Living the Bedouin Life

We bid a fond farewell to Petra late the next morning and continued on our journey south.  Our first stop was Little Petra (exactly what it sounds like) where we wandered around for a bit before hopping back in the van to wind our way through stunning landscapes as we headed south to Wadi Rum.  We arrived at our destination just before 2 pm and our "jeep" and guide were waiting for us in this small little town...

One road in, the same road out.

We jumped into the open air back end of a modified flatbed truck and set off on our next adventure- exploring the famous landscape that makes Wadi Rum a favorite of Hollywood movie directors.  This location was used to stand in for Mars in The Martian, Rogue One,  Lawrence of Arabia and next year's live-action version of Aladdin.

Thankfully our driver has lived all of his life in this desert and knows it like the back of his hand because, though the scenery was gorgeous, it also looked a lot the same to the uninitiated and I can see how I would get lost in about half a second here.

Our first stop, Lawrence's Spring.  We stood at the bottom of this imposing hill and were told that there is a natural water spring just above that fig tree (center of the picture below).  We were then told to climb.  So, with the girls leading the way, we hiked to the top and checked out the small pool.  Which was not the most impressive part...

That distinction belongs to the view from up there.

We hiked our way down slowly as it was more treacherous coming down.  And we all felt a bit like this when we got there...

Back in the car, we zoomed through the desert to our next stop in Wadi Um Ishrin - the Red Dune.  

The Red Dune.

We tried to do a little sandboarding, but it is not as easy as it looks.  And walking the board back up again is just as hard as getting it down.

And the amount of sand collected in your shoes was impressive...

We gave up after a few tries and moved along to our next hike Seven Pillars of Wisdom and the Makharas Canyon.

Back in the Jeep, we began the most perilous part of the tour - climbing the rock bridges.  There are 3 huge, and some would say, very precarious rock bridges in the desert.  But, with a bit of urging from our Bedouin guide, we climbed them and posed and quickly scampered off...

Getting a closer look (and a photo) from the other side.  I look tiny...

Umm Fruth Rock Bridge.

Climbing up to the Burdah Rock Bridge.

They did it.  80 m tall and the largest in Wadi Rum.

We did a bit more hiking and exploring the area in locations I just don't know their names.  As I said before, it all looked the same to me after awhile.  But the girls had a great time bouncing around and trying to climb as high as they could.  MadHatter and I were also playing a game of seeing what shapes/figures we saw in the rock.  The one above is MadHatter picking a nose...

They made cairns (rock towers) and left them just as so many others have.

After hours of climbing fun, it was time for our final ascent just in time to watch the sunset over the desert mountains.  We grabbed a seat...

The guides brought us tea...

And we waited for the show...And it was a great show.

We were back on the ground and in the jeep for the drive to the camp, we would be spending the night in.  It was still light, even though the sun had set because we were blessed with a full moon.

By the time we got to our "tent", it was pretty dark, though that moon kept some light shining through our open window while we unpacked and got ready for dinner.

First, we had tea in front of the fire...

And then we were taken around the back so that we could watch as our dinner came up from out of the ground.  Zarb (Bedouin Barbeque) is a centuries-old tradition.  Because of their nomadic lifestyle, the Bedouin do not travel with anything they do not need, and that includes an oven and cooking utensils.  They would just dig a hole in the ground and add some hot burning wood (let it go out so that it essentially becomes coals, wrap the food in fig leaves, drop the food in the ground and cover it back up, allow to cook for a few hours.  Nowadays, they use a 3 tiered metal rack to put the food on, but the concept is pretty much the same...and the food is delicious!

It was getting late, so we had a final cup of tea in front of the fire and called it a night.

We were up bright and early the next morning.  Not because the sun woke us (our tent was amazingly dark and warm) but because breakfast was at 7 am and they drove us back to town at 7:30.  But it was worth the early wake up as we watched the sunrise over camp...

Our tent!