We were planning to leave Wadi Musa on Thursday morning for Wadi Rum. The bus was scheduled to leave at 6:30 a.m.,which is definitely not holiday time. However, our kind hotel person, William, was able to arrange a ride for us with two other couples from France who were leaving for Wadi Rum at 8:30 a.m., a much more civilized time.




We arrived in Wadi Rum around 10:OO a.m. and looked up the guide that William had recommended. We found Sabat-eit at the Visitors Centre and he explained the various options of exploring Wadi Rum. We decided that we would begin our tour the next day, as this day there was a sand storm in the desert and it would have been difficult to see the various sites or trek in the desert.




Sabat-eit invited us to stay in his home for the night, as his wife and family were away visiting her mother, who lives in the desert permanently. (The mother lost her husband some two years ago and has been very lonely since.) Staying at Sabat-eit's home in the Village was quite the experience. We slept in the room, with no roof, so that we could see the stars in the sky.

Wadi Rum, is described as a Desert of Mountains. It was described by Lawrence of Arabia as 'vast and echoing'. The landscape consists of sheer-sided mountains of sandstone and granite emerging from open vallyes to reach heights of over 1700 meters, and narrow canyons cut deep into the mountains, often concealing ancient rock drawings. It is now a protected area covering 720 square km.



The area was made famous by the Arab revolt and TE Lawrence in the early 20th century and by the film Lawrence of Arabia, which was partly filmed here. It is quite spectacular with its flat red desert sand and its majestic rocks.

We began our exploration of the Desert with the Nabatean Temple - Aretas (IV) used by Nabatean to worship ALLAT (Godess). this temple was builton the ruins of Allat temple of the AAD Tribe. The same Nabateans that built Petra.




Exploring Wadi Rum, we saw sand dunes that reminded us of the dunes at the Pinery, the difference being red sand and much higher in height. We climbed a deep, narrow fissure in the mountain side, containing many rock inscriptions in the Khazali canyon.
We also saw Anfashieh inscriptions of drawings of animals, humans, and camel caravans and Alameleh inscriptions.



We also saw spectacular natural rock arches, with great views.




After viewing some of these sites,we went to visit Sabat-eit's wife and mother in the desert. Before lunch,two of their children, a girl, who was 11 years old and a boy, who was 8 years old took us for a hike and some mountain climbing into the desert in the Burrah canyon. As we walked along in our hiking boots, they walked along in their flip flops, only to remove them when they encountered some steep, difficult climbs. After our walk, Sabat-eit's wife made lunch for us. Then we had a leisurely nap during the heat of the day.




That evening we saw the sunset from a viewpoint of one of the mountains in the Desert. We stayed at a permanet camp site appropriately named Sunset Camp. Supper was delicious. We slept in traditional Bedouin tents after looking at the star-filled sky and feeling the quiet of the desert in the evening as it cools down.




The next morning we were up at 5:45 a.m. for a quick breakfast before our ride back to Wadi Rum Village to catch the only bus to Aqaba for the day. . The truck of choice for the desert terrain appears to be Toyotas. Our driver drove as quickly as he could given the distance and time constraint to get us to the minibus leaving for Aqaba at 7:00 a.m.