Wednesday was a pretty big travel day as we drove up to the Israeli-Jordanian land border and crossed into Jordan.
Trouble at the Border
Just about every time we’ve had to go near a border on this trip, I’ve been concerned. It’s an anxiety borne of second-hand accounts of other people’s horror experiences and a low level concern about the state of Israel and the Middle East.
The bus took us to the border and from there we walked from Israel into Jordan, crossing through a massive barb-wire topped fence that stretched as far as the eye could see. All I could think of was what would it be like if thousands of refugees had to cross in a hurry. It almost didn’t bear thinking about. The heat was bad enough.
We got through with relative ease, an Israeli guide (other than Jonathan, the one who’d been with us all the way so far) helped us on the Israeli side, and then on the other we met Anan, a Jordanian who would be our guide for the rest of our time in Jordan. Our Israeli guide, Jonathan, was detained for a while on the Israeli and Jordanian sides so that slowed things down. This gave some in the group enough time to buy $5 head scarves and have them fitted. The soldier could fit them better than the shop boy.
Once we were finally all through, we got on the bus and drove out to Wadi Rum Desert where we were staying. There were two types of accommodation here: Martian domes (glamping style with air conditioning and their own bathrooms) and other hut type structures which I think had air conditioning but I’m not sure if they had bathrooms.
We had lunch first then got back on the bus to go to the Wadi Rum visitor centre.
Wadi Rum Desert
At the Wadi Rum Desert visitor centre we took photos of the Seven Pillars of Wisdom (a mountain range) before getting on the backs of utes and being driven madly over sand dunes. Thankfully there was enough of a breeze (and a shade over our heads) to make it bearable.
We had a few stops along the way, climbing up a bit of a hill for some photos, stopping by some rocks to see some carvings (that weren’t old), and then at the spot where Lawrence of Arabia (supposedly) lived. There was a carving of his face on one side of a rock, on the other was King Abdullah.
We were ‘invited’ into a Bedouin tent, had some tea, some of us bought some things, and then got back in the cars to careen over sand dunes back towards the accommodation. It was actually a lot of fun (once you got over your fear of dying).
We weren’t back at the camp for long before we went for camel rides at dusk. We each had our own camel, one handler pulling along two lots of three. I had the lead camel in my group, the last camel continuously trying to get ahead of me. I couldn’t help but give him scratches; I wasn’t sure whether he kept returning because he liked it or he was just impatient to be in the lead.
The saddle dug into my thighs and cut off the circulation to my left foot which had pins and needles most of the way. The desert was beautiful in the dying light and the heat had died down. After about an hour or forty-five minutes (the advertised time kept getting cut down and I would have been fine with thirty minutes), we returned to the camp. My foot and leg were so sore it was almost too painful to stand.
We relaxed in our ‘tent’ for a little while, waiting for the sun to go down completely. Because it’s Ramadan, the staff weren’t preparing any food until after they’d eaten at eight pm. Dinner was a massive spread. Chicken, lamb and vegetables were cooked in an underground metal drum, covered with sand (like a hangi but bigger), and accompanying that was a lot of other Middle Eastern foods. I ate a lot.
After dinner, we sat out on beanbags and looked at the stars for a while. It was beautifully pleasant but I was struggling to stay awake so after about fifteen minutes I went to bed. It’s tiring being on a tour group.
Travels with Dan 
What do you say, eh?