Home » Jordan » Amman, Petra, Wadi Rum desert

Middle East - part IV

Amman, Petra, Wadi Rum desert

Hector Yague
2005-10-07 17:04:47

Displayed times (last time: )

In fact, you've got to climb up 850 stairs to reach the damn monastery, but trust me it's well worthy. It was late afternoon when I got there, and I climbed up a hill for better views and a bit of loneliness (tons of tourists around). I had one of the best naps of my life there, with a wonderful scenery at my feet.

On my way back, I was so tired that I rented a camel for the 4kms ride back to the site entrance. Bad idea, bad idea indeed. The bloody camel not only stank on God knows what, but was also the most uncomfortable thing you could ride on. How can the bedouins ride across vast distances on those beasts? I suffered from an incipient pain right in my royals for the rest of the evening...

Wadi Rum desert

Anyway, two days later I booked a tour around the southern desert of Jordan: Wadi Rum. It is a national park, so nothing can be constructed within the area, and the only meanings to go inside is by hiring a 4WD car driver, which I did for a reasonable price...

I cannot describe what I experienced in Wadi Rum. I know I have used the terms "beautiful", "stunning", "awe-inspiring", etc on this web site before, but nothing compares to that desert. It is, simply, the most beautiful thing I have seen in my 27 years of life. Petra is a mere pastime compared to this desert.

I will try to describe it: Have you seen a film displaying the Mars landscape? you know, with all that deep red sand covering everything, and high rocky mountains popping out here and there in the background? well, that is Wadi Rum. The sand is so reddish that it seems like construction brick powder. The vastness and emptiness is so that blows your mind away, while you cannot help but stare at it and let your thoughts blow. In contrast, far in the horizon, a lonely bedouin rides across the land on his camel

Nop, I cannot describe it out. I ...