The Valley of the Moon - Wadi Rum
We began this morning under overcast skies and a rather grey view from Our Martian dome at the Wadi Rum camp site. We were quite comfortable in our dome accommodation. Each one is fully equipped with electricity, a full modern bathroom with hot and cold water, a fridge, air conditioning and heating (and we needed the heating) and comfortable furniture.
The camp also has permanent tent accommodation, each one looking like a Bedouin tent. They don’t provide the glass dome view, but look to be comfortable, too. Several other camps dot the valley, each one snugged up against a steep rock outcrop or small mountain. Salah tells us that the our camp, Sun City, is one of the better ones in terms of accommodation, facilities, and staff.
Pictured below, from L to R: Sultan, our 4 by 4 driver, Salah our excellent guide and tour director, and Guillermo, our most senior group member.
Temperatures have been cool; we drove past some snow patches in the hills between Petra and Wadi Rum. We even had some rain yesterday, a bit of a rarity in the desert.
After breakfast in the giant dining dome, we embarked on a four wheel driving tour of the area. The desert there is quite dramatic with interesting rock formations shooting up from the sand. In the Rockies, the mountains all have scree slopes made up of pieces of rock that break off the upper slopes. Here, the sandstone peaks erode a little at a time and what falls off is little bits of sand, so instead of the mountains having gradual slopes at their base, they rise straight up from the desert sand. It’s easy to see why movie directors who want a dramatic setting like the Wadi Rum area.
Rock formations in the area are quite unusual, most of the erosion being caused over thousands of years by the wind-blasted sand scouring the rock surface. The occasional rain also assists in wearing away the stone, leaving the interesting formations.
As we toured the Wadi (Valley) Rum (Moon), we visited the place where, in 1917, T. E. Lawrence gathered the Bedouin tribes to attack the Ottoman held city of Aqaba (from where I am writing this entry).
On the way, the ladies in our group decided to take a ride on camels. The Bedouin herdsmen assisted the riders and made sure that the camels did not get too excited.
This is a an image of T. E. Lawrence from 1917, or soon thereafter, on a rock where the Bedouin tribes gathered.
Tomorrow, we have a full day winding our way back to Amman and visiting several sites en route.
The camp also has permanent tent accommodation, each one looking like a Bedouin tent. They don’t provide the glass dome view, but look to be comfortable, too. Several other camps dot the valley, each one snugged up against a steep rock outcrop or small mountain. Salah tells us that the our camp, Sun City, is one of the better ones in terms of accommodation, facilities, and staff.
Pictured below, from L to R: Sultan, our 4 by 4 driver, Salah our excellent guide and tour director, and Guillermo, our most senior group member.
Temperatures have been cool; we drove past some snow patches in the hills between Petra and Wadi Rum. We even had some rain yesterday, a bit of a rarity in the desert.
After breakfast in the giant dining dome, we embarked on a four wheel driving tour of the area. The desert there is quite dramatic with interesting rock formations shooting up from the sand. In the Rockies, the mountains all have scree slopes made up of pieces of rock that break off the upper slopes. Here, the sandstone peaks erode a little at a time and what falls off is little bits of sand, so instead of the mountains having gradual slopes at their base, they rise straight up from the desert sand. It’s easy to see why movie directors who want a dramatic setting like the Wadi Rum area.
Rock formations in the area are quite unusual, most of the erosion being caused over thousands of years by the wind-blasted sand scouring the rock surface. The occasional rain also assists in wearing away the stone, leaving the interesting formations.
As we toured the Wadi (Valley) Rum (Moon), we visited the place where, in 1917, T. E. Lawrence gathered the Bedouin tribes to attack the Ottoman held city of Aqaba (from where I am writing this entry).
On the way, the ladies in our group decided to take a ride on camels. The Bedouin herdsmen assisted the riders and made sure that the camels did not get too excited.
This is a an image of T. E. Lawrence from 1917, or soon thereafter, on a rock where the Bedouin tribes gathered.
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