The wind had got up today, a warm wind from Egypt which whipped the sand up into flurries as we approached the small gorge at Little Petra which was likely to have been used as a caravanserai for visiting traders on the Silk Road.
Chris had been eager to buy a scarf and today was the day. After bartering for his purchase, a young lad showed him how to wear it! I could certainly feel the sand as it managed to sting any bit of exposed flesh and fortunately once inside the gorge we escaped!
Very dashing!
The two most impressive buildings at Little Petra are thought to be dining rooms as they contained stone benches for reclining. The first had three benches, hence Triclinium …
… and the Painted Biclinium with, you guessed it, two stone benches, and also well preserved wall paintings, although we were discouraged from trying to see them, which was a shame.
The gorge ended in a gift shop …
… and steps up to a trail ahead giving a perfect photo op …
The wind persisted, as we drove towards Wadi Rum.
The desert was made famous by the film Lawrence of Arabia which told the tale of the exploits of the charismatic T E Lawrence during the Arab Revolt in true epic style. We watched it before we came away and enjoyed the stunning vistas and stirring music, but later realised there was less focus on historical accuracy.
Thomas Edward Lawrence was an archaeologist, diplomat and writer. An officer in the British Army, he was posted to the Arab Bureau during the First World War and was assigned as liaison to Faisal, a leader of the Arab revolt against Ottoman rule. He participated in the capture of Aqaba as well as attacks on the Hejaz Railway which disrupted the Ottomans and eventually lead to their surrender.
As we entered Wadi Rum, we saw part of the Hejaz railway which was built by the Ottomans to transport pilgrims from Damascus in Syria to Medina in Saudi Arabia.
Donations from Muslims worldwide helped fund the project as it was considered a religious symbol as well as an important military feature and the trees felled for sleepers and fuel made a significant impact on deforestation along its route. We stopped nearby to look at some carriages, restored complete with an ottoman flag.
We had lunch at the visitor centre which is right beside a large rocky outcrop named the Seven Pillars of Wisdom after Lawrence’s memoir of his time in the desert. Though only five of these pillars are immediately visible, the other two are around the side.
After lunch we boarded a fleet of ancient trucks to take us on an excursion through the desert.
Our first stop was at a huge dune, which we climbed for a view …
… and the landscape is truly beautiful.
Some 25,000 petroglyphs have been found in the Wadi Rum desert as well as 20,000 inscriptions in four different scripts showing the development of alphabetical writing in the peninsula, which is why UNESCO put it on the World Heritage List. We saw only a small example, with camels, ostriches and men.
We also stopped at the site of the Bedouin Camp where Prince Abdullah first met Lawrence in the early 1900s. A rock with a small memorial to each of them records the occasion …
… and then we were served Bedouin tea, flavoured with thyme, cardamon and cinnamon.
The jeeps then took us to the camp where we would spend the night.
The romantic notion of a traditional Bedouin tent where everyone sleeps communally on mats on the floor has to be reconciled with the modern need for creature comforts so most camps have settled on Bedouin ‘tents’ with breeze block walls covered in matting, AC and a bathroom, set around a central area with dining tents and a camp fire and here is ours.
There was an offer of a camel ride to see the sunset, but having been on camels, we chose to just stay at the camp and take a wander on foot, realising quickly how busy the neighbourhood was!
Typically, the sun retreated behind a bank of cloud way before sunset and even the later stargazing was cancelled. I asked if the camel ride had been a peaceful experience, at one with the desert, and was told it was fine, until they stopped near a zip wire with everyone screaming as they descended!
Dinner was cooked in a traditional underground oven, called a Zarb and great ceremony was made of removing the sand and revealing the metal stand with meat and vegetables which were served with the buffet.
Afterwards, there was music and dancing round the campfire, led by a group of very enthusiastic teenage girls, eager to enjoy every minute of their group trip!
We went to sleep to the sound of the breeze ruffling the curtains but the night did not remain peaceful, at least to me, as Chris slept throughout! I woke thinking I had expected the desert to be quiet, but there was a racket going on somewhere. I looked in the bathroom with my phone and couldn’t see anything, but it sounded like a generator or ac unit but ours was off. I went back to bed and eventually dropped of again till morning, but when I got up, the bathroom was hot, steamy and noisy and I could see why. There was a hole in of the pipes and hot water was spraying hard against the glass screen making a racket.
It was soon mended by reception, but it could have been quite different if one of us had slipped on the wet floor or been scalded by hot water.
Today, everyone wants to follow in the footsteps of Lawrence of Arabia and have the romantic desert experience conjured up just for them, so much so that there are now 400 camps in Wadi Rum alone, offering every experience from sleeping outside under the stars to a luxury Martian style dome tent with hot and cold running water, but with jeeps whizzing back and forth and party music over loudspeakers into the night, getting a feel of isolation and inner peace can prove a challenge.
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