Asia

[Visited: October 2004]

From the Red Sea in Aqaba, it is just an hour's drive to the desert of Wadi Rum. Immediately after leaving the Desert Highway, the first jebels or mountains appear from the plains, towering above the rocky and sandy desert. After a while, our driver took a left turn, into the desert proper, away from the asphalt road. Sometimes in an effort to show off, he raced up sanddunes, drove through wadis, and stopped at points of special interest. A lunch in the middle of the desert, in complete silence and isolation, an ugly fight of words broke out in our group, which fortunately stopped before it went out of control.
The desert is mainly a rocky one. There are sanddunes, but only sporadically, as a decoration of the otherwise grey plains. The wind makes sure that these dunes travel, that their pattern of little waves is maintained and constantly redrawn. We could only imagine how hot it can be in these desolate places, but during our visit the climate was perfect. We stopped at two bridges, strangely carved out by nature, and safe enough to walk over. Later in the afternoon, we saw rock drawings depicting human presence in this desert. Apparently, formerly traders travelled through this desert on the way from the Middle East to the Red Sea.
Later in the afternoon, as the sun travelled towards the horizon, the desert, rocks and jebels turned all yellow, orange, and red, setting the landscape on fire. We stopped just in time to see sunset, the sun quite suddenly disappeared behind a jebel and coloured the few clouds in the sky a deep red while leaving us in a dark landscape. In the evening, we had dinner at a small encampment at a campfire. After finishing dinner, we just laid back on our backs to enjoy a bright, sparkling sky loaded with stars. It was the prelude to a good night's sleep in a bedouin tent.

Around the World in 80 Clicks

Personal travel impressions both in words and images from Wadi Rum (Jordan). Clicking on the pictures enlarges them and enables you to send the picture as a free e-card or download it for personal use, for instance, on your weblog. Or click on the map above to visit more places close to Wadi Rum.
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Wadi Rum > Jordan > Asia

[Visited: October 2004]

Around the World in 80 Clicks