Lawrence Would Be Proud

Trekking through the Jordanian desert sounded exciting. Sleeping under a canopy of countless stars and the Milky Way peaked my interest. And the the thought of camel spiders as big as my hand and scorpions of all sizes (the smaller the more poisonous) terrified me to no end. With all this in mind I set out with two friends/colleagues to the Wadi Rum desert in southern Jordan.

Cruising down the Desert Highway out of Amman in a French Citroën at 5am is quite a feeling. The road was generally empty, except for errant speed bumps (who the hell puts speed bumps on a highway?!), and as the sun started to rise out of the driver’s side window to my left, an eerie, hazy-white glow began to give me a sense of the landscape around us. The ride down to Wadi Rum takes about four hours. To get there you essentially drive south on the major thoroughfare through Jordan and turn left into the desert before you reach the port city of Aqaba on the Red Sea.

Wadi Rum is a desert valley cut into sandstone and granite rock that is most famously known as the place where British office T.E. Lawrence (i.e. Lawrence of Arabia) based his operations during the Arab Revolt of 1917. The area is now inhabited by Bedouin tribes who have developed eco-adventure tourism of the beautiful

esert; which some say is the most beautiful desert in the world. I should note here that it’s not really a desert in the way that I imagined; such that there are no vast expanses of flat, emptiness covered with sand, stretching as far as the eye can see. Instead, the landscape is dotted with massive rock outcroppings…..surrounded by sand, stretching as far as the eye can see.

Our day in the desert began at 9am when we hopped into a beat-up, 1970’s 4-wheel drive Land Cruiser with our guide Zidane and off-roaded 10 clicks (kilometers; about 6 miles) into the desert. We were joined in a separate vehicle by a couple from northern Spain and two Parisian women. Throughout the morning we would drive to a spot and Zidane would turn us loose. We would get out and he would explain what sort of activity we should be doing in this particular area. Sometimes it would be climbing up a gradual, natural rock incline or a brick-red sand dune to check out a view. Other times we would

hike through a canyon carved into one of the massive sandstone outcroppings; the walls of which were covered with Petroglyphs depicting humans and animals that date back to the Thamud Period and Nabataeans in the 1^st Century BCE.

By lunch time when the temperature soared into the mid to high 90’s, we found a shady spot between two sandstone monoliths, spread out a

large blanket, and had a picnic lunch of cheese, cucumber, tomato, pita bread, and tuna. After a short nap in the shade, and a brief smoke of the argileh, a 2 v 2 football (soccer) match broke out with the Spanish/Bedouin side faring much better than the all USA squad.

After the lunch break we continued on much in the same way, exploring more canyons, “scrambling” up natural rock bridges, and viewing Gaudi-like rock formations. I was amazed by how it seemed that some of the rocks appeared to be melting. For the grand finale we climbed up a sandstone monolith and watched the sun set over the Arabian Desert. As I watched the quick flash of green light explode from the top of the sun as it passed below the distant rock formation, I realized that I had actually seen the sun rise and set in the same day.

As nightfall descended on the desert we made our way to a traditional Bedouin camp to sleep for the night. The camp was situated adjacent to yet another outcropping, for protection I suppose,

and the sleeping quarters consisted of rectangular, canvas tents equipped with 2” thick pads and thick Bedouin sheep’s wool blankets to keep us warm during the chilly desert night. I was amazed by how the temperature continued to drop all night such that by 4am or so it was actually very cold. Such a contrast to the heat of the day.

Prior to turning in for the night though, we sat around a small campfire on traditional Bedouin rugs, drank sweet tea, and had a dinner of grilled chicken, lamb balls, and salad. Then the guides played traditional

music with a guitar-like instrument and drum, complete with singing. Singer-songwriter open mic, Bedouin Style. As the music wafted through the air I wandered around outside the camp, my neck craning backwards, staring up at the myriad stars, with the light, smoky brushstroke of the Milky Way a backdrop to constellations, planets, and shooting stars.

The next morning I woke to realize that we were truly in the middle of nowhere, sleeping in the desert. Yes, “that just happened.” Arriving at the camp under cover of darkness prevented me from really understanding just how remote an area we were in. In the end I survived it all. No massive camel spiders (but plenty of camels), no scorpions, and no rabid coyotes; A night camping in the Jordanian desert. Lawrence of Arabia would be proud of me.