Wadi Rum

A Wadi is a valley.
And Wadi Rum is one of those valleys in Jordan.
And a famous one. Made famous by T.E. Lawrence, the Arab Revolt, and the movie "Lawrence of Arabia". (A movie that I need to watch, now that I've seen the actual place.) Here's a little video from the back of the 4x4. Beautiful large rock croppings and mountains. The video is a wee bit bumpy, as the ride itself was.

We stopped to see petroglyphs, and to take tea with an older bedouin gentleman, who also treated us to some music. The instrument is a wood framed box covered with goat skin. The bows are traditionally oleander and goat hair.

Petroglyphs. You can see the crude drawings of camels.

There were some impressive rock formations. Here is one that is an arch.

In Wadi Rum, there are a many different camps. We arrived at the Hillawi Camp. Wasn't sure what to expect. The wool fabric tents sit on concrete slabs. The concrete floors have a red color. I don't know if it's from the sand, or if it's intentionally dusted with some red chalkiness of some sort.

We were fortunate and had a room with its own bathroom. (Some of the tents did not have bathrooms, and you would have to walk across the camp's grounds to the toilets and showers. We appreciated having a toilet right there. We didn't avail ourselves of the shower, as the water was not heated and ice cold. 

Lots of blankets, that kept us warm.

We spent one night there. In the evening, guests sat around a large fire pit, and enjoyed a delicious meal in one of the tents. The tent was three-sided, and rectangular. There was some dancing (fairly mellow paced traditional dancing, that looked simple but really wasn't when we tried it).

Sitting around the fire pit, I was bundled up. 
As I was when we had a camel ride at 7:30am the next morning. Brrrr. I had two pairs of gloves on, two long sleeved shirts, a sweatshirt, and Tim's sweatshirt.

30-45 minutes into the ride, both Tim and I found ourselves thinking that we couldn't last the entire two hours. The walk and pace of the camels were a bit lurching. But then you get used to the rhythm of the camel and the two hours end up flying by.

The camels were a kick. They frequently bee-lined for shrubs, hungry for breakfast apparently. 

After our camel ride, we packed up. We made one stop at another nearby camp. Our camel guide wanted to show us a baby goat that was 5 days old. SO cute.


Tim with our camel guide Shaban (middle) and our Jordan guide Fadi Wishahi (on the left).