Desert to the Red Sea

The desert in Wadi Rum

 I've always loved Easter. I even enjoyed the holiday last year when I spent most of the weekend huddled in front of my computer, surrounded by books, finishing my first complete draft of my thesis. This year was extremely different from past Easter's though. It was my first Easter away from home, and my first time celebrating in an unconventional way. School is closed for the holiday, so I took the opportunity to travel to the south of Jordan, while the weather is nice.

Exploring Wadi Rum

I spent Easter Weekend in Wadi Rum. Wadi Rum is a desert nature preserve, covering about 280 square miles, and is bordered by Saudi Arabia. The desert has signs of habitation dating back to 800 BC. It's an amazingly beautiful area. I arrived there early Friday afternoon, and met with my wonderful tour guide, Tyseer. He's friends with the other volunteers at AES so we were looking forward to finally meeting about hearing about each other for so long. After a cup of bedouin tea, we headed off on our tour. On our way out of the village with ran into a Northern Irish woman wandering on her own and convinced her to come along with us. 

Sunset over Wadi Rum

During the jeep tour, we explored some canyons and rock formations, before settling down to watch the sunset. Afterward, we made our way to the bedouin camp I stayed at for dinner (a chicken dish that's cooked in a hole in the ground). Two volunteers from the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf (HLID) were there with their families, along with many other interesting travelers. After an hour or so of star gazing, I admitted defeat and headed off to sleep in my tent. Bedouin tents aren't like what Americans would think of when they think of a tent- they are made of goat and sheep wool, are elevated off the ground, the floors are covered in rugs, and are large enough to walk around in.

Walking across the desert in Wadi Rum

The next morning, after breakfast, I joined the HLID volunteers and their families on a hike across the desert. We walked from the campsite to the village, and up to a spring. The trek took about 2 hours, and somewhere along the way in the direct sun and soft sand I managed to get sunburned and to aggravate an old knee injury. After a lunch of falafel sandwiches at the spring, the group hiked back down to the village, and Tyseer and I set off on a tour of east Wadi Rum. 

Driving in Wadi Rum

When we were out past where most tourists go, Tyseer asked me, "Do you want to drive." I replied, "Of course!" and jumped in the driver's seat. Apparently I'm not a bad desert driver- I managed to not hit a rock or tree, not flip the car, or get it stuck. It was both terrifying and exhilarating- especially after Tyseer told me that he didn't have a spare tire if I popped a tire. Tyseer seemed to approve of my driving and allowed me to drive for about an hour, out near the Saudi border. 

Camp fire to combat boredom

We stopped for a cup of tea with some picnickers we meet, then headed back to the main part of Wadi Rum. Tyseer was showing off, driving on the side of a hill, when he hit a rock and popped a tire. I just smiled and told him, "At least it wasn't me." We had no cellphone signal, so we had to wait until the picnickers we met drove back our way. So we rested in the shade of a mountain until the picnickers came back. They did not have a spare tire we could use, but drove us back to where we could get enough signal to call Tyseer's brother. We found another hill to camp out on while we waited for Tyseer's brother. I went exploring on a rock formation, and Tyseer built a camp fire. Eventually, his brother arrived to rescue us in his pickup truck. His truck was set up for tourists to sit in the bed, but the tarp to block the sun was not up. So instead of sitting, I took the more exciting route and stood at the back of the cab holding onto the pole. The pole was a bit large for my hands so I had to wrap my wrists around it. Going over the bumps and sand dunes left my wrists bruised, but I'm so glad I did it.

Sunset over the Red Sea

We stopped for dinner at Tyseer's cousin's camp. I was so exhausted that Tyseer decided to just set me up in a tent there instead of driving back to his camp. On Easter Sunday, I awoke to wind and a sky full of rain clouds. As I was eating breakfast it started raining. Rain in the desert is beautiful. I returned to the village and waited for my taxi to my next destination. After about 3 hours of waiting I was ready to go crazy with boredom and begged Tyseer to do something, so he convinced one of the boys to give me a short camel ride. After short goodbyes, I took a taxi to Aqaba.

At the beach on the Red Sea in Aqaba

Aqaba is a port city on the Red Sea, across from Israel and the coast of Egypt is also visiable. I spent my first afternoon there just walking around, getting the lay of the land, with my knee protesting my every step. On Monday, I was planning on visiting the beach and some archeological sites, but I could not handle the walking. Instead I went to the beach and read for a while, then got a massage at a women's spa. It was a nice relaxing day. This morning, I slept in, then took the bus back to Amman. I'm staying the night at the Rep Flat, and will spend the day in Amman tomorrow before returning to Irbid for school on Thursday.

Standing in the Red Sea