Jordan's magnificent desert--Wadi Rum

Wadi Rum vista

Years ago, Don and I camped for a night in Wadi Rum, the magnificent desert in southern Jordan that runs to the Saudi Arabia border and beyond.  That night, we slept in sleeping bags under the stars at a very basic camp, one of the few available at the time.

enjoying our jeeps

Today, there are large camps with traditional (sort of) Bedouin tents, complete with en suite bathrooms, and ugly domed rooms that reportedly have retractable roofs allowing the occupants to enjoy the clear, starry night.  These big camps don't appeal to me--so-called camping in the desert with 50 or 60 tents/domes and a large, echo-y dining hall are not what I'm looking for in a desert experience.  But, Wadi Rum is huge and has some small camps that give you at least some idea of a desert overnight, which is wonderful.

adorable baby and mom

After a not-so-great lunch in one of the impersonal and completely non-traditional, echo-y dining halls, we loaded ourselves into 3 open jeeps and drove off to tour the dunes, buttes and rocky canyons of this incredible place.  In fact, it is so stunning that many movies have been made here and, of course, we saw some of those highlights.  I can certainly understand why a filmmaker would want to use this landscape as the backdrop for a movie.

"dripping candle" cliff

Our driver sashayed up one of the dunes at full blast, but couldn't quite make it to the top of the butte, so roared around the side until he found slightly more solid ground.  I would find this tearing up of the dunes alarming except that the wind-blown sand quickly covers over most of the tracks.  The sand is golden and smooth against the dark cliffs, creating a very dramatic sight.
One cliff, behind a Bedouin tent where we had tea, looks like dripping candle wax.  Water, sand and wind have molded this cliff face, unlike anything else we saw in Wadi Rum.  Camels are everywhere, ready for a tourist to take a ride.  They are such stately animals, marching slowly and elegantly across the desert.
This large valley was a caravan route for traders across the centuries.  Several thousand years ago, some travelers left stories of their journeys on the cliffs.  Most of these have weathered away, but a few remain from so long ago.

ancient rock art

Wadi Rum is very worth a visit if you're traveling in Jordan, a chance to see one of the more spectacular areas of this desert country.  It is home to wolves, foxes, hyenas (that surprised me), oryx, rodents and birds in addition to the herds of goats and sheep owned by the Bedouin, who still move with their animals in search of grass and water.  Right now, there has been a lot of rain, so there are patches of green on the rocks and dunes.  The animals look well cared-for amidst this time of plenty.  But, this way of life won't last indefinitely as mining, tourism, new roads for the growing truck traffic bringing goods from the Gulf of Aqaba to Amman and beyond, and other industries impinge on the traditional way of life.