The following day after Petra we moved further southwards to Wadi Rum, also UNESCO listed as a World Heritage. It is one and half hour drive from Petra and approximately 60km northwest of the seaport Aqaba, on the border of the desert stretching from Jordan into Saudi Arabia. We arrived at the visitor centre 15km from the main road Aqaba – Ma’an.
The side road leading to Wadi Rum
There was an entrance fee of 5 JOD per person to be paid. Many guides will wait for you here to take you to the valleys between the sandstones and rocks. If you haven’t booked one you will take the next available guide around. The Egyptian competitors are not very good as one could read and hear between the lines. We have booked with Saleh, an indigenous bedouin living with his family in the village few kilometer further down the road.
The train station (far away from the Bedouin village)
Saleh was around 30 years of age, very nice bloke and spoke fluently English. His business was guiding visitors through the valleys, arrangement of camels, he didn’t have any himself, advising walkers and rock climbers, providing meals and accomodation in camp set up on the outskirts of the village quite a bit of drive into the valley, like many other families in the village who live mainly from tourism.
And its Train
His wife Alia, 30 years old, we were asked to guess, having 5 children with him, supported him in preparing the meals and things in the background for guests beside others like his two older unmarried brothers and a cousin. He took over the business from his father who died in a traffic accident years ago. The father was supposed to be part of the supporting film crew of the Oscar winning “Lawrence of Arabia”.
Wadi Rum, sandy and dusty
Alia and Saleh were very welcoming, warm hearted and genuine. We felt easy and comfortable with them. They live on a walled plot of land in the village. In the front court there was sort of a stall for the goats on the right, and on the other side a reception tent with adjacent car ports for guests. Here we waited for our group coming together. A young French couple from Montpellier who picked up hitch hiking Alia from Aqaba by chance in the morning, a diplomat couple with their few friends who worked in Amman and used to bring their visitors down here for leisure and had already been several times at Saleh’s before.
And rocks
Our group was split into two, the one went hiking, the other drove with a roofed pick-up around. As we were still tired from Petra, we decided for the Wadi Rum light version.
Our camp in the wilderness. Water supplied by tank lorry, don’t even think of having a shower, light with solar lamp.
Depite the choice we could not resist to walk, again, to Lawrence spring, a must-see for Lawrence fans and anything related to water in this area. Then the former Lawrence’s house, before him a Nabataean customs post, now half of a brick wall. Furthermore two rocks to climb on, quite fun. The landscape, wind and dust. A short walk into a gorge with mural paintings, a relic of the Nabataeans. All was wonderful.
Our dinning room with campfire place
In the late afternoon we arrived in our camp, enjoyed sugared mint tea awaiting the sunset. Then dinner on the floor, campfire under stars. Alia and Saleh played and tried to teach us bedouin drumming. Ready for bed.
Our bedroom, Standard
After the breakfast next morning we drove to Amman, back to the civilisation.
We thank Saleh & his team for the care and wonderful experience we would recommend to anyone!
Deluxe version