We’re back to civilization! Wadi Rum was a pretty cool experience. It’s a red sand desert where Lawrence of Arabia became famous. The thing to do there is stay in a Bedouin tent camp and explore the desert via hiking, camel, and 4×4.
When we arrived to the visitor’s center we met our guide and were taken to his home for tea. There we signed up for our next couple of days’ activities. We had decided we wanted to relax the first afternoon, so we were driven to our camp. Camp consists of black goat hair tents for sleeping, a larger area for meals, a kitchen, and pretty rustic bathroom. I guess in hindsight we should have been a bit more specific about timelines of what was to happen because after ‘relaxing’ in the heat of the desert, alone in our camp, for 5 hours we started to panic. We had water (thank goodness), but essentially no food and it was so hot we were cowering in a small cave for shade.
I flagged down a passing jeep and the guide called our people to get us some help. Within 10 minutes our awesome Bedouin cook/host/etc was there with cold water, snacks, and comfort in knowing we weren’t stranded in the desert!
We enjoyed our first night alone in the camp, feasting on a wonderful meal and enjoying the sunset and nearly full moon.
The next day we were picked up for our day of desert experiences. We had lunch at a beautifully refreshing natural spring, then were picked up by camel. I didn’t think the camel ride was too bad, but I looked over at RobO about 10 minutes in and knew that his ride was 9 minutes too long at that point! Our jeep picked us up and took us to the red sand dunes, a canyon, and 2 rock bridges. A highlight was when our guide said something about women not being able to drive, so RobO called him out and I got to drive us back to camp!
That night there were 12 of us for dinner which was chicken and vegetables that had been cooked under the hot sand. This morning I got up to watch the sunrise before our long trip north.
We’re in a town called Ajloun and plan to explore around here for our last 2 days until we board our flight home. I anticipate we’ll do 1 last blog post…