At Petra, Jordan I somehow got caught up in an adventurous moment and decided to accept a rather sketchy Bedouin's offer for a clearly not sanctioned off-path "hike" out of the park on foot to the south, and to some nearby areas with good views into Petra. After a few kilometers of nice level walking, the hike turned into some really serious rock climbing going up, up, up. Now, truly in the middle of nowhere, after scrambling up a particularly steep climb and having an extremely close call with falling backwards to my death due to not being used to the weight of my backpack, I was glad for my guide's offer to let him to tote my backpack the rest of the way. But the most dangerous moment was when we came to a crevasse/gorge and had to jump across it. No way down at this point. So, the only choice is to jump across and keep going up. I told him I didn't think I could make it. It was only about 8-ft which seems easy until you do it with no runup and just a push-off to get from one side of the cliff to the other. He said to jump and grab for his arm, and he would make sure I didn't fall.
Missing this jump would result in falling a couple hundred feet to a painful death wedged between some cracks in the rock, and obviously with no help close by. I took what can only be described as a leap of faith. He grabbed me just like he said, in a moment totally out of my control or physical ability to make it on my own. We sat on a rock ledge for 10 minutes while I got my heart rate back down and stopped my involuntary shaking.