Dead Sea and Wadi Rum – Tuesday 1st November 2016

Photos at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ffnord/albums/72157675251190510

(Distance walked today: 12km)

I slept better that night but was again woken by the call to prayer and then our alarm call as we would be checking out at 8am so had to be breakfasted and ready to go by then. An hour’s drive through the ever present city traffic and we were out in the countryside and on our way to the Dead Sea. The landscape in the north of Jordan is very rocky and barren although not in the same league as that further south.

We made such good time that we got to the resort before it actually opened and had to wait for them to get the place ready. An odd mix of a place, a nice clean pool at the higher level with a bar and shop but the changing rooms were damaged and dilapidated. We all got changed and headed down to the sea, it’s a fair way down, being the lowest place on earth, and I wished I had brought sandals as the beach was far from smooth.

The Dead Sea is well known for it’s saltiness but nothing anyone says can adequately prepare you for it, it is a bizarre experience as everything you know about swimming doesn’t really apply when you are on the surface rather than under it. Any of that water getting in ones eyes is intensely painful and the taste when it gets in ones mouth is far from pleasant. There was a haze over the water but you could just make out Israel on the far side of the sea, in fact the far bank from where we were is pretty much where we would be in a few days time at the kibbutz.

After around half an hour people began to head back up, some of us went for a swim in the, thankfully, not salty water of the swimming pool before showering and getting a drink. It was particularly nice to have an hour just to relax and chat, then we were back in the bus and heading down the length of the country to go to the desert camp in Wadi Rum.

We made it to the edge of the desert area about an hour before sunset so were in time to transfer to the four wheel drive vehicles to go on our tour of the desert. These were two 4x4s that had seen some hammer, but the drivers really knew what they were doing, the driver of my car seemed a bit more adventurous than the other driver so we got a more exciting tour.

About 15 minutes drive from the main road and we were in the desert, just past the checkpoint we were given a fantastic view across the open dunes to the Pillars of Wisdom rocks which inspired T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia) as he spent a lot of time in the Wadi Rum. Everything looked amazingly crisp as they had been inundated with rain the previous week and so all the dust was gone from the air and all the rocks were washed clean.

We drove on through some stunning desert landscape and were shown some drawings on a rock face that were claimed to be thousands of years old from the early days of the camel treks. It did strike me that the drawings were remarkably crisp and clear for a rock face which experiences constant sunlight and occasional flash floods but heh.

The sun was very nearly at the horizon and sinking fast so we got back in our cars and blasted over the dunes to an area with fantastic views towards the setting sun. It really is one of those experiences which sticks with you, the sheer majesty of the stark desert landscape and the colours of the setting sun have few rivals.

The area we were in was delineated by a border of boulders marking out a huge territory in the desert backing on to one of the larger rock outcroppings, this was, we were told, planned to be a huge tourist resort which a wealthy individual had claimed and was going to build a hotel and spa on but was banned from doing so by the King.

Our camp was just around the corner and wasn’t quite as rugged and spartan as we were expecting, we had prefabricated huts to stay in with proper beds which came as a pleasant surprise as the itinerary said we would be sleeping in a communal tent with the possibility of sleeping under the stars.

The desert experience is clearly big business for the area as climbing a barchan behind the camp I could see two other camps nearby, one of which was very large with probably 50 tents in rows and several large tents for meals and the like. We sat around a fire waiting for dinner which was cooked in a unique way for the area, they put all the meat on skewers inside a barrel which is then buried in a pit in the sand with a fire burning in it, this is then covered by sand. The fire is starved out but the heat smoulders on and the meat cooks over the course of several hours. It was nice but I wouldn’t say it was worth the effort beyond tradition and impressing tourists, though you can see why it was done this way with wild animals in the area.

Sitting around the fire after dinner we talked and Saleh explained some of the history and traditions of the area, one striking thing was the lack of light polution. It’s rare these days to find anywhere that isn’t washed out at least to some degree by the lights of civilisation and the opportunity just to sit back and marvel at the milky-way and the sheer number of stars was amazing.

Wadi Rum and Petra – Wednesday 2nd November 2016

(Distance walked today: 15.7km)

In the morning we had the option of a camel trek but none of us were particularly interested, some of us having ridden camels before had no burning wish to do so again. Saleh offered to take us on a walk through the desert, our luggage would be collected and we would meet the bus out on the road at the end of the walk. Saleh mainly does walking tours of Jordan and in particular the spice trail, so desert trekking and tracking is one of his main skills. As we walked he stopped to show us the tracks of the various animals which live in the desert and how to identify them.

We walked for around two hours and I’m glad we didn’t set off any later in the day as it was already getting very hot by the time we met the bus. We did get to see some more wall carvings, which again looked suspiciously fresh although we were told again that they were very old.

It was around four hours drive from Wadi Rum to Petra where we would be staying the next two nights, although it would seem to make more sense visiting Petra before Wadi Rum, Saleh explained the reasoning behind it were due to the way the timings worked to get the most out of both place. We got in to Petra early in the afternoon and dropped our bags off at the hotel before heading on to the main attraction.

TBC.