A Day in the Desert- Wadi Rum

 Packed up our bags last night for good. Got a whole extra bag just for goodies and 2 dollars left in my pocket. We hit Kings Highway and headed to Wadi Rum a protected desert area in Southern Jordan. We covered a lot of miles! ( I may have to do a whole separate blog on rest stops... Some fascinating experiences)

On the ride or guide have us the history of Jordan.. Stressing it is safe.. No oil! Their main resource is phosphorus.. after that.. cement!  Eighty percent of Jordan is dessert!  Today we went to the area of the desert - Wadi Rumwhere the real Lawrence of Arabia was (1700's) and where they filmed the movie with Peter O'Toole, the Martian, and Star Wars.  We took a jeep tour.. Which was actually sitting on some metal boxes and pads in the back of a Toyota pick up truck. I think the drivers were 14 years old. We feel like everyone great likes to just busy out chops a bit. It was a wild ride!


Our first stop, we climbed this dune.. It may not look like much but it was steep! And sand! And far... Check out the little people on the top.

Our next adventure was the camel ride. The Jersey girls are all in on all adventures... Dinner of the others come (after we talk then into it). Some don't. The camel caravan in the desert... All the camel's are tied together with short ropes which means that at any given time you can be squeezed and jostled by the camels... There were two groups of us.. The guides walked close together making the camel's walk closer together.  They mocked us as we screeched a bit... No leather saddles on these guys so you are at the mercy of the shape of your camel... Yikes. It was a rough hour. We were happy to get off (is not easy staying on that thing when it is getting up or down)!


When we got off the camels our guide described how this was a route for caravans and we saw some ancient drawings (and some not so ancient writings)


We them stopped for tea in a beautiful bedouin tent.. Which of course featured a gift shop which sold camel milk soap (makes a great stocking stuffer) and scarves and tea and all the other stuff we have seen along the way.



You cannot imagine how many bedouin tents for the country side! They are true nomads! "No one bothers them because they know they are not going to stay." Most of them have a flock of sheep or some camels.


Back into the Jeep and on top lunch...a great buffet with the meat, lamb and chicken cooked underground.



The movies have made the area so popular there are quite a few glamping areas.


 It is hard to believe that any one can grow anything in these desert areas but it is watermelon season and trucks are all lined up along the road selling their wares.
 We had another 4 hours of driving to get to the city of Amman, the Capital of Jordan. A sharp contrast to what we have seen. CLEAN.. probably the cleanest city I have ever seen..... On the way we stopped again at the rest area/gift shop.... Last chance souvenirs!
We had dinner in a nice restaurant on the city and headed to the airport. . We are halfway home!


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