The Wadi Rum

You  can't come all this way to Jordan and not go into the Wadi Rum. Wadi means valley in Arabic so It's the Rum Valley but it is nothing like any valley I have ever experienced before. We all watched Lawrence if Arabia before Shack left to come to Jordan to get everyone excited about this trip and now, as our two week visit draws to a close, we finally spent an afternoon in the desert. 

what in the hell do all of these goats graze on? empty plastic coke bottles and chips bags?

our guide risking life and limb for a photo in his platform flip flop sandals

We booked a guide that some other crew members (Shack is here filming a movie) used the week before and he was great. In total, we did about 30 minutes on camels and then about three hours in the back of a truck, ending the trek at sunset although if you ask The Kid, he will tell you we were on the camels for TWENTY FOUR HOURS. How can you not like a camel, for the love of pearl?

FYI, If you go to Jordan this time of year, it gets quite cold in the desert so don't be like me. Wear long pants and layers, bring a jacket and wear a shemog to not only keep you warm but to keep the dust out of your  mouth and look fabulous while doing it. 

honestly, how fabulous is he?

Like at Petra, you just can't begin to convey the scale of things and it really kind of feels like you are on another planet. The rock formations are in shapes that appear to almost be cut out of paper when you look at them from a distance and almost look one dimensional in certain lights. You know those old fashioned theatre sets or the sets from ancient Japanese puppet plays where the waves would be paper cut outs and they would be attached to sticks and people would move them up and down so they looked like the rolling sea? The mountains kind of like that off in the distance.

kind of like this

They change constantly throughout the day as the light changes, sometimes changing colour while you are focusing your camera and I guarantee is impossible for even the most jaded among you to get bored here. I only wish I could set up a large format camera on a tripod with time lapse to try to capture the light play for an entire day. I wonder if Ansel Adams ever came here?

Bedouin tea with tons of sugar and lots of sage YUM

It was like a greatest hits mini tour - 30 minutes on the camel, CHECK! Tea in a Beduoin tent, CHECK! explore the Siq, CHECK! Take a picture on the rock bridge, CHECK! St Lawrence Spring, CHECK! and it should feel cheesy but, somehow, it's not. It's wonderful. 

even here in the desert, there is some green

I had the chill camel, Shack had the alpha camel and The Kid got the camel with a chip on his shoulder who wanted to jockey for the lead, resulting in much braying and head knocking