Advertisement
Published: April 8th 2008
Edit Blog Post
After a great drive out of Wadi Musa, (stopping to spend the morning at
Little Petra on the way) we continued down South to
Wadi Rum. Our accommodation for two nights was to be the
Bait Ali Desert Camp. Despite the fact that we slept in tents, this wasn’t really ‘camping’ as most Kiwis know it. The camp is really well set up. There’s a huge round room where dinner is served and plenty of clean toilets and showers. The big bonus is a swimming pool in the desert, a guilty indulgence considering the country’s water shortages. The camp mainly caters for group bookings so unfortunately there weren’t many independent travellers about.
We spent a few days checking out the beautiful desert scenery in
Wadi Rum. Because we were travelling by ourselves, we didn’t organise our Wadi Rum excursions in advance. The cost is shared between group members it was quite expensive to book anything for just two people. Waiting around, trying to organise an excursion with others who wanted to visit the same places as us, turned out to be a hassle. Following ‘The Rough Guide’ advice, we decided on a route and
arrived early to organise our own camel trek inside Wadi Rum.
Unfortunately all the camels had been booked by group tours and we were left with one camel and a herd of men offering us tours in their 4x4 vehicles.
After much deliberation, we decided to walk to
Lawrence’s Spring (Ain Shalaaleh, up in the hill behind the Rest House. It’s a very pretty spring with ferns and moss. The locals believe that the proper Lawrence’s spring is Abu Aineh. A spring that is conveniently located on the 4x4 and camel circuit. If you want to see the pretty Lawrence’s Spring, then you can walk it easily. Most don’t bother, we didn’t pass another person on this route and it was lovely.)
On finishing the walk, our one lonely camel was waiting for us so we decided to ‘share him’ for a short trek instead of the four hour trip we had originally planned. After checking out the health and strength of the camel (um.. well it’s huge and I can’t see ribs or scars…) I stepped forward to get better acquainted with our noble steed. He greeted me with a disdainful glare, an indigent
Desert Sunset
Wadi Rum, Jordan roar and a mouth full of huge yellow teeth. First impressions count. It was immediately obvious that camel and I were not going to have the strongest of relationships.
Our Bedouin guide laughed gently and said something like “no no camel good, good camel bravo” (which could have easily been “stupid tourist, haven’t you ridden a camel before”) and I was flung forwards as the camel rose from the sand in a sudden burst of angry camel energy.
I wont say much about camel riding except that it is a long way up, the saddles are MUCH wider than a horse’s and a camel will eat if and when, it is hungry. In fact, I doubt if the camel even realised I was on top of him, my tugging on the rope was futile and all my pony club learnings didn’t help one bit.
The guide was very sweet really, chatting away in his broken English “yes YOU guide, bravo guide, good camel bravo ok…” waving his hands about and clicking his prayer beads if camel strayed off course.
Chris obviously radiates some assertive animal energy, (or maybe it was just his new and beloved Bedouin
headpiece) because camel suddenly turned from grumpy, hissing gargoyle to meek and willing Ship Of The Desert as soon as he approached. He loved it and as you can see from the photos, he is quite the natural! Suddenly he has plans to buy an 18hh horse upon return to New Zealand…
Apart from walking, driving along the desert roads, taking photos, gazing at the starry night sky, snuggling up in our Kathmandu sleeping bags (it’s really cold in the desert at night) and watching the sunset, we didn’t do much else in Wadi Rum. If we had the chance to visit again, we would certainly organise a camel or trekking excursion in advance so we could visit the Burdah rock bridges. Nevermind, after two days in Wadi Rum we packed up and headed South once again and check out the Red Sea.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.121s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0848s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb