A visit to Jordan is incomplete without a visit to Wadi Rum. Only an hour from Aqaba this vast desert provides a stunning backdrop to desert adventures. On the day we visited, only 10 tourists had been in total. The threat of war has reduced tourist numbers to a trickle, which is sad for the locals who often rely on work as desert guides, but for tourists, there is none of that pre-packaged battery hen type trip which is so often experienced when travelling abroad. We were dropped of at the rest house by our driver and allocated a young Beduin lad (Khaled) as our driver and escort. Khaled informed us that he was one of 27 children he attributed the success of his father to his regular intake of camel's milk. We visited Lawrence's spring, and the Sunset site where Khaled made a small camp fire and brewed a pot of tea. We sat around the fire (by this time his friend had joined us) and drank tea and ate pistachios whilst putting the world to right. The sky was blue and clear, the wind light, and we sat and savoured the silence, watching eagles soaring in the evening sky. Magic...
Before we left the Wadi Rum area, the chief of Police insisted that we take tea with him in the rest house. (Very clean with all mod cons). He informed us that as the number of tourists was dwindling by the day, it was important that he speak to us all to maintain his language skills. It really puts us to shame, how many Chief Constables in England can speak Arabic, French, German, Spanish ?? Not many I think. We spent a leisurely hour learning about each others lives, jobs, and families before bidding farewell.
Next time we visit we will definately stay overnight as I feel we really missed out on a wonderful experience here.
Petra has it's man made wonders but Wadi Rum - built by God and loved by the Bedouin far surpasses the beauty of Petra.
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on Mar 15, 2003
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