Wadi Rum

Saturday after being able to sleep in till 9 am, we had breakfast and then piled back on to the large charter bus to head to the Wadi Rum. The Wadi Rum is famously known as the place where TE Lawrence came and wrote, and then Hollywood later came and filmed Lawrence of Arabia. We got there around lunch time and had a chance to have a buffet at the main restaurant in town, or to go to the grocery store. My group decided to forgo the buffet and partook in a rather interesting meal in a place where no English was spoken at all. So far anyone that we have come across has spoken English fairly well and it’s been quite nice. This place – none. And they only served one meal off the entire full page menu. Chicken with rice and vegetables. After our lovely meal, we boarded our jeeps and went out into the Wadi Rum desert. Our first stop was at the Lawrence spring, where our jeep broke down. After a few tries and a lot of thinking by the jeep drivers, we got going and took first place back. Our next stop was one of the largest sand dunes I had ever seen. We saw some people rolling and running down it and decided that it was our turn to play in the sand. Hiking up a mound of sand is a lot harder than it looks. Esp. in 90+ degree heat. The view from the top was amazing, and unfortunately I did not take my camera since I had planned on rolling all the way down that sucker. Some people ran down and others rolled. Shelby and I started at the same time and had to stop about ½ way down because neither one of us could see straight. It took us a good minute to make the world stop spinning and then we were at it again. It was like being 5 all over again. I think I am still getting sand out of places it shouldn’t be in.

Once we got to our camp, we unloaded in our posh tents, had tea and biscuits with the Bedouins, and then managed to do absolutely nothing for a good 4 hours. It was so nice to just sit and do nothing. I eventually went and hiked the rocks behind our tent to look out over the desert, which was truly amazing. We were only 18 miles from the Saudi border, and they said usually you can see it, but there has been a lot of sand in the air. Shocker in the desert. Later that evening I watched the sun set on the large boulder behind our camp, and then had a traditional Bedouin meal. Our night time entertainment was provided by the Bedouin tent keepers, they sang and danced for us for a few hours. I was already not feeling all that great and did not partake in the dancing, but got a good video of some of the campers joining in. I was in bed by 10. I am truly turning into an old lady out here.

After a somewhat decent nights sleep, I was woken up by a not so happy camel trying to escape being ridden into town by an elderly lady. Not a happy camel. And not a great way to wake up. We got back into our jeeps and raced back to town, with our jeep coming in 1st! Our jeep driver was the coolest. He let us borrow his “boom box” and got when we said faster! Sadly we had to get back on the bus for 6 hours. Nap time!