Camel Ride to Wadi Rum

Today we would leave Petra early in order to catch our camels in route to Wadi Rum. Unsure of the accommodations and services offered, Malcolm suggested we stop to pick up some provisions just in case and it was an almost life saving stop.

You may have noticed they had Amstel beer. They have a factory in Jordan so they sometimes consider it a "local" brew. We then made a second stop for more provisions and I found myself confused.

With supplies in hand we piled into two pickup trucks and headed into the desert.



We got to where the trucks could go no longer and saddled up on camels. Let me tell you, you have not lived until you have ridden a camel and afterwards you do not want to.



You sit on top of the hump which is kind of wide so I recommend that you first stretch out your groin followed by clenching tight your sphincter.

With no visual on anything that even remotely resembled a camp site I wondered how much further it was.



We passed the Seven Pillars of Wisdom that T. E. Lawrence wrote about.

There is something special about the desert, calm and quite like an old wise man. No matter what is on your mind, what you are struggling with, you can leave it in the desert and it will gobble it up. That fella Moses spent the last 40 years of his life wandering the desert and I was just now starting to understand why.



We finally reached camp and I dismounted wondering if they had an ice pack.

We settled into camp before heading out to explore.

My tent which was very dark at night.

We headed out to understand the desert.

This would be the extent of the wildlife we would see except for the camels we rode in on and a goat herder's goats later on.

Our first lesson was how to find water, and here it is, although I'm not sure how safe it is.

We approached this rock and entered a small fracture in the middle.



Inside the fracture we saw ancient petroglyphs, some of which are considered to confirm parts of the Quran.



They date back to around 700 BC.

All the way to present day.

We left to see what else Wadi Rum had to offer.



We then climbed up a sand dune to check out the views. The color was similar to the sand found in Namibia, however Dune 45 and Big Daddy are much more impressive then what I would see today.







Here is that goat herder's goats.

Here is a camel.



We returned to camp to start dinner by cooking it underground.

I like mine medium rare, a little pink inside, oh and free of sand.

While it cooked I tried one of those crazy 16.8% alcohol beers. It was pretty malty and could sneak up on you before you knew what happened.

We then did some sunset watching.







After dinner we relaxed around the fire before calling it a night.