Truly an amazing experience watching the sun set in the otherworldly landscape of Wadi Rum. Catching up with holiday photos.
Tummy seemed calmer on waking though we were very tired after all the noise during the night.
Dave went to breakfast and I rested a bit more before getting ready for an 8.30 start for the optional trip to Little Petra. Guide had arranged taxis to get us there, a 15 min drive with great views of the sandstone Petra crags on the way.
This proved to be excellent - marvellous relics of Nabatean life: temples, kitchens, showers and other mundane remnants. A striking sight was the 2000 year old painted ceiling. All around was the same carved, weathered and colourful sandstone as proper Petra. But with the advantage of being a fraction of the size with far fewer tourists.
We walked on to Beidah, a nearby Neolithic site and featuring the earliest settlement in the Middle East (when people stopped being nomadic). As we returned to Little Petra to pick up our taxis, I could see strange settlements with white domes in the distance half way up the Martian-looking hills looked like something out of Star Wars.
Returned to the hotel to rejoin the coach and drive to Wadi Rum, stopping shortly for toilets and a view over the craggy hills. A couple of hours driving and the landscape became more desert-like.
We stopped to view an old Ottoman steam train, a refurbished remnant of the Hejaz Railway - absolutely baking now, proper desert.
Arrived at Wadi Rum visitors centre, used the toilets and transferred into 3 jeeps, sitting in the trailer back with a cover overhead to ward off some of the hot sun. Drove through the desert - hardly wilderness as it was full of other Bedouin camps and jeeps driving around all over, but still stunningly beautiful.
Arriving at our camp, we had a quick cup of tea before zipping off in the jeeps again to see the amazing sunset from a rocky bluff we had to climb up. On the way back, the moon was rising so we stopped to take pics.
At the pleasantly well equipped camp, we were upgraded free to individual cabins instead of having to share - they were like beach chalets but in the desert, stripey, with a lockable door and window, twin beds, sheets and blankets. It was totally steaming so we lay down for a while with the door open.
The facilities were good with a communal eating area and fire pit and a separate shower and toilet block.
Dinner was a traditional zarb cooked under the sand - chicken and vegetables followed by a coffee making demonstration. Put on midge spray for the first time since arriving in Jordan.
Was shattered so went to bed early, the cabin still really hot. Found a lovely huge beetle in the cabin which we put outside, no scorpions thank goodness. Went out to the loos a couple of times and it was so beautiful with the moonlight.
At Little Petra
https://365project.org/boxplayer/extras/2023-09-28
28 September 2023
Wadi Rum, Jordan
