Day 284 – Wadi Run Desert, Jordan – Thoughts & Stops Travel Diary

November 17^th, 2019

Today we got another very early start and went to Wadi Rum Desert to camp for a night. The receptionist at the hotel arranged our transportation but miscounted the number of people for the taxi. So, we ended up driving for a couple hours with Brendan, me, and a lady, and her two kids all in the backseat of a small car. Brendan was pretty crammed and uncomfortable, but it certainly wasn’t the first time. We enjoyed our desert trip in Egypt so much, we also wanted to see the famous desert in Jordan. It was very beautiful but it has become such a big tourist attraction we didn’t find the experience near as good. We also drove with a jeep out in the desert like we did in Egypt but we didn’t go very far in at all. We made a few stops with the jeep for viewpoints etc. and then they took us to camp.

A cool hill we got to climb up and run down in the powdery sand but there was a lot of other people.

This was really pretty as we came up to it! Once you go in the canyon though there is a ton of people all trying to file through these narrow passages.

Our guide asked Brendan to wear his jacket so he could go climb the rocks.

If you look close the guide is up in the rocks.

This cool thing we got to climb but didn’t really know what to do with our hands for the picture 🙂

The whole time we were driving we could spot other camps for tourists. We arrived at ours which was a very nice camp (good bathrooms, cots inside shelters) but it didn’t feel authentic like it did when we just drove real far out and made our own camp in Egypt. When we got to camp they just said, “have fun” and dinner will be in five hours. But there was nothing to do. Luckily, we were with a really nice group so we all sat around talking to pass the time, and we met some new friends.

When it was time for dinner they took the whole meal out from this hole in the ground they were cooking it in!

I was most excited to see the stars in the desert again but they didn’t have any place really set up to be outside to observe them. No fire, no mats or places to lay. So, after dinner we talked for a while in the dining tent and then stood outside looking up for a few minutes before going to bed. I’m sure there are other camp outfits that make the whole experience better. I thought the one we did was a bit lacking. However, it was a beautiful desert.