Wadi Rum
When first laying eyes on the vast landscape of Wadi Rum it becomes obvious why it is often used as a scene for Mars movies. Its flat plains punctuated by rolling sand dunes and steep towering sandstone mountains with their red tint remind you of the desolate plant. But the rumble of desert jeeps, songs of migrating birds and the occasion grunting camel brings you back to earth.
We had our first glances of the Rum as our taxi driver steered manically at high speed on the road that leads to the village at the edge of the desert and the location where we were to met our desert camp hosts. Mohamed with Wadi Rum Bedouin Guides Camp meet us and greeted us into his home. As we found out quick enough, all introductions started sitting with the offer of tea. We discussed the next three days we were spending in the Rum and came to a final itinerary that had us spending the first night out at a desert bivouac and then concluding the trip with two nights in the desert camp.
Our guide and camp mate for the night was a local by the name of Fala. Fala became our companion for the next few days, toured us around in his old jeep and shared stories and laughs with us along the way. It was a joy to be with him and if he isn't smoking or drinking tea, he is probably doing both at the same time. The first day we bashed through the desert to see the spring that Lawrence of Arabia used to water his caravan, climbed over rock arches and scaled red sand dunes. That night we found a spot sheltered from the increasing winds and set up camp in the overhanging alcove of a cliff. Dinner was served around the campfire as we watched Venus, the stars, and the Milky Way come to brilliance above us.
Day two started with a slow wake-up and an eventual reluctance to leave the warm bedding and move to the campfire, though we did have a fantastic view of the Moon and Venus sharing the same space in the sky above us. The winds brought in a sandy haze that remained the rest of the visit, so our distant views and horizons were gone. We made it back to the camp and spent a lazy afternoon all alone reading and enjoying the perfect quiet of the area. That night the camp was full with French climbers, Chinese, British, American, Malaysian and Swiss tourists that spent the evening around the camp fire eating and drinking tea.
Day hree was an early start with our guide Fala careening us again through the desert dunes to other regions of the Rum. We scrambled rock arches again, wandered wadis and lunched with a group of young Germans working at a local school for the deaf. The night ended in camp but this time with no other tourist, so we had a relaxing a quiet night to ourselves.
Our final day had us leaving camp and taking the shuttle back to the capital of Amman but not without taking a camel ride back to the main village. We mounted up early and strolled back to civilization with our camel handler Ali. The visit ended as it started with a parting tea at Mohamed's and saying our farewells to Fala.
