Wadi Rum

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We got up early in the morning after our long day of barely travelling to Aqaba and caught a ride to Wadi Rum. For those of you who have seen Lawrence of Arabia, this is the place where it took place and where he hid out during the Arab Revolt. It is a desert plain with huge nearly shear cliffs (a climber's paradise) rising out of the desert.

We made it to the visitors center where we met a young guy named Mohammed (not all that rare of a name here) who took us to his family's bedouin camp. Once he left us there to our own devices, we ended up sitting in pure silence for a bit, and the silence here was actually deafening after spending so much time around noisy traffic. We set out on a hike and scrambled up a slot canyon for a picnic. From here, we walked around one of the huge plateaus, stopping for tea with each of the Bedouin families we passed... Truly friendly people that couldn't speak more english than "Welcome to Jordan", a phrase we never grew tired of hearing along our way. We hiked up a huge red sand dune and promptly ran down the side of it... We met one of the wee daughters of the family we stayed with and had a lesson in writing arabic (using the sand), turns out we suck! After storytime around the campfire and checking out a night sky with more stars than ever before in our lives (the Milky Way was a huge streak across the sky!), we went to sleep in our tent (or "million star hotel" as they call it).

Woke up early the next day for a 4x4 tour of the desert, which included some ancient inscriptions, several big rock bridges, a huge siq (slot canyon), and some desert springs. While we were waiting for our ride at the last place, we were invited to a tasty little bbq and drinkfest with some Saudi Arabian guys, who apparently come across the border regularily to get boozed up! Then back to our "million star hotel" for a restful night before we head to Petra. Wadi Rum was truly an amazing place and the Bedouin people are among the most friendly I've ever met!

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Comments

[Barb Howard]

Wow!
This segment of your trip sounds amazing! What an incredible experience between the landscape and the people.