The desert scenery was amazing - huge rock outcropping and sand dunes against the dramatically blue sky. The area was inhabited by the Bedouin tribe (Arab nomads) and Lawrence of Arabia lived there for a short period of time. After exploring we stayed at a desert camp where we enjoyed a traditional meal (buried in the ground to cook) and a very starry night.
Nicely said, Sandra, although we presume it was the food which was buried in the ground and not your group while they were waiting for it to cook.
Clara is spending a year studying in Amman. However this week she found time to visit Wadi Rum. She did it the proper way too, staying overnight so she could appreciate the glory of the dawn in this stunning landscape. Unfortunately she was a little quick off the mark.
The next morning, my tent-mate Paris and I got up at 4:45am to watch the sunrise. We walked out of the camp and climbed a good way up a nearby rock formation where we just sat and watched the desert. Little did we know, the sun does not really rise until about 6:30am, so we were sitting on the rock for about an hour and a half. However, it was just as beautiful as everything else in the area and was a wonderfully pleasant way to start the day.
Happily her journey to Wadi Rum was a success.
Before this trip, I didn’t really understand why almost all of the Jordanians I have asked respond that Wadi Rum is their favorite place in the country (it’s just a desert with rocks, right?). Now not only do I understand- I agree. It is perhaps the most beautiful place I have ever been. Wadi Rum has been added to my list of why Jordan is an excellent tourist location. Forget the white sand of tropical beaches- the golden/red/ivory desert sand just takes your breath away
Don’t forget to pack extra camera batteries if you are going to visit the magnificent scenery of Wadi Rum. The Princess Yaya blogger ran out - but, fortunately not before she had snapped what looked like a fun and eventful bus trip with family and friends.
Gavin and Catkin are travelling to New Zealand the long way, the very long way - driving a LandRover from the UK. But not just any old LandRover. This one functioned as a support vehicle in the 1995 Camel Trophy event and still carries the distinctive Camel Trophy colours and markings. You may have spotted it in Jordan recently.
After a recent pit stop at Petra, they headed for the wild landscape of Wadi Rum and had great fun driving through that tough and barren territory.
We had a wonderful 3 days playing in the soft sand… I mean learning about how the car manages soft sand and improving our driving techniques. Luckily, in spite of our weight and skinny tyres, we did not get bogged down to the extent that we needed to get the shovel, or the sand ladders, or let out tyre pressure, or find a local to drag us out. Unlike one party of flash 4 wheel drivers who kept us entertained for nearly an hour as one driver managed to lose parts from his car in the sand and another got well and truly stuck.
Follow their continuing adventures on the CamelRiders blog (and yes, they rode camels too).
Ramadan has begun in Jordan and while many tourists would consider this a difficult time to travel in an Islamic country, many of us find something special in the holy atmosphere (well, in many places at least) and in the special buzz in the evening when bread has been broken.
There’s hidden sweetness in the stomach’s emptiness.
We are lutes.
No more, no less.
If the soundbox is stuffed full of anything…
no music.
If the brain and belly are burning clean
with fasting, every moment
a new song
comes out
of
the
fire
James Madsen’s 21st birthday present was a trip round the world. Not bad. Some of us had to make do with socks. Anyway, he has been keeping everybody abreast of his adventures in his excellently-named travel blog, Around the world in 120 days. Cool. Let’s go.
In a recent entry he describes camping with Bedouins at Wadi Rum.
In the evening we tucked up against a towering cliff at a Bedouin campsite–vertical stakes supporting a woven blanket roof–it’s flat, not sloped, which is interesting. Dinner was chicken, potatoes, and onions cooked in embers, the whole thing buried under the sand, and served with yogurt, cucumbers, and tomatoes; it was delicious. Chicken fat on my face and hands I fell asleep under a blanket of magnificent stars, a fire burning close by, it crackling occasionally as if keeping time with the shooting stars that would streak the sky between the stars and planets that stretched down to the horizon. If you do visit Jordan, I’d highly recommend Wadi Rum.
Camping out in Wadi Rum can be a magical experience but it’s not always quiet as blogger tsaojam discovered one night under canvas.
Spending a night or two out in the Wadi Rum desert is a must. The trekking and climbing during the day is amazing enough, but nothing quite like nights in a desert…the extreme silence…cool desert night air…and unfortunately in the areas where many camping grounds congregate, barking dogs all night and cats in heat. The experience was amazing, but if you’re in one of the larger camp areas, bring ear plugs! I slept for about 3 hours and woke up to the symphony of amourous felines and marauding dogs packs. Still, the experience is a must, the ‘wildlife’ just comes as part of the package.
Gareth Scurlock made the trip to Jordan recently for the Times. You can now read his various adventures in eco-tourism camps, Petra and Wadi Rum on the Times Online website.
His description of the plight of the Dead Sea is interesting; so too his trip to the Dana Nature Reserve. And of course he found Petra particularly moving.
It’s a 90-minute early morning drive to Petra, where the entrance is as affecting as the monuments, tombs and temples themselves. The walk down through the Siq, a narrow gorge that at places is only a couple of metres wide, is nearly a mile long. The vertical cliffs used to be joined, now wrought apart by earthquakes and other natural forces. The bright red hues of weathered sandstone hint at the majesty ahead.
For most people, the image that typifies the Red Rose City is that of the Treasury, carved out of the same vertical cliffs as those that line the Siq. Emerging from the gorge, the massive, ornate wall is revealed gradually and is awe-inspiring even if you’ve seen the picture hundreds of times.
Is there a better blog about Jordan than Black Iris? Written by Naseem Tarawnah, it’s a colourful, multimedia journal covering a host of subjects. This week he takes us on a drive through Wadi Rum, complete with front seat videos:
We drove past the “rum ship”, which basically looks like a ship in the middle of the desert. There we met a few young Bedouin boys and girls, one of whom tried to throw in as many English words as she could because I suppose anyone who does come from Amman is technically a tourist in these parts.
That idea of rolling down sand dunes looks like fun. Check out the video.
We know camels can travel long distances without needing to top up with fluid but just in case you thought they never got thirsty, Avitale from Israel just posted this video on YouTube of a camel necking a bottle of water at Wadi Rum. Thirsty work.
It is hard to believe these colours are real, but they are. Merkur Nallbani posted this photograph of Wadi Rum on his blog and on Flickr a couple of days ago and already the compliments are flowing in from Flickr users. As somebody says, “this is crazy! beautiful”. It is, and it is. The colour of water melon, says one; or is it more like blood?
Gavin and Catkin are travelling to New Zealand the long way, the very long way - driving a LandRover from the UK. But not just any old LandRover. This one functioned as a support vehicle in the 1995 Camel Trophy event and still carries the distinctive Camel Trophy colours and markings. You may have spotted it in Jordan recently.
Camping out in Wadi Rum can be a magical experience but it’s not always quiet 
Gareth Scurlock made the trip to Jordan recently for the 
Is there a better blog about Jordan than 
It is hard to believe these colours are real, but they are. Merkur Nallbani posted this photograph of Wadi Rum on 
