Off To The Desert

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After breakfast this morning, we all packed into our shuttle van for the 5 hour drive south to Wadi Rum. As we approached the outskirts of Amman, our guide Faisal gave us some background about himself and talked a little about Jordanian history and culture. Our destination today was the desert area of Wadi Rum and it's famous lunar landscape. Wadi Rum is best known as the setting for Lawrence of Arabia and most recently, was the filming site for Matt Damon's The Martian. First stop was at the Wadi Rum Visitor Center where we had just enough time to stretch our legs and have our first views of the amazing rock formations in the area most notably, the Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Here, a few of the guys took the opportunity to purchase a red and white cloth for the traditional Jordanian headdress for men. This would later prove handy as we hiked in the warm desert sun. It would have made for a nice souvenir but I decided to just stick with my baseball cap. From the Visitor's Center, our group left the van and transferred into 3 separate SUVs for the drive into the sandy desert. Stopping in the small town of Wadi Rum, we made a stop to pick up some provisions for lunch at a small grocery store. While most everyone else was in the store, I took a moment to have a quick look around where the first thing I noticed are the towering rock formations hovering over the town and the number of camels that are still used here by locals for transportation. In the grocery store, there wasn't too much of a selection. I settled on some pita bread to go with my hummus along with some strange yogurt concoction. From the town, we drove deeper into the desert to what could be best described as a tented rest stop hosted by some local Bedouins in traditional garb. I had a quick visit with some of the resting camels before going inside the tent to enjoy my lunch. We all sat as a group doing our best to make small talk as it hadn't even been 24 hours since we had met these people. In traditional Jordanian fashion, one of the hosts went around and served us some tasty mint tea to go with our lunch while we entertained ourselves with the curiosity of the resident kitten. After lunch, we all got back into our SUVs to drive deeper into the desert where we stopped to climb a sand dune. Climbing the sand dune proved to be rather difficult as your shoes quickly filled with the red sand. Many of us found it easier to just take our shoes off. Once at the top, we had some great vistas of the surrounding Wadi Rum area. We all took some great photos of the desert while I had to contend with trying to convince Kevin not to get to close to the edge in order for a great photo. After the sand dune, we drove to a nearby slot canyon which here are known as siqs. Like other slot canyons that I have visited in Utah, the slot canyon here was a narrow passageway usually created by water. we entered the slot canyon where it was shady and noticeably cooler. Faisal gave us some brief explanations regarding the geology of the area. However as usual, I wasn't paying attention as I was more interested in the unfortunate graffiti that people had etched and scribbled onto the canyon walls. For our final stop of the day before heading off to the camp, we made a quick stop at a very popular rock arch. Out of our whole group, only Kevin and Brent decided to climb to the top. Everyone else just hung out as it seemed that fatigue from what has already been quite a long day had set in for most of us. From the rock arch, we drove to our camp for the next 2 nights, Panorama Wadi Rum Camp. As we settled in for the evening, I was quite surprised at how comfortable our tent was. It was definitely nothing fancy but it surely exceeded my expectations. Prior to sunset, Faisal led us over to a nearby ledge where we prepared to watch the famous Wadi Rum sunset. The entire group was mostly quiet as we enjoyed this peaceful moment of watching the sun slowly fall below the horizon in this amazing desert setting. After the sunset, we walked back to the camp where a few of us opened up the bottles of alcohol that we had purchased in Amman the night before. When dinner was ready, we were brought outside where our camp hosts unearthed our dinner which had been cooking underground. After a long travel day, we all enjoyed our delicious dinner of chicken, potatoes, rice, tomato salad, pita bread, and of course hummus

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