Happy Birthday Kayla!

I woke up feeling slightly better. We were supposed to get going early as our Jordanian driver was to pick us up around 8:00 in the morning. However, my good feelings quickly waned and I needed a nap after showering. Not a great start! Keely was an excellent nurse finding me medications, water and juices and making sure the room was all packed up. How lucky am I?!

We finally made it downstairs, were able to call our driver to let him know that we'd be a bit late, and then we checked out and hailed a taxi to the Wadi Araba border crossing. Israel is sneaky in that you don't have to pay to enter the country but you do need to pay to exit. After passing through the financial hoops, we exited Israel and walked about 200 yards of open road to the Jordan entrance. Entering Jordan was super easy and the customs agents were very friendly and then we found our driver at the other end. Unfortunately, there was a new regulation that only taxis could take individuals from the crossing into the city so there was much yelling and discussing in Arabic between our driver and the taxi owners. But somehow he convinced them that we were going with him and we were off!

We drove about an hour northeast of Aqaba (the Jordanian version of Eilat) to Wadi Rum. The landscape was much more interesting. While it was all still desert like our drive from Jerusalem to Eilat, the mountains were much more interesting and it wasn't nearly as barren. There were goat herds and shepherds scattered as well as camels and tiny villages. As we got closer to Wadi Rum, the mountains were more pronounced. It also started to get a bit cooler! Who would have guessed it in the desert?

We met our Bedouin guide and we headed into the village to the staging area. Our itinerary consisted of camel rides, a jeep tour and a night at a Bedouin camp before heading back out of the desert by jeep to meet our driver in the morning. A South African couple was also arriving at the same time so after getting the overview, we headed back outside to find the camels!

Wow, are these weird looking animals. They are gangly, with long spindly legs, rather ugly faces and the worst teeth! They also make a rather weird growling noise when they greet you. The South African couple hopped on first and as we watched them struggle, I could see Keely's eyes widen! You mount the camel when it is lying down. Their back legs are double jointed so it first goes up in the back, then to full height in the front and then up in the back again like a boat on a rough sea. Keely got on without problems and then it was my turn. I noticed before I got on that my camel was the first one in the line. Weird I thought since usually the guide is first in line. I managed to board the camel without trouble as well and then the guide gave me the reins and said I was the driver! The rest of the train was tied on behind me and our guide was riding a younger camel alone. Good luck to us!

I must have done fairly well because while our camel guide only seemed to know two English words (stop and asking us if we were ok), he would often call out to get my attention, call me "Bedouin" and give me a big smile and a thumbs up. The only trouble we had was that my camel was hungry and anytime we saw a little shrub (Keely described them as pipe cleaners with pencil eraser sized leaves), it tried to eat. I'd pull up on the reins and eventually we'd be off again. After a few times, I thought I'd outsmarted him by tying the reins a little tighter so his head wouldn't go all the way to the ground. Turns out he was smarter than me because he just decided to sit down! Quite the surprise but I managed not to fall off!

As we headed out into the desert, I was quite certain that we were going to the middle of nowhere. The "road" ended and there were just dirt roads and camel trails everywhere. We saw a few different landmarks and then after about two hours we stopped by a huge sand dune where we met up with the jeeps. The 1970s Toyota pickup trucks and SUVs were the vehicle of choice! Every tour guide had one and they were old! Our guide, Salem, had us sit on a homemade bench in the back of the truck and we were off. The landscape was beautiful and we saw many different rock formations and caverns. It was a bit windy though and much cooler riding in the back of the truck. After a few hours, we found a small cave carved in the side of the rock where we'd eat lunch.

Salem setup some cushions for us to sit on. We thought he was just going back to the truck to get the boxed lunches so we were rather surprised when he came back a little while later with an armful of dead sticks to start a fire. Where he found all the timber is beyond me because all I saw were little shrubs and sand. He used the fire to make us tea which is our new favorite drink! We couldn't get enough of it - probably because of the several cups of sugar in every glass. Then we were off to see more rock formations culminating at a large rock to watch the sunset. It wasn't the best night for a sunset as storm clouds were coming through the area but they passed in time to see a bright orange sunset over the mountains. Then we were off to the camp.

There were five other jeeps - all part of the same company - at the sunset and then at the camp with us. As soon as we got to our tent, I was happy to see that the camp had western style bathrooms and running water! The tents were permanent 8'x8' structures with a large bed and a small table. There were about 15 of these structures and then two large L shaped common areas. I was exhausted and really not feeling well so I took about an hour nap over dinner so Keely will have to fill in that part:

We started by just having tea around the fire, of course! And then it was announced that the chef would be taking dinner out of the ground if we wanted to go watch. I think it's like a Bedouin fish boil! They make a fire in the bottom of a 50 gallon drum that is buried in the sand. They have a metal tray that looks like a two tiered cookie platter that they put chicken, potatoes, cauliflower, eggplant and squash on, and they put that into the drum. They put the lid on the drum, drape it with a cloth and then cover it with sand. It cooks like this for a couple of hours and when it's done…it was all delicious and falling off the bone! To go along with it there was pita, hummus, several kinds of cucumber salads, and a lamb koftka (lamb meatballs in a tomato type sauce) with rice. It was all very delicious!

After dinner, Keely woke me up because they had started a camp fire and were singing folk songs in the main common area. It was getting quite cold outside but the fire kept the tent warm and there was singing, dancing and some of the most off beat clapping I've ever seen. One of the guides and two of the guests were TERRIBLE at keeping a rhythm! It was amazing. But the songs were fun and the guide playing the lute (a 12 stringed guitar like instrument) was very talented. After answering many questions about the Bedouin culture (men have multiple wives, they cannot talk to a single female or her brother or father will shoot them, this tribe migrated to this area from Saudi Arabia about 350 years ago), some people opted to go for a walk to see the stars. I took the opportunity to get some more sleep and had an amazing night's sleep. A bit cold but very dark and I slept for a nice long time. Keely can tell us more about the star gazing:

I went along with a couple from Austria, another couple from somewhere in Europe and our guide, Salem. We didn't need flashlights because the moon was very bright, and with no trees to block it you could see for a long way. We walked for about 30 minutes or so straight into the desert. We talked to Salem a little bit and I talked to the Austrian couple quite a bit as they have done a lot of traveling as well so we swapped our travel tales as we walked. Salem did let out some very interesting tidbits about himself on the walk, my favorite was that he used to race camels when he was young! We saw the camels at a few points (when we weren't riding them) trotting and it looks terribly uncomfortable and awkward, I cannot even imagine trying to get them to actually run! When we turned around we noticed that there was a large storm cloud heading our way, so we didn't meander quite as much on the way back and headed right toward camp. It was a good thing because it started raining pretty soon after we all got back to our tents! There were a few really loud claps of thunder throughout the night, but our tent kept us dry and so much warmer out of the wind.

Kevin (and Keely)