Inside the Toyota Land Rover
Below the Spring of Lawrence
View from Spring of Lawrence
Red sand of Wadi Rum
Rum art
At 07:30, a taxi came to Petra Moon to pick us up for Wadi Rum. At around 09:00 we arrived at Wadi Rum Visitor Centre. Attayak, our Bedouin guide, greeted us at the ticket office. After we bought our admission ticket to the desert, Attayak drove us into Rum Village, and stopped at the Resthouse Cafe. A Bedouin with blue keffiyeh came over. His name is Shaba, our desert guide for the day. We said goodbye to Attayak and left the cafe with Shaba. The first thing we did was going over to a nearby shop to get bottled water and keffiyeh for HC and me, the Jordanian type with red and white keffiyeh (or shemagh mhadab). Shaba helped us to put on the keffiyeh. We hopped onto his Toyota Land Rover and off we go to the Wadi Rum and began our first ever desert experience.
Our first stop was the Spring of Lawrence. Wadi Rum is the desert where T. E. Lawrence based himself during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turks. The spring might be one of Lawrence's favorite spot where he bathed and relaxed. It was a 15 minute climb up a rocky hill, approximately 200m high, to the spring. AK, HC and I found our way up, and were a little disappointed to find the spring was no more than a tiny water pool, perhaps an outlet of underground water. Though we were delighted by the magnificent view down the desert valley.
We carefully descended back to the car. Shaba led us to a black Bedouin tent nearby where AK finally bought her set of head-scarf, a red and black combination. Again Shaba helped her to put it on. Not long after, we reached the second stop. It was a cliff where wall carving of camels, goats, and humans can be found. The wall carvings were made by Nabatean caravans 2000 years ago, depicting some of their stories. Shaba told us that Wadi Rum was once lay on the caravan route between Saudi and Damascus.
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