Wadi Rum, Jordan

Channeling Lawrence of Arabia!  There were no bushes or trees to look under for signs of Lawrence.  But there were plenty of rocks!  Wadi Rum is the desert that Lawrence of Arabia transversed with his skirmishes during the great Arab revolt of 1917 against Turkey.

I’ll get to the description in a moment.  But first a word from our sponsor, the country of Jordan.  We were in Jordan a couple of years ago and went to see Petra, a most magical and mystic place.  So on this trip to Jordan, we decided to go to Wadi Rum.  Jordan doesn’t have much going for it except for these two spectacular places that time and nature have created.  The country of Jordan was established in 1921 and is ruled by a monarchy.  The landscape is harsh as 75% of this country is desert.  There is no oil or natural gas; but most important, there is no water.  Right now, there are over one million Syrian refugees and that is putting stress on this waterless country.  It is so bad, that they collect rainwater.  The median income is only $1,000 per month.  The majority of the population (92%) lives in the capital city of Amman.  Gas is very expensive at $1.50 per liter.  One final note:  Jordan and Egypt are the only Arab countries with a peace treaty with Israel. 

The native population is the Bedouins.  These are nomadic tribes that live in the desert, moving from place to place.  They are goat herders and camel traders, but today, are making a living from tourism.  Since they are specialists in desert life, they are guides for hikes, tours of Wadi Rum, etc.  This has lead to some stability for the tribes and now they live in villages provided by the government with services such as education and medical clinics, although many forego the education part.  Bedouins get vaccinated against scorpions and snakes with homemade vaccine.  They do this every 12 years in order to maintain immunity from these desert dwellers.

Today, the weather was absolutely perfect.  It was on the cool side but very sunny with an incredible blue sky.  I bet you can’t guess who forgot the sun block and came back with a shiny red nose (and it wasn’t me).  We had a one hour drive out to Wadi Rum.  Our guide was a fellow named Jehad (like in jihad) – that didn’t make me very comfortable – maybe he should use a different name with the Americans.  We drove on a good road through brown, barren and rocky mountains.  We saw an occasional Acacia tree, which camels like to nibble on.  On the way to the visitor center, we stopped to climb all over Lawrence of Arabia’s actual, real-life train. Michael got to play engineer and when he was done doing that, he took over the machine gun and sprayed a hail of bullets all over the bad guys.  The train sits on almost 100 year old tracks and is used to take groups of people on tours through Wadi Rum – and I will add that those that ride the train are wimps.  I will explain.

  

Lawrence of Arabia's train

Michael playing engineer

The Seven Pillars; Lawrence wrote a book with the title taken from this mountain

After a pit stop at the visitor center and a short video, we went out to mount our 4x4 vehicle.  And I bet you thought I was going to say a camel.  Well, I think mounting a camel would have been easier than what we got.  Do you know where old decrepit 4x4 small trucks go?  Right here in Wadi Rum.  Each truck looked worse than the next.  There were benches mounted on each side of the truck bed, with room for three people on each side.   We had to climb OVER the tailgate to get in the truck.  I wish I had a moving picture of us old farts climbing into that truck.  Some needed a push in the butt to get up and over, some needed help getting the leg over the tailgate.  It was not very pretty.  And the trucks were filthy dirty.  Ugh.

Our chariots

We sat and bumped around on these seats; no seat belts!!!

It was too windy to keep my hat on, so I fashioned a turban out of a shawl I brought along.  I thought I looked pretty chic.  I went native!  Maybe I can start a new fashion trend at home.

New fashion statement

The desert landscape is startling for its colors and rock formations that have been carved by erosion from wind and sand.  Moonscape comes to mind, but as we rode deeper into the desert, the colors and rock formations became more dramatic.  One cannot really see the scale of this place in a picture, it is so immense.   We bumped our way along on a sandy road and made our first stop at a steep sand dune, where we climbed up to the top.  The sand was quite deep and if going up a steep hill isn’t hard enough, try adding ankle deep sand.  The sand was a stunning red and was very fine.  But it was worth the struggle to get up to the top. It felt like being on top of the world.  The vistas were so grand, the colorful desert spread out as far as the eye could see.  I wished I had a container to fill with this beautiful sand.  It was time to go back to the truck and get our tushes back in it.  It still was not very graceful. 

Deep sand road

You can get an idea of the scale of the rock formations; that is Michael standing at the base

We continued our tour and whenever we wanted to stop, all we had to do was bang on the top of the cab for our driver to stop.  We saw goats and camels, but no other animal life.  At one point, one fellow’s hat blew off and we banged on the roof.  He saw the hat and backed the truck up to it and I thought he was going to get out to retrieve it.  But no, he kept the truck moving, opened the door, leaned out and scooped it up.  It was a very impressive move!

Goats grazing

Camel train

We came to a Bedouin camp and oohhhed and ahhhed over the camels.  Michael went over and sat on one, but declined the offer to ride it.  They charge $1 to get on, but $20 to get off.  He wasn’t taking any chances of being stranded on top.  

Bedouin camel herder

Michael sitting on the camel

We also saw ancient drawings of camels etched on the side of the mountain.  That was cool.

Camel etchings on side of mountain

So off we go again, and this time I was getting the hang of getting in and out of the truck.  We stopped for tea by a rock formation that was just stunning in color with an incredibly smooth face.  There was nothing here in the desert to make tea with to our inexperienced eye.  The guides collected dried leaves and made a fire pit with rocks they found nearby.  Then they used a piece of flint to start the fire.  Once the fire got going, they pulled out some well used teapots and brewed fresh tea.  We stood around waiting for it to brew and then enjoyed sipping our tea from throwaway cups.  

Making tea

Sheer granite wall

Beautiful colors in the rock

Then it was time to mount up again.  I was starting to get the hang of how to get back in the truck by this time.  It’s all in the arms; once you get the foot up on the bumper, one has to hoist one’s derriere with a nice lunge as you grasp the tailgate and pull yourself up.  I would give my performance a 7.5 at this point in the excursion. 

King of Jordan during Lawrence's time

We stopped awhile later at a Bedouin camp that was really a touristy tea stop and store.  Not cool.  We completed our tour of Wadi Rum rumbling along dusty, rocky and sandy roads, and then made another tea stop.  I was glad to get back to the bus, but I was proud of myself as my final exit off the truck was a good one.  I scored a perfect 10 on that dismount!!