The Red Desert Experience: Wadi Rum

We checked out from the hotel at around 11:45 hours. Our immediate item in the agenda was lunch. However, the tiredness, after exploring the Petra National Park for about 4 hours and walking almost 6 kilometers, killed our appetites. Thus, we decided to take brief lunch at Al Arabi Restaurant – the Jordanian beef and chicken Shawirma, which cost us around 30 JD.
Our next agenda was the Wadi Rum. Situated between Petra and Aqaba, about one and a half hours drive from Petra through the great Kings Highway, I called Wadi Rum the Red Desert.

Mainly because of the tiredness and scared the exotic Red Desert would wreck havoc my migraine, I was at one time, planned to change our program plan, i.e. replacing the Wadi Rum adventure with Karak Castle instead. However, Harir’s influence and persistence motivated me to stay-on with the original plan. To me and as explained by Harir, Wadi Rum is third after the mystic Dead Sea or Lake of Prophet Lut a.s that people must experience.
We departed for Wadi Rum around 12:30 hours after performing our Zuhur-‘Asar prayer at one of the Masjid at Wadi Musa. Part of the journey was through the Amman-Aqaba Desert highway. There was nothing much to see within this part of our trip, except some spectacular sceneries of the rugged rocky mountain and patches of Bedouins’ settlements. Hence, dosing off was the best option to do as well as to regain back the drained out energy. Well not me! This lifetime trip of ‘Experiencing the Greatness of Allah swt’ was something that I had planned months back. With the intention to enhance our faith and knowledge, it was imperative for me to optimize the limited time that we had.
During the journey, I learned lots of information from Harir who had been to the southern part Jordan countless time; right from the story of some of the Prophets, Sahabah r.a, the geographic and the historic evidences of many places in Jordan, and some political mix that had kept us alive.
At around 13:50 hours, we finally arrived at Wadi Rum’s perimeter and a young nice and friendly Bedouins named ‘Mondir’ – actually I did not catch his name properly, waited for us patiently along the road side near the junction to the desert adventure. All of us were a little bit confused by the ‘Jeep’ that were supposed to bring us deep to the desert wonders. All this while, we thought that ‘Jeep’ was the Toyota 4X4 Land Cruiser that we saw in many excursions in Egypt, well, not here in Jordan. This itself had taught us a good lesson about mindset. Mindset is just like a man with his parachute jumping from a plane flying thousands meters in the open sky. For him to land safely on the open ground, his parachute must be ‘opened’ at certain elevation of his jump. Failure is not the option or otherwise fatality would be the consequence. In other words, parachute must ‘open’ 100% to achieve a good landing. Openness is very essential in most instances of our daily transactions. However, it has to be carefully defined and understood by the ‘Users’. What you see yesterday or in other places might not be the same from what you see today or in other part of the world.
In the above and below photos; Afiq and I were dwarfed by the massive reddish rock formation naturally crafted, ultimately by Almighty Allah Rabbul Jalil. The amazing ‘sculptures’ as though it had been manually painted by reddish-brown paints inspired us to become more better person – assertive, determine, creative and obedient servant to Allah swt.
The experience that we had gained here was very much different with the one that we had in the Black & White Deserts of Bahariya Egypt. However, both experiences were very valuable for our self improvement.

The colors, shapes, sizes and the textures are obviously different; hence, the ambience and aura were more compelling here.. The sand, for instance, are soft reddish in color and the rock formation are very big and huge, which creates spectacular picturesque sceneries. In Egypt, ‘Jeep’ is the Toyota 4X4 Land Cruiser, but in Jordan or at Wadi Rum, this (the above photo) was our Jeep – the Pick-up truck. Fixed with two rows metal bench, cushioned by stained upholstery covered sponge, and no safety belt, the Jeep was the common and famous mode of transport for the Red Desert adventure. One could opt for the All Terrain Vehicles (ATV), camel and horse ride. It was our first ever experience with the pick-up truck ride though and was really fun! The most exciting but thrilling experience though was when we went up ascending 70 degrees sand dune slope. Wooooooo….it tickled your stomach and could make you throw-out.

People have lived in Wadi Rum for thousands of years, struggling to survive in its harsh environment. They have been hunters, pastoralists, farmers and traders, as Wadi Rum is close to national borders. Even the famous Nabateans once occupied here, leaving behind several structures.
Local people gained notoriety more recently when they joined the Arab revolt forces under the leadership of King Faisal and fought along with Lawrence of Arabia during the Arab Revolt (1917/18) to fight the occupying Turkish and German armies.

Virtually all the people living in and around Wadi Rum today are of Bedouin origin and, until recently, led nomadic lives, relying on their goatherds. They are resourceful, hospitable people who are largely responsible for developing Wadi Rum as a tourist destination.

Recognizing the unique natural and cultural history of Wadi Rum and the vital importance of tourism to the local economy, the government of Jordan declared Wadi Rum a protected area in 1998.

Mondir informed us that, this small cave was occupied by Bedouin family hundreds of years ago. Now, it was kept open for foreign and local visitors to experience living inside a sandstone cave. The was slightly different than the one that we saw at Petra.

Asri and I went in to the first chamber and tried to explore further, however, we called it off mainly due to the time constraint and condition that was not conducive for us (without proper attire and equipment).

After the cave visit, we moved to a red mushroom of Wadi Rum (photo below), which was less than 10 minutes by the Jeep. The ‘mushrooms’ here were no comparable with the one that we saw at Bahariya’s White Desert. There we met a New Zealanders couple and their guide riding the ATVs. They were very friendly and after 5 minutes later, they left us for the north- eastern part of the Wadi – means valley. Prior to that, their guide briefly demonstrated his skill with thhe ATV.

The one hour and forty-five minutes Jeepy ride was a great and indeed a fruitful memorable experience for all of us. We finally reached the meeting point at around 15:30 hours. Harir has been waiting and ready to bring us back to Amman via Aqaba-Amman Desert Highway. After paying Mondir 60 JD, we departed for Amman at 15:40 hours. Our energy was drained out and we were horribly exhausted. Amid the chilly evening, we all slept almost the entire journey. It was raining as we were approaching Amman, thus woke us up.