Wadi Rum
Wadi Rum, Jordan
Wadi Rum is a protected desert in southern Jordan. A night at a Bedouin camp in the desert is a very popular tourist activity; it’s included in nearly every Jordan tour itinerary. Also, since we skipped Morocco, I wanted a real desert experience as part of our trip.
A guy from one desert camp I booked was kind of a jerk in our WhatsApp communication, wouldn’t give me a straight answer to how much excursions cost, and I just couldn’t figure out what he was talking about. Texts like, “Don’t worry my friend about the price” and “My friend’s round account is 220.” Wait, what? So, how much is a jeep tour??
I cancelled that reservation and moved on to someone else. UGH.
Nearly all of the dozens of Wadi Rum desert camps are rated 8.5 or higher out of 10 on booking.com, so eliminating options was nearly impossible. I eventually found a recent detailed blog written by a woman who stayed at Wadi Rum Dream Camp and loved it, so I booked there. We’ll see. Just 24 hours, I thought.
You can’t drive into Wadi Rum without a 4x4 and from our Namibia experience now understand why. Still, I didn’t like having to park our car outside the camp, get a ride, and not be able to just leave when we wanted. Oh well. We entered the park, were sent to the visitor center to get tickets (included with our Jordan Pass), then met our driver with whom I’d been texting that morning.
There were very few people at the camp. I wondered if there would be any other guests at all besides us. I hope so. It feels weird when you’re the only ones. Turns out an Australian tour group with Intrepid Travel were also staying the night. The tour guide told us due to cancellations their group halved in size last week when Iran attacked Israel. It was now a group of three women and one man, all retirement aged, plus one younger gentleman in his 50s, maybe.
“Not so many tourists now, huh?” I questioned Amjad, the apparent manager of the camp. Speaking to the occupied airspace, he replied, “The camp is empty, but the skies are full!”
There’s not much too much to do in the camps for desert activities, so booking excursions is practical and expected. We opted for the 4-hour jeep tour, though we did wonder what in the world we’d do for four hours in the desert. The tour cost us 65 Jordanian dinars ($90 USD) and included a simple yet delicious lunch of hummus, cheese, pitas, cucumbers, and tomatoes. (The other guy I cancelled with was gonna charge us 220 JD.)
Our jeep tour driver was a delight, a young man, mid-20s, maybe, wearing a head wrap and a long-sleeved white robe. He played sand volleyball with us, showed us how to make Bedouin soap from a desert plant, noticed the boys were grabbing at the desert trees so drove close enough for them to grab them. Hearing our echoes travel through the canyons was remarkable, climbing the rock bridge was beautiful (though the height scared me), and one particular very steep downhill drive over a big old sand dune had us screaming with fear and delight.
Dinner that evening was a chicken and rice upside-down dish called maqluba (mah-KLOO-ba), lots of salads, pitas, hummus, fruit. Absolutely delicious. One Arab family were also staying as guests, plus a French couple. Not a bad group, the lot of us.
Amjad upgraded our Deluxe Tent reservation to a bubble tent - a geodesic dome with a panoramic view of the desert. Camels, other 4x4 trucks, the massive rock formations, the setting sun. The view through our dome was absolutely beautiful.
That evening, Amjad invited us all for a stargazing tour. This is normally one of those paid excursions, but since there were so few of us, and since due to the New Moon it was too dark to see many stars, he offered it for free. The 30-minute presentation he gave was, in fact, our favorite part of the desert experience.
Amjad used a laser pointer powerful enough to identify stars. He showed us how to find the north star, Cassiopeia, Sirius, Gemini, and the Leo constellation (5 lengths in the other direction from the north star). Then, he drew a collection of random dots in the sand. As he told the story of Orion’s belt, the constellation emerged in the dots! He told us the pyramids of Giza (we were just there!) are placed in the exact position as Orion’s belt; the Nile is the Milky Way. He told us how his ancestors navigated through the desert at night to avoid the heat, and how they used the stars and sounds to guide them. Then he shaped his fingers in various contortions to draw a series of desert tracks for us to identify: lizard, snake, fox, camel, and 4x4. We were wide-eyed and engaged by the images, history, and storytelling.
Our Wadi Rum experience nurtured a love and appreciation for the desert and desert people.
For photos, check out our Wadi Rum photo album.
