Wadi Rum, jewel of Jordan


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Middle East » Jordan » South » Wadi Rum
December 24th 2010
Published: December 26th 2010
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See the world through the eyes of your child. This is a true blessing we share every day at home or on the road, with it's great moments, as well as the steps of becoming a man for Leslie. During this trip, we have the chance to witness every day through Leslie eyes the wonders of Jordan, and this is simply amazing...

For our second stop in Jordan, we are staying two days and one night in the Wadi Rum. We are following like many before us the steps of Lawrence of Arabia. The Rum is only an hour by taxi from Aqaba, or just a 30usd ride. No real need to rent a car here. We have arranged for a taxi driver to drive us here early morning, and come to pick up us the next day for our next adventure.

You can come to Wadi Rum on a day trip, but you can also camp here in a bedouin style tent, and this is what we ended up doing. First, what you can do but we didn't experience in Wadi Rum....ballooning...or how to explode the budget of a family on the road for 3 weeks...ultra-light flight...seems it's possible, but another "not that cheap" option. Than there is the climbing...meaning ropes and the full equipment....I'm scared of highs...yes, sorry!

Than there is what we did. Our first day we had our own land cruiser, with our bedouin guide Mohamed. Seems a day exploring is really the thing to do, it was simply fantastic to go around, sharing a picnic in the middle of nowhere in a Canyon. It did also allow me to better understand the gap in prices betwen different providers...you can have your own old Land Cruiser,our choice...or a brand new aircon 4x4...not us...or sit at the back of a truck with 8 fellows enjoying the sand and sun right in your face for a very bumpy day...we didn't go that way either.


To put it simply, our day was amazing, and you just have to see the smile of Leslie to understand this.

Our camp was a simple affair. Bedouin tent style camp which can hold 30 people...but here is the trick, we had the full camp to ourselves, sharing our dinner with few bedouins, and tea after dinner around the fire and exchanging stories....well, it was more like...us learning a lot more about the lifestyle of the bedouins, what an experience! Seems more people had decided to camp on the 24th, but this was not ourfirst choice.


Our second day would see a slower pace....6 hours on the back of a camel! Yes, this is nearly a full day getting across the Wadi Rum at a very slow pace. First info, if you are not use to it...and we are not....6 hours is great, but you'll feel it the day after. Each of us with our own camel, and our Sudanese guide. One more time, a reall impressive affair, and something very different than going around the corner on a camel. Ended around 2pm at the Bedouin Village where our taxi was waiting for us to reach Petra.

The big question while organizing this trip was...is it better to camp on the 23rd of December, or for Chirstmas Eve on the 24th? The camp was very nice, we had great, but simple food...but we would have had no way to chill some champagne. So I guess we were happy to spend the 23rd and 24th in the desert before reaching more mere mortal comfort for Christmas itself.

Our next Christmas entry is coming soon. We wake up pretty early every morning, to make sure that all our pics are sorted in the right order and to make sure we don't post all these in weeks time...at the end of the day, 2011 is coming very soon, with a lot more travelling ahead of us.

With love from Jordan, what an amazing place!


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26th December 2010

Wouaaaaw.... je viens de revenir mais tu me donnes deja envie de repartir... A mon avis, je vais aller la bas un jour.... trop beau !!! photos GENIALES et Leslie HAPPY !!!!
26th December 2010
Love this pic!

beautiful pic!
26th December 2010
no comments

nice!
26th December 2010

The best photographs of all your blogs
There are so many beautiful and creative photos in this blog - grand landscapes, subtle lighting and camels aplenty - congratulations!
27th December 2010

I'm so jealous!
Gee, this is truly happiness in a photo story. Leslie's facial expressions (and yours and Mari's) beam JOY. Lovely blog, lovely photos, magical place. Oh dear , oh dear, I have to get there. But I need to really save a lot for that trip. Oh dear, oh dear. I'm so jealous! Nice one, as usual, Peter. Joyeaux Noel! [photo=5728008]
27th December 2010

Wow
Amazing photos Peter! The lighting and colour is great. It's easy to see how much you enjoyed the place together. You make it look like such a magical place :-)

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