Lots of Rum

Wadi Rum, Jordan

They often say the hardest things in life are the most rewarding, and in a strange and very simplistic sort of way that sort of applies to Wadi Rum, or the challenge of getting here in the first place. I'm referring to something quite intoxicating, but not a drink. It's an area in the Southern Jordanian desert with very unique scenery; a mixture of towering mountains, scrub, white sand and red sand, many different types of rock and various weird formations - at times it looks a bit like being on Mars. Laurence of Arabia spent a lot of time here, and the sixties movie was also shot here so it's got some history.

And it's one of the most amazing places I've ever been.

---

Getting here in the first place wasn't the most straightforward, with too much choice in terms of accomodation and tours, too little information, and too many rip-off merchants doing business. After sending loads of emails, I finally booked up a suitable desert camp, said goodbye to my Couchsuring host Mohammed, and yet again braved the Jordanian transport system. This time I had to take a taxi to the bus station in Aqaba, then a bus twenty miles north, getting out at a junction in the desert. A couple of friendly Jordanian tour guides were there waiting there for their group to arrive - we chatted for a minute and they kindly offered me some water and chocolate. From this junction, I was told earlier to wait for a lift of some sort, and ended up flagging down a passing taxi. He dropped me a few miles on at the Wadi Rum Park Centre, I paid the entry fee, and looked around for another lift to Rum village four miles up the road, which ended up being with a couple of French girls who were leaving the park, but kindly dropped me there anyway. I was then picked up by the tour company, taken to their office for a while, and finally transferred into a knackered old pickup for the final ten miles out across the desert to the tented camp where I was staying; all that to cover about forty miles! Nothing in Jordan is simple.

However once out in the desert I was awestruck, and the hassle just drifted away. It was absolutely beautiful, and didn't take long to escape the camp into the desert to complete peace and solitude, and sit down and watch the sunset. It was unbelievably quiet, so much so that for the first time, I realised that I have mild tinnitus! Possibly from going diving a few days before, possibly from years of loud music...

The next morning I woke up at half six and climbed the hill behind the camp to watch the sunrise. Because of the mountains in the way it was a bit of an anticlimax in that it got light, but the sun didn't apper until an hour later! After breakfast, consisting of the local flatbread accompanied by cheese spread, olive oil with herbs, and honey (no not together, that would just be odd) it was time for one of the daily jeep tours of the park. Six of us set off bouncing around in the back of another knackered old pickup - a couple of Japanese girls, a German guy and two Brazillian lads. The local driver took us to some of the typical sights - first a spring, second, a towering canyon where the rock walls looked like a melting chocolate cake. We then continued on to see some big sand dunes, some ancient rock carvings, the ruins of an old house and finally an arch formed by many years of erosion, where we precariously scrambled up the side then walked along the narrow ridge over the top of it. Back at the camp, another nice sunset whilst sat on top of a rock was of course obligatory.

With a clear sky and no light pollution, a group of four of us later grabbed some of the thick blankets from one of the tents, and clambered up the rocky hill behind the camp for some stargazing. The full moon clearly lit up all the surrounding mountains and desert, and with the help of the excellent Google sky map app on the phone, we managed to pick out some constellations and found we could clearly see Venus and Saturn. With no sign whatsoever of human existence in sight, the area felt a million miles from anywhere. Wet as it sounds, it was a pretty magical experience.

I'd only planned to stay two nights, but as I was so taken by the scenery, awoke on Sunday a little torn whether to stay or go. I reluctantly decided to go and went to get a lift from the desert camp to Rum village, to find out that the only bus of the day away from there was cancelled and the only way out was a taxi. Decision made, I was having another day here. I spoke to a couple of the others staying at the camp, we decided to do some hiking, so with Eloise; a photographer from France and a German journalist called Florian; set off to the mountain of Jabbal Qatar. It looked quite close, but the wide open space was deceptive so it was probably a good couple of miles away, and we clambered up the steep rocky slopes to find a spring, spotting some ancient rock carvings on the way and had lunch and a good chat. Continuing through a steep pass between the mountains, we realised what we were walking on was a very well preserved ancient riverbed, which through millions of years of tectonic changes had been forced from the desert below, up into the mountains. My secondary school geography lessons all came flooding back! The walk ended up being way longer than we expected - a good ten miles - and about two thirds of the way through we were nearly out of water. In a desert, on a warm sunny day; rookie error. I didn't quite experience the dehydration and hallucinations you see in desert movies, but can relate to them a little better now!

Wadi Rum has without doubt, been one none the highlights of this trip. Hard to get to, but well worth the effort.