Sorry - Internet is slow and this post got lost in transit so is out of order.
We all slept very well in our Bedouin tents (maximum of 4 per tent) and awoke to find yet another totally clear blue sky day and breakfast ready for an early start. A quick wash seemed preferable to a cold shower at this time of the morning!
The plan for the day was rather ‘open-ended’ with the principal objective to do a walk in the desert with a guide. Was this to be 4 or 6 hours? What were we to do about lunch? No one was quite sure what this ‘little’ expedition into the desert was to entail.
Our guide was friendly but not communicative and headed off down the sandy road out of our hidden enclave. We all followed and away we went on our magical mystery tour of Wadi Rum.
The scenery was one of never ending flat orange desert sands with sheer sandstone mountains providing a backdrop of dramatic form.
The sand has few plants and those that tolerate this desiccated world are stunted and low. Occasionally there would be a miniature iris giving a splash of purple colour in an otherwise monochrome orange landscape.
Apart from the very high jagged sandstone mountain walls that created a maze of pathways, there were occasional single large boulders sitting alone on the desert sands presumably dropped from the high cliffs above during some cataclysmic seismic event. These ubiquitous mountains showed the signs of possibly 30 million years of weathering which had produced strange shapes reminiscent of the Salvatore Dali desert sculptures of the Bolivian high plains.
During our walk we saw little in the way of animal life although there were tracks of animals in the sand said to be those of foxes, hedgehogs and native cats. Plenty of small lizards were sighted as were beetles, ants and a desert mouse. There were four or five species of birds seen including swifts and desert ravens.
The sandy valley floor is around an average of 1000m m above sea-level and the jagged mountain crags rise a further 600 – 800m above this plateau. These slabs of rock were forced upwards by the clashing of tectonic plates that resulted in the formation of The Great Rift Valley that extends from Turkey down through Jordan and into Africa as we saw in Ethiopia.
The highest mountain we passed was Jabal ram (1754m) and this is a popular climbing site for (mostly) European climbers. The sheer face they climb is about 750m and looks to be impossible but there are easier paths to the top for mere mortals.
After three hours of heavy trudging through soft sand we stopped for lunch at a spot where our camp cook had arranged to meet up with the guide. The lunch was pleasant as it was in the shade and the coolness very much welcomed. Some of our group then returned to the camp in the 4x4 vehicle but the rest of us battled on and completed the six hour walk, returning to our Bedouin campsite in the mid afternoon dripping in sweat and dreaming of cold beer, a commodity that sadly makes no appearance in this Islamic community.
Cold showers were a welcome end to this ‘hard’ walk but the satisfaction of having spent a day in this spectacular topography left us all with the verdict that the effort was well and truly worthwhile!
Our evening meal was followed by more Bedouin music on lute and a traditional drum and then lots of highly informative stories and information about the life of Bedouin camel drivers.
Our group was showing signs of exhaustion and as it was now dark most retreated to the tents for an early night (asleep by 8.30pm!!).
Our Bedouin camping experience has been another highlight in this unforgettable adventure!