Amazing. Simply amazing.
I can only think of a few other times in my life where I've been standing in such a beautiful place and could literally see 360 degrees of untouched natural beauty. Wadi Rum is a 45 minute drive from Aqaba (or an hour if you are driving with Samal, our driver who drove 50 MPH on the highway all the way there - - we were getting dusted by big tour buses we were going so slow!). We arrived in Rum Village, hopped on camels and headed out for Lawrence Springs, one of the first stops in this beautiful place.
Although this place was made famous to the modernworld by TE Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) in his book Seven Pillars of Wisdom, this desert and its inhabitants have been around since the beginning of time. At our first stop, we viewed hieroglyphics dating back 2800 years. Luckily for both of us, the camel ride on lasted 30 minutes (still sore 24+ hours later) and we transitioned into the back of a 4X4. Our local Bedouin guide, Hallal, who was born and has lived his entire life in Rum Village.
We stopped in several phenomenal sites, climbed up bright red sand dunes, scaled rocks, creeped back into canyons or "siqs" that were 250-350 feet high, but only 4 or 5 feet wide! We sat in local Bedouin tents, sipped super-sweet turkish tea and listened to local men singing and playing a Syrian-style guitar called the Oud. Then we watched the sun set flawlessly over the rocky formations to the west, turning the sands and surrounding mountains an even deeper shade of red.
Amazing. Simply amazing.
