Day 86 - Aqaba - Wadi Rum, Jordan

Today we left Amman with a 5 hour drive ahead of us to the town of Aqaba.
The town of Aqaba is on the Red Sea and has the border of Israel to the West of the town.

We got two stops along the way to stretch our legs and go to the toilet.

Once we reached Aqaba, our tour lead, Omar, pointed out where we could grab lunch, some supplies for our trip to our desert camp & some much needed cheap alcohol.

Once back on the bus we headed for South Beach where we can have a swim in the Red Sea.
The area of South Beach offers a good view of Egypt & Israel that shares its borders to the Red Sea. We were very close, 10minutes to the Saudi Arabia border as well!
Katie laid on the beach while I went for a snorkel with majority of the group.

We loaded back in the bus and headed for Wadi Rum where we will stay in the desert for the next two nights. We arrived at the visitors centre where Omar paid for our entry. We were greeted shortly by the local bedouins who would drive us to their camp in their ‘Jeeps’… A V8 Land Cruiser, an old triton & an old 80series cruiser… so many Jeeps!
We arrived at the camp after a 20 minute drive through the sand desert with amazing sandstone & Granite mountains picking from the sand all around us! We later found out each of these have a name from the local Bedouin tribe.

We got settled into out cabins and had some local tea while we waited for dinner. Dinner tonight was chicken and vegetables cooked in an earthen oven by the locals accompanied by rice and pita bread. We had the son of the Sheik of the local tribe come and talk to us about their way of life and stars they use to find their way. He then proceeded to pull out an app on his phone for the stars, so I feel like he’s pulling our leg on this start telling!

We stayed out talking to everyone and then went back to our cabin that is made out of a camel hair fabric with a metal frame for the night, to get some sleep ready for the day in the desert tomorrow.Read more