More Rum Fun.

Aqaba, Jordan
Day 10

The cold of the desert night has a deleterious effect on your camera batteries. It really sucks the life out of them.

Most of my shots from day two in Wadi Rum are on a roll or two of film in my backpack, so it'll be ages before I get them back.

I was the first of my group to wake up, so I decided to go for a walk. I schlepped about 1 km away from the camp site and watched the colours change on the rocks as the sun slowly crept up behind me. It is so peaceful out there.

The sand is streaked with the small tracks of lizards and other desert critters who have scurried about during the night, as well as the soft round tracks that camels make.

I sat on the cold sand with the sun on my back, reading my book for about an hour, the only living thing I saw was a dude riding a camel, slowly crossing the desert in front of me.

Eventually the rest of the crew were up and about and breakfast was served. Hummus, matabal, zarta, labneh, olive oil, pita bread and bean porridge type thing called fooule with sweet tea seasoned with sage.

The rest of the day was taken up by a four wheel drive trip around to some of the rock formations around Wadi Rum, some sand dune climbing, camel riding and a visit to what is left of T.E Lawrence's house.

Camels are really great creatures, the one I rode was called Roham, or something like that. He kept nuzzling into the back of one of the girls in front of me, smearing streaks of camel spit all over her T-shirt.

The camel behind me also tried to eat my camera.

When all our touristing was done the four of us jumped into a cab and headed south to Aqaba, a beach town on the Red Sea. From my hotel room you can see Egypt across the water, and down the street there is a sign saying 10km to Saudi. In the other direction is Israel.

We got stopped on our way to the beach in a cab by a M-16 wielding Jordanian military dude. After checking our passports he waved us on with a smile saying, "Welcome to Jordan". Thanks dude! It turns out the beach club we were going to go snorkelling from was right next to a naval base.

This siq in Wadi Rum leads to what smelt like a Bedouin urinal. We all agreed that the tour guides directed us to go down there as a joke.

This small pile of rocks sits on the remains of T.E Lawrence's desert home.

One of the last shots before my second camera battery died...

Eugene of Arabia

Wadi Rum, Jordan

Day 9

Have you seen Lawrence of Arabia? Good, me neither. It’s on my list of films to see.

As of yesterday it is the top of my list, because I spent last night in the desert of Wadi Rum, the home of T.E Lawrence. Only an two hour drive from Petra, this is an amazing patch of desert.

Before setting off for the desert I had to see Petra once more. Matt and I arranged to get to the ruins early in the morning to beat the tourist rush that hits around 11:00. 

It was well worth it.

We scrambled up to the "High Place of Sacrifice", where the original inhabitants dragged sheep and cows to one of the highest peeks in the area to meet a grisly end. It gave a great view of the area. The lanscape is so amazing that it makes you giddy. 

Following a quick snack of nuts, sultanas and bananas, eaten while perched on the base of Roman era columns we decided to head back to town.

You could spend days scrambling around the rocks of Petra, pretending to be Indiana Jones, but we both wanted to head south into the desert and pretend to be Lawrence of Arabia.

As well as bumping into Matt on the way to Petra, the two of us ran into an American named Caroline and a Brit named Eirwen. Seeing as the four of us were traveling solo, we decided to team up and head into the desert.

Wadi Rum is beautiful. The sense of space is staggering, but perhaps what is most striking is the silence. If you hold your breath, you can’t hear a single thing.

After spending the better part of two days in Petra, the four of us children-of-the-nineties had a huge desire to watch Indiana Jones. Luckily we are all addicted to technology and had three laptops between us, with the required film loaded onto one USB memory stick.

After we had shared a huge desert BBQ and a shisha thanks to our hosts at the camp we rugged up, set up a laptop on a backpack and watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade under the stars in the Jordanian desert.

It was a far cry from being T.E Lawrence, but it was still amazing. 

Petra. So fantastic.

There are so many caves to explore. Many were inhabited until quite recently by local Bedouins, but the were booted out when the are became a world heritage site.

Matt on the way up to the "High Place of Sacrifice"

There are heaps of well fed, friendly cats all over Petra.

Horses and cart ferry tourists down the siq to the treasury at Petra.

This old gent has such a great face. He was selling trinkets for tourists. If the antique lamp I bought off him is as old as he says it is, I'll bite my arm off.

One small step for tourism...

The Wadi Rum

This is the camp. We were the only people there.

Roughing it.