Jordan day 5 - Wadi Rum

Many places in Jordan are alcolhol free even though tabacco smoking is very wide spread. That aside, we had expected to be able to take alcohol to dinner on our last night in Petra. The bar at our hotel sold wine and beer and a number of us purchased bottles before heading off for dinner. Alas, Sami had been misinformed and we were unable to consume alcohol at the restaurant. It was consumed later around the hotel pool.

How is this for a label? Note the ashtray generally available on every table in every room

It was another 10 o'clock start today. This gave us time to sort out what we would take with us for our overnight stay in a Bedouin camp at Wadi Rum and what would remain with the bus. Thingy was packed in my overnight bag.

I did manage to complete going through the many photos that I had taken in and around Petra and posted a small selection of the photos. The write up will come later.

Once on the bus we headed to Little Petra which lies about 12 miles from Petra. I assume the distance is as the crow flies or maybe not. I'll need to check this later.  This area was set up as a trading area so that traders and spies passing as traders would not actually enter Pettra and thus not be able to report on access routes, defences and the like. There were some well preserved features within the site and well worth the visit.

A staircase leading to an upper level

The frescos on the ceiling (see below for a view of part of the remanents) date from BC

Little Petra had yet another "World Best Views" and quite a few of the group made the climb to check out the allegation. The views were OK but nowhere near as good as many of the views and vistas we had along the trails we had hiked on the previous day.

The best view in the world? No, not when compared with the vistas of the previous day at Petra

Sami took the opportunity to do a group photo for us all. By the time the last of the cameras where picked up we were all getting a little silly. I'm not sure whether it was too much sun or the fact that smiling for 18 photos was a little beyond our ability to remain serious.

Our tour group. Trevor and I are in the back row

To get to Wadi Rum we needed to return through Petra. The plan was to grab lunch in the town however there was nowhere to park the bus so we ended up with Plan C. Or was it D? We stopped at the next town (or village) and purchased items to make up our lunch. The available foodstuffs were a little limited once you discounted anything that required a knife to cut it. In the end we got hommus, soft cheese, a bread each and a bag of mixed nuts. This was actually a very cheap lunch.

A short distance out of Petra we stopped so that we could have a final view across the world heritage site. From our vantage point we could see part of the trail that we had followed to get to the high place for our view down on the Treasury.

Back on the bus we headed down the Kings Highway stopping at a rest house where we were able to eat our lunch. Sami surprised us with 100 small falafals which he had purchased while we were getting our lunch stuff. They were really nice and still warm. They certainly made a big difference to our lunch.

The rest housse had toilets, nice and clean, hot drinks and a huge area of items for us tourists to purchase. Actually, the prices were good and many of the group came away with purchases.

Swapping highways, the Desert Highway for the Kings Highway, we arrived at the Petra Visitors Centre a little after 2:30pm. We had a quick stop to look at, and take photos of, the Seven Pillars refenced in T. E. Lawrence's book Seven Pillars of Wisdom. T. E. Lawrence? He was none other than Lawrence of Arabia. He had camped beneath the pillars and had come up with a strategy for defeating the Ottoman Empire, the then rulers of much of the Middle East. someone obviously could not count. We had to work hard at getting seven pillars from the famed formation.

Lawrence of Arabia's "Seven Pillars". If you can get seven pillars let me know

The landscape within the Wadi Rum area is stunning. The formations left by the erosion of wind and water really need to be seen to be believed. My photos will not do it justice.

Within the desert areas of Wadi Rum four wheel drive is essential so we all transferred from the bus to utes. Seated on a bench which ran either side of the back we were transported across the desert.

We were taken to a point where we could get a good view of part of the Wadi. Walking across the sand and up sand hills is hard work. Give me rocks any day.

Part of the entrance ticket charged to get into Wadi Rum was a cup of tea in a Bedouin tent. While a small number of our companions took up the challenge of climbing up a rather large sand hill these of us settled down to a refreshing cup of tea. The tea tent was also another opportunity to sell stuff to visitors. Actually, some of the prices were very reasonable and, once again, quite a few members of our group bought things. By now about half the group are wearing head scarves. Trevor and I are still wearing our Pacific School Games hats.

The Wadi Rum area has been habitated for many millenium. We were taken to an area where rock drawings can still be seen. I hope that some of the many figures show up in my photos.

Finally we arrived at our camp. The setting was stunning. There are high walls on three sides of the tight valley. After yet another cup of tea we were able to claim our sleeping quarters. There was an option of taking the matress out to sleep around the camp fire.

There are toilet facilities at the camp but no showers. Water is in short supply but not camp cats. I guess that there were only two but they did seem to be everywhere.

We trundled out to watch the sunset. With no clouds in the sky we were left to hope that it would just simply colour up. It did to and extent and we ended up with a yellowish sky. Unfortunately the photos didn't seem to capture the colour. 

Back in camp we settled down around the fire and were entertained by a chap playing a traditional musical instrument and singing. It was very pleasant.


While the entertainment was going on preparation for dinner were underway with trays of food appearing from who knows where. Finally we were told that the meat was to be extracted from its cooking place in the ground and we went out to watch it being retrieved. There was loads of food with a wide varieties of salads and other vegetable dishes along with the "BBQ"ed lamb and chicken.

About to open up the cooking pit

The top is revealed

Lifting the trays out of the pit

The array of dishes offered for our meal

... and the chicken and lamb

 During dinner one of the girls went to her tent to get something and returned somewhat distressed as she had discovered a large scorpion inside it. The camp staff quickly captured and dispensed with the intruder.

After dinner Sami gave us a lecture about things Bedouin. This was very informative.

To finish off a great day we marched out into the desert, guided by torches for those who had thought to bring them,  to a spot where we could observe the night sky. The array of stars was unbelievable. The night was clear with no moon and the the stars were magical. We spent quite a long time just watching them and were fortunate to see shooting stars, too. Our return to the camp was without the aid of our torches ... just the light from the stars. As we were crossing uneven ground this was a bit tricky but we all made it back in one piece.

By the time we reached the camp the generator had been turned off. It, the generator, is only run for a couple of hours and shut down at 9 o'clock. The camp fire was still burning and torches provided sufficient light to prepare for bed.

The wind had come up by the time we needed to decide whether we would sleep outside under the stars or in our tents so most of us opted for sleeping inside. There were three hardy souls, all equipped with sleeping bags, who slept out.