Sandstorms and Stone

So the day after Petra, the guys decided that they wanted to return for one more day in order to hike out to the Monestary. Since the other ladies and I didn't get 2 day passes to Petra, we stayed at the hostel sleeping in a little and relaxing before making the drive down to Wadi Rum. Wadi Rum is a protected area in the south of Jordan that is best known for its connection to T.E. Lawrence (AKA Lawrence of Arabia) as it was the base of his operations in the Arab World during WWI. The connection to T.E. Lawrence was clear as on the map we had of Wadi Rum, half of the famous sites were named after him. Since we got to Wadi Rum pretty late in the afternoon, we only really had time to organize our jeep tour for the next day and hike to an old Nabatean temple that was just a few minutes away from the house we stayed at. It was nice to have a relaxing day because the next few were not so.

 Gotta love the spelling...

Pretty nice view to wake up to if you ask me.

The morning of the jeep tour was relatively chill as we hiked up to a spring up in the hills. It was such a rewarding hike as the water was cool and beautiful and after sitting under the dripping water, we were able to lay out on the rocks and let the sun dry us before hiking back to start our tour. Within the first 5 minutes of our tour, a sandstorm started followed by little drops of rain. I think our tour guide, Mohamed, was more excited than we were about the sand storm, stopping the car to take pictures of his own. Regardless the sand storm was pretty cool, even though standing outside in it hurt a little since sand kind of stings.

 My first sand storm!

On the rest of the tour we saw different canyons, springs, natural rock bridges, etc, and the best part of it all was the fact that at each stop we got to get out of the super tightly packed jeep and scramble up all of the rocks seeing even more than what was just in front of us. At each point of the tour we met other travelers who were also on their own jeep tours and we got a chance to talk to a bunch of different people and see where they all had traveled thus far. At some spots we even got some Bedouin tea. I've mentioned it a few times so far, but Bedouin tea is maybe the best beverage in the world. It is pretty simple, just black tea with sage and a whole lot of sugar added, but there is something about the way it is brewed directly on the fire and given out with such generosity that makes it so delicious. The sugar gives you energy to keep going, and is amazing even on super hot days. We tried to brew it ourselves a few times in the coming days but nothing was as good as when the Bedouins made it for us. I can't even count how many cups of that tea I drank over my 6 days in Jordan, and it will definitely be what I miss the most about Jordan.

The end of our jeep tour brought us to Mohammed's bedouin camp in the middle of the desert where we had a delicious Bedouin dinner, relaxed, and just talked. We had wanted to sleep out on the rocks outside but Mohammed kept warning us that sand storms and a little rain were probably coming again that night and the wind did not seem friendly out on the high flat rock we hoped would be our bed. Probably for the best, cause I got to get a good night's sleep under a tent, my last of the trip as the next morning we would don our packs and start on the real adventure of the trip.