JORDAN ~ WADI RUM: A NIGHT IN A BEDOUIN CAMP

Posted by: anke* Categories: MIDDLE EAST TRAVEL

{JORDAN ~ January 28 – February 05, 2017}

WADI RUM ~ January 31 & February 01, 2017

It sounds like one of the most romantic and adventurous things to do:

Riding thru the desert on a camel and spending the night in a Bedouin Camp.

It was definitely very adventurous. But after 2 hours on Candy Camel, it was ok, and I was looking forward to arriving at the camp. Well, the desert taught me that I had to be patient for another 4ish hours…

But let’s start from the beginning: I booked “1 day camel / 1 night camp” with Rum Stars. It was very well organized. We got picked up in Wadi Rum Village and while we were riding on a camel thru the desert, Ahmed took our luggage on his 4×4 and drove to the camp.

THRU THE WADI RUM DESERT ON A CAMEL

Our Camel-guide didn’t speak English very well so we were sitting on our camels, enjoyed the peaceful and quiet desert, stopped every now and then to look at some “cave paintings” and imagined how Bedouin life must be; far away from civilization and the rush of life in the city.

Looking around, I think we were the only tourists on camels. Some 4×4 tourists passed us but except for other bedouins we didn’t see any other camel tourists.

UP LAWRENCE’S SPRING FOR AN AMAZING VIEW

WADI RUM DESERT

AL-HASANY DUNES

We had late lunch in the shade of some big rocks. And as we were so hungry – bread, can of tuna, cheese and tomatoes were inhaled within a few minutes while our camel-dude had a nap. Then we walked around for a bit. As we were really the only people out there, we didn’t walk too far. It was beautiful to listen and to hear NOTHING. No noise. Nothing.

OUR CAMEL GUIDE WITH HIS CAMELS

AMAZING VIEW OVER THE WADI

LUNCH BREAK FOR CANDY CAMEL

After 1.5 hours our journey continued and I was at a point where I thought: “please – let there be the camp behind the next rock…” I had the thought for the next 2 hours until we finally saw something from the distance that looked like a camp.

FINALLY – ARRIVING AT THE CAMP

Now, when you read thru blogs or travel guides on the once in a life-time experience staying in a Bedouin Camp, with open fire, people gathering, Bedouin music and first-hand stories from Bedouins, you think: AWESOME! The 5-hours camel ride is worth the fantastic experience we will have.

For us, reality looked a little bit differently. We knew that the time we picked for traveling to Jordan was not really peak season – but we didn’t expect to be the ONLY guests in the Bedouin Camp. After hours on the camel we arrived in the desert camp that was literally “deserted”. The two guys gave us a short welcome, showed us toilet, camp and gathering tent. We walked around for a while. After sitting on the camel I needed a good stretch. The air was crisp as it was getting dark.

RUM STARS CAMP

Back in the gathering tent we sat down and had tea. At least there was an open fire. Then we started playing UNO to at least kill some time. One of the guys was really curious so we explained the game and played a round. That was fun.

THE GATHERING TENT

BEDOUIN TEA

Meanwhile I was starving. Lunch clearly wasn’t enough. But no one talked about dinner and my biggest fear was that there were no dinner plans at all. luckily I was wrong! We had traditional Bedouin Zarb meal. That’s lots of veggies and chicken, grilled under ground. Delicious!! It was soooo good that I was actually quite happy that we were the only guests.

TRADITIONAL ZARB MEAL

By the time we went to bed it was 8ish. It was pitch black outside, but the stars were incredible. I haven’t seen so many stars for a long time. I was standing there for a while, gazing into the sky. Mesmerising! We wrapped all blankets around us, wear layers of thermal and fell asleep.

The next morning we got up early for breakfast and to our surprise we were not the only guests anymore. Two guys arrived during the night. They had problems crossing the Israeli boarder as one of them had a drone. So they spent hours at the boarder control and missed there who Wadi Rum day.

BREKKIE AT RUM STARS CAMP

After brekkie the guys drove us back to Wadi Village where we hopped into our car and continued our road trip. Next destination was Petra! How exciting! 120 km ahead of us but we planned to arrive at lunch time.

That didn’t happen! The drive to Petra was the worst we had so far. Snow, fog, visibility: 3-5m. The fastest we could drive was 40km/h. It took us hours to get to Petra. Luckily we had navigation, because it was impossible to see any intersections or cross roads.