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Published: June 11th 2017
Haddad Arak
From the liquor store in Aqaba. We bought a small bottle. It was nice having a later morning than usual this morning, but we were woken up at around 4:30 by the very loud call to prayer. We had a leisurely breakfast in the hotel and then Susan and I went for a walk around the streets of Aqaba around our hotel. We found a liquor store that was open so we bought a small bottle of gin, a couple of cans of tonic, and a bottle of Arak (the brand name is Haddad!). Turns out the brand name Haddad is very common (arak, rum, wine, etc).
We left the hotel about 10:30 for the drive to Wadi Rum. The scenery was lovely the whole way, with dramatic cliffs of granite and sandstone contrasted with flatter desert areas. Wadi Rum has underground water so occasionally there would be cultivated areas - tomatoes and watermelon are grown here. We passed Bedouin villages, herds of goats, and camels. We drove to the visitor's centre where we had a photo op of Lawrence of Arabia's Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Shortly after
we met up with our jeeps for our 4x4 tour through Wadi Rum. The jeeps were rickety old Mitsubishi models, with an open back (covered with a cloth canopy).
We made numerous stops on our way to our camp, first for tea ("Bedouin whiskey") where I brought two blue eye bracelets. At the next stop we climbed through a narrow canyon (siq) where we viewed ancient petroglyphs (made by the early Nabateans around 2500 years ago). The rock formations and the colours of the rocks are very beautiful. We also made stops to view the Lawrence house (it is believed he spent some time at that location); to climb a very large sand dune (I was the only one to make it to the top of the sand dune) and a stop at a location where there is a natural bridge. Susan and I were the only ones to attempt to climb to the natural bridge, but I chickened out after a short while as the height bothered me. Susan continued farther but didn't quite make it to the bridge as she couldn't manage climbing over a wide gap. She was very close though!
The jeep safari was
a lot of fun and we saw beautiful scenery along the way. It really is such a treat to be here in this amazing place.
We arrived at the Wadi Rum Night Luxury Camp about 4 pm. We were a bit taken aback upon arrival because there is a lot of construction going on at the camp. They are installing inflatable dome structures (as an option rather than the tents - they have a clear top so you can view the stars from your bed) and the reception area is more like a storage room. There are boxes of air conditioners and other stuff piled up haphazardly. It was hardly the nice reception tent were were anticipating. Add that to the fact that our tents were about 40 degrees inside and we weren't too pleased. Because the tents were unbearably hot inside we rather grumpily sat around the reception tent (it had an air conditioner blowing the air around but it was still very warm). Then the workers outside started spray painting something so the reception tent was filled with a noxious smell - we rather felt like we were in a Monty Python skit! A cold beer sure
On the road to Wadi Rum
Famous railway - blown up by Lawrence of Arabia during the Arab Revolt of 1917. would have gone down nicely at that point, but no alcohol is served at the camp. We thought there was beer because there was a menu that said "local beer" (at about $10 so it wasn't cheap) but it turned out this was non-alcoholic beer, and anyway they didn't have any because it was on its way from Aqaba. We had to laugh at that point.
They are in the process of installing air conditioners and Susan and my tent actually had an air conditioner (the only one of the group), so when I saw that I happily pressed the "on" button of the remote control, but nothing happened. Whaaat? Turns out the power to the tents was switched off so they could blow up those ugly giant plastic domes. Sheesh. Eventually our air conditioner finally worked, but the sun had pretty much gone down by then and it was cooling off. Still, I'm glad to have it on now as I type this because I think it might be hard to cool down the tent without it. I guess if you leave your inner tent flap open to let the cooler night air in, it would cool off,
but then people walking by on their way to the bathroom would be able to see in.
Anyway, after awhile hanging out in the reception tent I decided to have a shower. The facilities are very good here, with a nice bathroom area (several toilets and 3 showers, and 3 sinks). The shower really felt good after being in the heat and sand all day. I felt much better after a shower. Then we asked for some glasses, and moved a couple of hassocks to the area in front of our tent, and enjoyed two gin and tonics each. It was very pleasant by that time as it had cooled off considerably. This was more like it!
We met in the dining tent at 7:30 and enjoyed a good dinner consisting of lots of salads and dips, and arabic bread, and a dish made with rice, vegetables and chicken which is cooked over hot coals in the ground in the traditional Bedouin manner. I just had the vegetables which were excellent. Dessert was harissi which was lovely. Susan and I finished with an excellent Turkish coffee.
We were hoping we would be able to see a sky
full of stars here, but the moon is so bright we can't see too many. Watching the moon appear over the nearly granite cliff was pretty special though.
Tomorrow we leave camp at 8:45, for a short drive to the place where we meet our camels for our one hour camel ride. Can't wait for that! Then it's on to Petra!
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Ross
non-member comment
The siq looks very cool. Funny how you two always seem to find gin and tonics in the oddest places!