Traveling in Jordan: Night 3: Desert Camping in Wadi Rum

The car park of the camp

We went on a desert jeep ride at dusk.

Rhoda and Riphe (our driver), on the jeep

The moon rising in the desert

Me, near the edge of a high rock.

Lawrence of Arabia, 1917

King Abdullah, 1917

Super awesome bedouin men dancing!

Here I am, dancing in the center

I got to be the center of attention for a while, and drew the crowd in.

Still dancing, and having a blast!

Our campsite

We were really in the middle of the desert, with nothing around us.

Hair blowing in the wind of the jeep

Dusk, after the sunset

Our camel transportation for the sunrise camel ride.

An outlaw, ready to flee on a stinky camel

Us riding on the camels, before the sun came up

Desert view from a rock, before the sun rises

The sun is getting ready to come up

An it rose, right over the vast range of rocks

Getting ready to move on 

Rock inscriptions

The camels stopping for a tasty snack

Ahhhh, desert camping. I have never really been the camping type. I'm afraid of bugs and creepy crawlers, and not a fan of the cold temperatures. However, I thought that desert camping sounded to fun to miss out on. So, we journeyed to Wadi Rum (Rum Valley), to our campsite. The campsite was pretty awesome, with little box-like tents, and a fire pit, and an area for dancing. Upon arrival, we took a jeep ride through the desert. It was so beautiful and amazing! In the desert, its very quiet, you can hear everything and nothing at the same time. There are no cars or birds or anything to make noise, but if you shout, it echoes through the rocks. We came to a stop and got out to look around. There was a giant sand dune with some overlooking rocks at the top. The sand out here was red! I started climbing the sand dune, which was a hell of a workout, because my feet would sink down about 8 inches or so every time I took a step. Finally, myself and a young Jordanian boy, who drove the jeep, reached the top of the dune. I wanted to get up onto the rock to see the view. He climbed up first, the reached to help me up onto the rock. Of course, stretching my legs this much to reach the rock was just too much for my pants to handle, which is when I heard my pants rip. And when I say rip, I don't mean a small hole, I mean ripped from one end of my thigh, to the other, and only about 2 inches away from my butt! This was a bit embarrassing, because now my thigh was exposed, and in the Middle East, exposed thigh is not something that you see often. Fortunately, I am able to laugh about these things. After checking out the view and taking some photos of me and the moon, we slid down the sand dune, with my shoes full of red sand. We got back on the jeep and toured more through the desert. We stopped at another sight with some rock carvings of Lawrence of Arabia (don't know much about him), and King Abdullah. 

We arrived back at the sight, got settled in our tents, and then had dinner. There was a nice buffet line of food, and we even ordered a bottle of wine to share. Then, the music started. The bedouin men were awesome, and really enjoyed dancing. Finally, I decided I needed to warm up, so I went to join the dance circle. The men seemed to love this, and really liked dancing with me. I got to be the center of attention for a while, so it was fun, and I did have a blast. 

After a good while of dancing and shaking my hips, we were all ready for sleep. We got into our tent, crawled under the blankets, and dreamed sweet desert dreams.

In the morning, we took a camel ride, and woke up at about 5:20am. One of the bedouin men took the 3 of us out on the ride. The camels were a little stinky, and sometimes very loud. Tammy's camel sounded kind of like Chewbacca from Starwars. The desert is really beautiful in the morning, although very cold! We stopped at another large rock, where we were able to sit and watch the sun rise over the Wadi desert. Amazing! It was so beautiful, especially watching the sun right as it peered over a rock. After watching in awe for 15 or 20 minutes, we hopped back on the camels and headed back towards camp. We reached camp and ate our breakfast and drank hot tea to warm us up. It was so cold in  Jordan, and especially in the desert. 

Around 7 am we departed, and prepared to warm our bones as we headed for the Dead Sea.

I can say that I will never look at the desert the same again. I used to find the desert ugly and plain, but this was life changing enough to forever call the desert, or at least the Jordanian desert, beautiful, romantic, and stunning.