Wadi Rum

A long day in the desert today! It was about two hours drive from Petra to Wadi Rum, where we were transferred into the back of some 4 wheel drive vehicles for the first stage of our trip across the desert. There was a brief stop to climb a sand dune and take in the views, then another break for a cup of spiced tea in a Bedouin tent. This was the heart of Lawrence of Arabia territory (makes me want to watch the film again) and Osama pointed out a carving of T. E. Lawrence's face that had been etched into the rocks decades ago.

Shortly after the tea break we left the comfort of the 4 wheel drives for the more dubious comfort of camel backs. I was a bit apprehensive about this stage of the journey but it proved to be a lot of fun. The most challenging parts were hanging on when one's mount first rose to its feet, and again at the conclusion when it knelt to be discharged of its burden. Both movements involved a couple of significant lurches for the novice rider. The actual ride lasted about half an hour and ended at our lunch stop, where we were treated to a Bedouin version of a hangi, and were able to watch the food being taken out of the sand where it had been steam cooked (inside a metal drum, so free of sand grains!)

It was a long drive on to Amman in the afternoon, mostly through more fairly barren country. We stopped at a restaurant in the evening where we were treated to an amazing meal which even I was unable to do justice to, given what we had been fed a few hours earlier. At the meal we were joined by a kiwi woman, whom some of us knew and who works with Syrian refugees in a town about an hour out of Amman. She came back to the hotel with us after the meal and we were able to hear a bit more about her work.Read more