Destination known and looking for jobs!: Wadi Rum, Jordan (Dec 29 & 30)

We got up bright and early the day we left Petra to catch the bus to Wadi Rum. This mountainous desert area was where Lawrence of Arabia was filmed. We booked an overnight tour into this desert from the Valentine Inn. Arrived into Wadi Rum, left our packs at the tour office, and were loaded into the back of an open aired Jeep with six other people. The Jeep stopped at the supermarket so we could buy some snacks before heading out. Next to the market, was a shop that sold falafels, hummus, and bread. We stood in line as a rowdy group of school children were there buying their lunches. They only had 20 minutes for lunch so they were quiet aggressive in line. It was kind of funny actually listening to them yell. We got back into the Jeep and bounced along for the rest of the day. The Jeep stopped at the highlights of Wadi Rum. Lawrence’s Spring, Burdah Rock Bridge, the red sand dune, and the Umm Fruth Bridge. We spent most of our time chatting with a couple from San Francisco, Traci and Rick.

So when we got to our Bedouin camp, we picked places to sleep next to each other. This camp was more permanent than the camp we had in the White Desert of Egypt. The tents were more permanent and the camp could probably accommodate around 50-60 people. There were mats and blankets and although there were tarps over the top, we would soon find out they were not waterproof.

After dropping our stuff on our mats, Jeff and I took a walk out into the desert. We climbed up a little rocky hill and watched the sunset. Back in camp we enjoyed some Bedouin tea outside as it started to sprinkle. Everyone moved inside the big main tent and we chatted with the others around our table. Dinner was brought in and as we started to eat, we heard the wind start to blow. I got up a one point to use the W/C, expecting to go outside and be blasted in the face by sand, but instead it was raining. Not just sprinkling, but raining really hard big drops. As dinner conversation wrapped up, the rain was drumming on the tent top. Traci, Rick, Jeff, and I were the first ones back to our tent and tucked ourselves into our sleeping bags and blankets. Traci and I started worrying that maybe our tent was leaking. We turned on the headlamps and inspected our ceiling and walls. Everything was dry until we looked over in the other corner of tent were water was streaming out of the ceiling and onto a mat. Thankfully, no one’s things were there. After laughing about how wet it was, we all went to sleep and just hoped our ceiling would ‘t start leaking. The four of us woke up dry, but others in the camp weren’t so lucky. Some people were getting up every couple of minutes to move their mats to avoid drips, others moved tents completely in the middle of the night.

So we experienced a sand storm in the White Desert in Egypt and a rain storm in desert of Wadi Rum, Jordan; Jeff and I have decided that maybe desert camping isn’t our cup of tea.