Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea, Jordan

When we booked this tour, Mei felt slightly nervous about the Wadi Rum part of the itinerary that hinted at 'roughing-it-out' at a traditional Bedouin camp in the middle of the desert. To her relief, the reality was closer to 'glamping' in private concrete huts with an en-suite, electricity, mosquito net and running water. A hot shower was on site, however for one night we sucked it up and braved the cold water in the very mild desert night. And complementing the atmosphere were the popping sounds of machine gun fire - a traditional Bedouin way of celebrating a life event or perhaps welcoming us into camp.


Stocking up with supplies
On leaving Petra, we expected a drive of over 2 hours to the UNESCO Heritage Listed site of Wadi Rum (also known as 'The Valley of the Moon'). A local pastry shop provided us with a plate full of sweet snacks to keep our energy levels going.

Traditional sweets such as baklava

We couldn't leave empty handed

Wadi Rum Camp

The camps at Wadi Rum are managed by Bedouin tribesmen and were self-contained concrete units with canvas coverings that allowed a degree of sunlight in but also kept out most of the sand and insects.

Our camp site was quite luxurious, with power points to charge our cameras and phones - although it was nice to disconnect from the 'grid' without any form of mobile or internet coverage; a mosquito net, supplied linen (although we supplemented with our BYO silk lining) and an en-suite bathroom that 'echoed' various noises across all the adjoining tents.

The rows of tent-like huts at our campsite

Inside our hut

The open-plan layout of the camp with a central communal area was geared towards ensuring visitors could mingle and enjoy Bedouin hospitality. And as a plus, they had a bar serving ice-cold beer.

The communal area

Sinking down the beers

4x4 Jeep Ride
The draw-card of Wadi Rum is the natural beauty of the layered red rock that forms unique shaped pillars similar to what Mei had seen in Western Australia. The scenery has been used for the movie 'Lawrence of Arabia' and more recently, as a representation of Egypt in 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'.

The jeep rides are a popular tourist activity but are not for anyone who may get motion sickness. Basically an open tray ute with some cushions and metal railing to hang on to as our drivers started to test their skills on the sand dunes.

Leaving camp

The 'open' tray style of the jeeps

Take a camel - an alternative to the jeep ride

Drinking tea and climbing a sand dune
Our first stop was a Bedouin tent for tea that had been set up next to a very large sand dune. Our guide suggested that we climb the sand dune to see the views over the surrounding area. Climbing up a sand dune is quite hard work and it was a race to the top!

Bedouin tent

The sand-dune -  although the picture does not do the height justice

The view from the top

To get down from a sand-dune, walk at a diagonal to lessen the impact on knees. However, some members of the group decided that running down would be much more fun!

A sweet spiced tea was served inside the tent and we observed the various decorations - rugs, kohl, incense and a rifle.

Tea warmed up on the stove

Part of the interior furnishings

Visiting Ancient Artworks
Wadi Rum has been inhabited by many nomadic cultures who used to guide caravans of camels through the arid landscape on the ancient trade routes. A rock face at the second stop had some interesting old carvings of camels.

Climbing up the boulder to reach the carvings

Olie enjoying the view

Carvings of camels

Other jeeps stopping for a photo with some camels

Beautiful scenery
The rest of the tour focused on showing us the beautiful scenery from different look-out points.

Standing at the opening of a small gully

Small rock mountains rising out of the barren landscape

Sunset
After about an hour of driving around, our jeeps were parked on the side of sand-dune and a small community of tourists were gathered on the high-ground to watch the sunset.

The jeeps parked at a pretty steep angle on the dune

Tourists seeking the best vantage point for sunset

Group photo using some rocks as a tripod

Sunset selfie pic

Watching the sun disappear behind the mountains

 

Dinner

As darkness settled in and our drivers had scared us with some off-road driving where most of us got catapulted out of our seats; we arrived back at camp where we watched our meal being cooked in the hot sand. Dinner included bread, a selection of salads, dips, meat and wine.

Our dinner being cooked in the sand

After dinner, we hung out on the lounges, drank more alcohol and the guides encouraged us to start dancing. This also involved all the girls attempting to remember how to dance that 90's hit - the Macarena.

Remembering the dance moves from the macarena

Sunrise

It was a bit of a struggle to get up the next morning to catch the beauty of sunrise - however the pink skies made it worthwhile.

The Dead Sea

After leaving Wadi Rum, we took a detour via Aqaba (on the north tip of the Red Sea) and headed for the Dead Sea. At 429m below sea level and with a 34% salinity level; floating on a seated position is completely possible; however eye goggles are recommended as the water stings if it gets into your eyes. And also don't shave your legs on the day that you visit.

The Dead Sea

The Dead Sea is 'free' to visit, however sharp rocks near the shoreline can cut feet and then the stinging salt will leave you in agony - so it is best to wear shoes. Due to the high salt level, the sea feels 'oily' and then when you exit the water, the evaporation leaves you covered in white crystals. Therefore, booking a visit via a resort with shower and change room facilities is preferable.

The resort with pool and shower facilities

The shoreline where you could leave towels

Various photos of us floating around, and a few including Olie got the black mud treatment.

Black mud man

After the shower had washed away the mud and salt -
our skin was glowing

As this was the last stop on the Jordan side, we said goodbye to four of our travel companions - Aaron, Lauren, Kelly and Kiyoe.

Jordan - Israel Border Crossing

For the seven of us that were making the border crossing into Israel, we had a drive of about two hours to the Sheikh Hussein border point, near the border of Syria and Lake Tiberias (Sea of Galilee). There are two other crossing points - the closest to Amman is Allenby/King Hussein Bridge; and there is a southern crossing between the Red Sea resorts of Eilat and Aqaba.

The red dot above the West Bank is the border crossing we used.

Border crossings have strict opening hours and various checkpoint procedures. We found that having a local guide explain the process (although Ali could not accompany us the entire way through), made it a little less stressful.

There are many forum posts and websites that explain the end-to-end border crossing procedure. This is just a summary of our experience from November 2014.

1. Our guide and mini-van driver dropped us off at the top of a very long road where two checkpoint buildings were located. 

2. We were instructed to wait for a taxi who would drive us through the checkpoints for a small fee. This was all negotiated by our guide in Arabic, but the man in charge of the taxis understood some English.

Photo as we waited on the side of the road for a taxi

3. The first checkpoint was to check our passport. Once given the ok, we were driven to the second checkpoint where our bags were scanned. 

4. The taxi then drove us to a bus stop area, where there was a toilet block, small shop and you entered the building to pay the Jordanian departure tax fee and have the relevant stamp in your passport.

5. A bus ticket is then purchased for the journey across the bridge over the River Jordan. This is the demilitarized zone between Jordan and Israel. 

6. On the Israel side, we were directed into a building where we cleared Israeli immigration - had our passport checked and a short interview. They were also monitoring for signs of sickness and one of our group - Sarah, was subjected to a temperature check before she was allowed to leave the building.

7. After getting the necessary stamps - it is possible to have the stamp on a separate piece of paper instead of inside your passport (to avoid complications in future travels), we passed through a pair of sliding doors and met our Israel local guide - Abraham. 

The entire crossing took close to four hours so it was completely dark when we arrived at the minivan. We then had a further two hours of travel through the West Bank (Palestinian territories) before we reached Jerusalem.

Next blog post:

Israel and Palestine

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