"Don't wait, absolutely do not wait!" Jane Sampson shook her small head like a rattle drum; there was no telling how long the wait might be—more than an hour.
And the waiting area didn't even have an air conditioner. Standing in the long queue under the hot sun, with that much time, she could have climbed it herself. James Black took Jane's hand after renting shoe covers and headed towards the path for mountain climbing by foot. Jane originally thought that a desert capable of supporting camels couldn't be very high.
But!
Later, when Jane stood at the foot of the mountain, her hand held by James Black, looking up dumbfounded at the tall desert mountain, she finally understood!
Earlier, when she was a seasoned homebody, she was!
Still!
Too naïve!
The path upwards indeed had ropes turned into ladders, but to describe it from Jane's perspective, it looked almost indistinguishable from vertical.
Besides the rope ladders, there seemed to be no path in sight.
