Sometimes I get this thing where I’m utterly at peace with the world and I think “there is no where I’d rather be than here”. Wadi Rum was this place. Rust coloured sand lead up into towering mountains of orange and it was just beautiful.

Our group took a convoy of jeeps out to a Bedouin camp where we were to stay for the night. We saw families of camels trot by, they are just so graceful. We raced up and down huge sand dunes and stopped atop one to watch the sunset. Just as we saw the last glimmer of sun dip below the horizon, Marcelo jumped up and screamed “LOOK BEHIND YOU”, like a girl, which led to a chain reaction of girlish screaming and a scuffle to quickly stand up and run away. We had been told of CAMEL SPIDERS you see. Instead, a merry dune beetle about the size of my palm cheerfully totted past us on long legs. It was almost cute. Marcelo has an acute fear of insecty type creatures.

It gets dark quickly in the desert. 15 minutes later when we got to the camp it was pitch black. We were treated to another Bedouin dinner that they cook deep in the ground, quite similar to a New Zealand hungi. Our Bedouin hosts played guitar and danced around the fire, it was really awesome. We then headed off to put our sleeping bags out under the stars and get horribly drunk. A pack of cards was produced and collected alcohol and mixer. We decided on Circle of Death which quickly degenerated into I Have Never, a game that should never be played outside where the rest of your tour is sleeping around you.

The next day we headed out to Aqaba and onto a glass bottom boat to see the Red Sea coral. Again, the Middle East’s horrible HORRIBLE environmental awareness pretty much ruined this as it became a game of “guess what brand of can that is” instead of looking at the coral. I saw a small black and white snake while snorkelling and refused to go back in the water after that. Average. It was here we said good bye to our tour group and made our way on our own again, back to Amman for the crossing to Israel.

Wadi Rum Photos