since summer/fall no one knows if the path is clear. There could be big boulders in the way.
My plan is to start at the bottom and work my way up. If the path is blocked I can turn back.  The danger in this case is the flash flood. While it can be sunny and clear at the bottom of the valley it can a different story at the top.  This happened a couple of weeks ago. There was a small flash flood in wadi Dana and then it cleared up. We were sitting by the river watching the river bed dry up. Suddenly torrents of water came down. Later we found out that it was raining hard and snowing at the top of the mountains.
Some of the folks here have family members who live at the top of the mountain, so I can get current weather conditions, good for at least a few hours.
However there is another plan.
One of the guides I haven't talked to about this hike is preparing the activity schedule for the guests for the next day. A young couple from France who look fit wants to do a challenging hike. The guide asks them
"Do you have strong muscles?"
"Yes"
"Do you mid getting wet?"
"No"
"Do you know how to swim?"
"Yes"
"Ok, I have an option that we can discuss after I am done with the other guests."
I am pretty sure he is thinking about hiking wadi Guire.
I ask him that. He is thinking and does not say anything. I have to leave, so I tell him if he is planning to do wadi Guire I am in and leave.
Later he shows up at my room. He says once he described the details of the hike the French couple decided to do wadi Dana, but he is planning to do wadi Guide to see if it can be opened for hiking now instead of waiting till May. The French couple will start at the lodge and hike up. A driver will pick them up at the top and drive them back. He will catch a ride with the driver and hike down wadi Guide.
I am free to join him. He gives me the details. Basically, water will be cold. I've been in lakes where the edges were frozen. So I don't think this is a problem. We might have to swim, max 25 feet. Not a problem. The path condition is unknown. I knew that. I have to be ready at 8:30.
Next day I am ready early. I get a couple of plastic bags. These are to put our gear in in case we have to swim in one of the larger pools.
The driver who will be taking us, and bring back the French couple shows up. We drive down to the town. The guide is waiting for us. The driver and the guide are bothers.
We drive along the road to Petra, quite an experience as described earlier. Right before Petra we turn left and head up the mountain to Shaubek. It gets noticeably cooler as we climb up.  Many people spend the summer in Shaubeck because it is cooler. The scenery is spectacular. We finally reach Shaubeck. The guide asks me if chicken is OK for lunch. I am fine with a cheese sandwich, but I say no problem. He takes a long time to get back. Later I find out that he wanted a fresh chicken, so he had one slaughtered and cleaned and that's why it took that long. He also gets some felafel and sweets. Finally we get some bread. We are all set. The guide tells me that he has no idea what the trail will look like. The flash floods can move huge bolders and tons of sand.
His brother drives us down the valley a bit to make the hike shorter. Even the road is pretty steep here, and the truck can only go up in first gear as his brother heads back, Half way down we start the hike; a steep drop to the river bed. It is about noon.
The water is not as cold as I thought, and in most places there are plenty of rocks to step on and avoid getting wet.
About an hour into the hike we stop and the guide marinates the chicken with spices and a can of tomatoes paste. We continue down the canyon which is getting deeper and narrower. We finally hit the deep pools. At first the water is about knee high, but then it gets to be waist high. The guide keeps saying it is very different than last year. There is a huge bolder blocking the way. This was not there last year the guide assures me. We find a way to get over it and have to slide down on the other side into a deep pool. The rocks underneath are slippery. We carefully make our way through the pool. There is a thick rope here that you can hold onto as you walk. Apparently this is the dangerous part and at times can be deep, as much as six feet. Today it's only waist high, maybe three and a half feet. We get through it fine. The guide tells me to look up. There is a huge bolder, the size of a small room precariously edged between the two walls of the canyon. It doesn't look like it should be there. Only a few inches on each side are touching the walls of the canyon. We hurry past it just in case it gets dislodged. Bit by bit the canyon starts opening up. We stop for the mid day prayer. Since we are travelling we combine the mid day and the afternoon prayers. Late in the afternoon we stop for lunch. The guide builds a fire, then puts a couple of stones on the sides and puts thick branches across the stones. One the branches catch fire he reduces the ground fire to coals and puts the chicken pieces on this. This forms an oven with heat on all sides. Originally I thought we would not be able to finish a whole chicken between the two of us. But we do. In addition we eat two small onions each also roasted in the fire and a loaf of bread. We clean up. The bones are left for the hyenas, the onion skins for the goats I think.
The guide tells me it should be easier now, but that proves to be false. While it's less dangerous because the valley has opened up and there are banks every now and then, the flash floods had the most impact here. The guide shows me a rock that is jetting out. It is less than three feet high from the sandy ground. The guide tells me that last year he was able to stand below the rock and could barely touch the rock with his hand raised. This means that the flash flood moved about five feet of sand into this area from somewhere else. We run into many unexpected pools, rocks blocking the way, and sand in unexpected places. Finally we get to the part where the water goes completely under ground. Guire means going underground, which is the name of this valley.

The guide heads straight to his home. I go right towards the lodge. As I come over the hill I see the sunset hike participants. I go to sunset point. Tea is ready. I have some tea. Talk to some of the guests and head back to the lodge.

Sorry, no pictures. My phone has the pictures. Unfortunately it got wet, caught a cold and now the touch screen does not work. Yes, I tried the rice. The kitchen staff looked at me real funny when I asked for rice.  They thought I was hungry and showed me the pot with rice cooking. When I told them I needed dry rice to put my phone in it, they just nodded and got me the rice.