Thursday, September 26
We’ve seen Petra and you might think we would now be coasting to the end of the week here in Jordan, but Hakam worked hard at keeping up the momentum. We’ve come to know that one of his favourite expressions is, “it’s just the beginning”, and he’s used it liberally in the last couple of days as some of us started to think about nearing the end of our adventure.
And it wasn’t hard for him to keep the momentum going because today we head to the desert for the second time in our month in MENA. Because of our early start yesterday we lazed about a bit this morning and didn’t get on the road until 10:30 am. We only had a couple of hours drive to our next destination and it was strategic that we not arrive too early so as to avoid the hottest part of the day.
Hakam hasn’t given us as much background as the tour guides on the G Adventure/National Geographic tours, but when he does speak to us about the places we’re visiting he has a lot of knowledge and answers our questions patiently. He did give us some background on the way to Wadi Rum. One of the interesting points he raised was that Jordan actually exports sand to Saudi Arabia because of the high silicon content, I am assuming to make glass, but he didn’t really say. Seems a tad bizarre that Saudi Arabia would have to buy sand. We saw wind turbines along the way and Hakam noted that the Jordanian government has gone with wind turbines rather than solar panels because the initials costs are less. He said that they are starting to convert over to solar panels.
At a few points we saw remnants of a Turkish Ottoman railway that (if I got it right) ran from Istanbul through Turkey and in to Syria and Jordon and on into Saudi Arabia to Mecca and Medina. There were a few cars from a bygone era sitting on a siding that have apparently been used in a couple of movies. The movie Lawrence of Arabia was shot in many spots in this area.
Wadi Rum is a small town that has sprung up to service the desert camps. Some of the camps are right in town and others take a “two-hour 4×4 ride” to get to. We were booked into the later, and to spend the night in the dark desert gazing at the stars and talking around the campfire.
We had a late leisurely lunch and lounged around at the base camp in Wadi Rum until the heat of the day was starting to die down and then piled into the back of pickup trucks with benches on each side of the rear bed of the truck and with fabric sun shades overhead. Three truck loads of us headed off into the beautiful Arabian desert. The sand dunes are light and dark golden beige and red in some areas, moulded into ripples by the wind in places, like waves on a beach. Our little caravan stopped a few times for points of interest, and I think just to take up some time so we didn’t end up at the desert camp too early. I was getting pretty tired of climbing over the tail gate to get in and out multiple times.
Some of us opted for the additional 2 hours of 4X4 riding, since there really wan’t anything to do at the camp given the lack of electricity and the heat. And I’m glad we did as we made some interesting stops along the way.
One of our stops was to let anyone willing to roll down the sand dunes to give it a try. The sand is soft and dry so I’m sure it felt good to do, but the pragmatic side of me said, you have to go without a shower at the desert camp tonight, don’t add getting sandy on top of the heat and sun screen. A couple of our crew did give it a try. There are some natural arches near where we were staying and some of us climbed up on top of one of them. It was a team effort with myself and one other young woman getting help from a couple of the guys going up, because the footing on the sand stone was a little treacherous. Coming back down we slid a good portion of the way on our butts and I was praying the one pair of capris I had on this desert trek held together and they did. This was one of the many times on the trip that I was glad that I’ve been working out and had the strength and stamina to participate in these activities.
We then stopped by the local Bedouin tea dispensary and tourist goods shop in his tent in the middle of no where. He played for us on an ancient musical instrument whose name I missed, and served us tea with cardamon and sage. It was lovely. He lived in a typically black Bedouin tent which actually seemed to stay relatively cool despite the colour.
The ride in the 4x4s was mostly sedate, but from time to time the drivers gave us a little thrill like coming down a steep hill or swerving to and fro. One particular hill had us screaming like we were on a roller coaster. Then we stopped to watch the other 4X4 come over the hill. They were screaming and we were laughing and a pile of people had stopped to watch the action as it’s a regular stop on the desert trip track.
We asked to do the hill one more time, but Hakam said we needed to get to the spot to watch the sun go down. We, and other 4x4s coming from every direction, raced to a certain spot where the desert floor is quite flat and the mountains in the background provided a great backdrop for the setting sun. In a clear sky, the sunsets are often not terribly remarkable, and this was the case this evening. However I did enjoy the quiet of the evening with everyone scattered and sitting up on the rocks waiting for the sun to go down.
We then headed off for our desert camp in the wilderness, although I have to say that I’m pretty sure that the lights of Wadi Rum were just around the corner from the camp and the 4 hours in the desert were spent going in circles. Nonetheless, it felt like the middle of no where and with only minimal power in the camp supplied by solar panels, and no light in the tents where we bunked down. Right after arriving, we ate a huge feast along with an Italian group who were staying at a camp just around the corner from us. After they headed for their camp we all sat around the campfire and played word games. By 10 everyone was exhausted and headed off to bed, scrambling to find our clothes using only our head lamps. It wasn’t the best night sleep I’ve ever had but it wasn’t the worst either.
Lois' Adventures 