Miller round the world Day 20


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Middle East » Jordan » South » Aqaba
October 20th 2010
Published: October 21st 2010
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Up at 7:30, breakfast, buses. Another day excursion awaits. This one is to Wadi Rum, a protected area that is Bedouin country. About an hour 20 minute drive on the bus brings us to the starting point, a modern building in old style with a gift shop. Wadi Rum is a wide, mostly flat desert stretching for miles, ringed and punctuated by amazing sandstone cliffs like we saw yesterday around Petra. It is actually the bed of an ancient sea. Parts of the movie Lawrence of Arabia were filmed here, which is historically accurate, since this is one of the forbidding areas that the real Lawrence travelled through.

We are loaded 6 to a vehicle onto what are termed "Bedouin jeeps" but are really a ragtag collection of four-wheel drive vehicles that have been adapted for desert conditions. Ours is actually a Toyota. We take off through the desert following random tracks worn in the sand. Our Bedouin driver is Mohammed, who speaks English quite well. He chats with us about the land around us. When we ask about Lawrence of Arabia, he proudly tells us that his grandfather was an extra in the movie and appears on his camel front and centre in one scene.

Our destination is a place called Jebel Khazali, a narrow fissure that splits one of the cliffs from top to bottom and penetrates deep into the mountain. Along its walls are some petroglyphs that date back back to prehistoric (Neolithic) times. Apparently one of the scenes in the Indiana Jones movie was also filmed there  We reach our target and walk down through fine reddish sand to the fissure. You can go a certain distance at ground level but to go to the end you must negotiate a narrow track along one wall. It is quite treacherous, not the least because the fine sand makes everything slippery. A number of our party, including myself, make it to the end. There are quite a number of petroglyphs and they are surprisingly clear given their immense age, some depicting animals and hunting activities and others mysterious.

We return to our jeeps and head off once again. This time our destination is a camp the Bedouins have set up to serve us lunch. It is on a slanted sandy surface partway up a mountain. Although it is thunderous hot, we are shaded from the sun by the tents. Lunch is an excellent and surprisingly varied buffet, with the pièce de résistance a lamb cooked over charcoal buried deep in the sand. Our hosts dig it up just before carving and serving it. The lunch is finished off by hot, sweet tea.
 
After lunch, we board our jeeps once again and drive back to our buses, then return to our hotel in Aqaba. It is now about 2:30. I shower to remove the sand and sweat of the day's adventure, then Violet and I then head for the beach. Aqaba is in the extreme southwestern tip of Jordan, which is on the Red Sea. It is Jordan's only access to the oceans. We enjoy a swim in the warm and very clear water, which definitely has a higher salt content than ocean water I have swum in before. After the ocean swim, we lounge for a while in the hotel's beautiful fresh-water pool, then laze on the beach on beach chairs and watch the sun set. The haze of sand in the air creates a beautiful sunset.
 
We return to our room to freshen up then head down to the usual amazing buffet supper around 8 pm.    

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