Red Desert Valley (Wadi Rum ~ Jordan)

November 2019

Wadi Rum is a valley cut into the sandstone and granite rock and is the largest wadi in Jordan.

For most people Wadi Rum is probably best known either for its connection with British officer T. E. Lawrence, who passed through several times during the Arab Revolt of 1917–18 or for the landscape that forms the backdrop for a large part of the 2015 movie "The Martian".

It has been inhabited since prehistoric times, with many cultures, including the Nabataeans (whom until visiting Jordan we had never heard off), leaving their mark in the form of rock paintings, graffiti, and temples.

Lawrence described his entrance into the Wadi Rumm, "The hills on the right grew taller and sharper, a fair counterpart of the other side which straightened itself to one massive rampart of redness. They drew together until only two miles divided them: and then, towering gradually till their parallel parapets must have been a thousand feet above us, ran forward in an avenue for miles. The crags were capped in nests of domes, less hotly red than then body of the hill; rather grey and shallow. They gave the finishing semblance of Byzantine architecture to this irresistible place: this processional way greater than imagination."

Our plan was to spend two days and nights here with one night staying in the tented accommodation and one night under the stars and located so that we could see the sunrise. The fact that it was bloody cold at night and quite windy put a damper on the sleeping under the stars option. The tented accommodation was pleasantly upmarket and quite comfortable but given that the water was solar heated if you wanted a hot shower you needed to get in early.

Tourism in Wadi Rum is a big business with multiple camps out in the Wadi and tourists being ferried about in Jeeps or camels, and by jeeps I mean pickups with seats mounted on the back. The plus side of Wadi Rum being so big is that the huge number of tourist get swallowed easily and you only see a few other jeeps during the day.

Over the two days that we were there we saw probably the bulk of the sites and did a fair amount of walking through canyons where the rock walks have been sculptured by the wind.

Within this dry and barren area there a number of springs where what rain does fall soaks into the sandstone and decades or centuries later emerges in a small spring. Given that these springs were the only thing that keeps people alive they are quite often adorned with petroglyphs.

One of the most popular sights are the stone bridges - looking up at the fracture lines in the bridge there was no way I was going to stand on it as sooner or later that bridge will fail. But until then it's a great place for a photo.

The second most popular sight I would say would be the sunset viewing location.

As mentioned this is a very dry place but every now and then you get views that highlights flood channels.

About the only wildlife we saw (apart from some camels) was the little rodent (think he was a desert rat). Spotted him whilst we were waiting for our lunch to be cooked.

After Wadi Rum we chilled at Berenice Beach for the afternoon before saying fairwell to Sue and David as they were heading back to England. We on the other hand spend another day chilling Berenice Beach and a drink in the Rovers Return pub (one of the very few places that sell alcohol) before picking up a car for a week to do a bit of a road trip in the rest of Jordan.