Sojourn a journey through life

Wadi Rum, Jordan

Wadi Rum is a protected desert mountain area in southern Jordan. A great place to hang out with Bedouin people, do some rock climbing, scrambling, hiking and 4x4ing out in the desert. The sand changes color with the reflection of the sun, and we had an absolutely fantastic and amazing time here. Arriving after a short bus ride (1 hour or so) from Petra, we met the Bedouin guy who I booked the trip with - Attayak Aouda. After discussing our itinerary with him, he sent for our guide, Mohammed - and we were off for a day and night in the desert.

Our first stop of the day (around 9am) was at the base of Jebel Burdah, one of the larger mountains in the area. Carly and I wanted to scramble up to Burdah Arch which was a fantastic 3 hour scramble up and down, with some great photos at the top. It is amazingly high once you reach the arch, and was a really fun climb up the mountain.

Following our hike, Mohammed (who was driving an absolutely ancient, but awesome, Toyota Land Cruiser) found us a place in the shade and cooked us some yummy lunch and sweet, delicious Bedouin tea over an open fire. After that it was an afternoon siesta in the shade for a few hours. Afternoon naps are awesome. After the nap we had more tea. Tea was a regular occurrence in the desert, and we drank our fair share (Dan might've drank 2-3 times his fair share).

Following our afternoon siesta, our afternoon adventure began with a flat tire! Mohammed muttered something about 90 jeeps in the desert and no one having a jack. He didn't seem bothered, and I grew more impressed by the minute. He stacked up some rocks and drove the flat tire up onto the pile. Then he created a second pile of rocks near to the front suspension, and drove the jeep right up onto the pile of rocks, where he happily changed the tire in a flash, and we were off.

We gathered some firewood to use for the evening fire.

After a bit of touring around the desert, we stopped at a Bedouin tent for more tea in the desert. Carly and the boys (there were 4 Bedouin men and myself). The tea was fantastic, again.

After our visit here, we drove off to where we would be setting up camp for the night. Mohammed began to prepare dinner and sent us off up the hill to watch the sunset.

After sunset it was time for us to start messing with the tripod and some long exposure shots with the new camera. Some of these turned out not too shabby at all. Neither of us had ever seen a night sky as bright or starlit as the sky in Wadi Rum - it was completely amazing.

Mohammed prepared more tea and an absolutely amazing dinner of pita, chicken, tomatoes, potatoes, onion, garlic all fantastically cooked. We opted to sleep in the tent instead of under the stars as it was quite cool and windy at night.

We absolutely loved our time in Wadi Rum, and highly recommend it to anyone who might be traveling to Jordan.

The next morning, we were off again and caught a cab ride with Omar the Taxi Driver down to Aqaba where he brought us to the Jordan-Israel border. Carly and I crossed into Eilat where we crashed for one night before heading up to Jerusalem.

But I'll leave the Israel entries for themselves. We're already working on some blog entry titles, probably starting with something like "Miserable Israel" (in English 12 class, they'd call that foreshadowing).