Before you start, make sure to read my last Jordan blog here!
Our journey into the desert consisted of a lot of driving as we made our way to the Wadi Rum desert, home to many film sets including The Martian, for which
Ra-ed had driven Matt Damon around a couple of times, Transformers, and an
upcoming movie starring Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. I later found out that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was being filmed as we drove by,
complete with chopper and extensive set. I liked knowing that I was only a couple of hundred
metres from the cast and characters of my all time favourite movie franchise!
We
drove to the so-called Space Camp, where various huts shaped like the lab in
The Martian that you could stay in were placed, and picked up another driver
for a two hour trip around the desert in a Land Cruiser. The landscapes were
utterly spectacularly, including one where we stopped just to yell at the top
of our lungs to see how far the echoes travelled, and it was fun driving across
the sand, by far the smoothest surface I'd ever driven on.
Towards
the end of our excursion, we reached a dip in the valley where inscriptions
denoting the camel caravan route had been etched, and coincidentally, a number
of camels themselves. We'd been informed that they were looked after well by
their owners and would therefore be a safe bet if we wanted to experience what
it was like for these people to get around and ride a camel ourselves.
I,
of course, accepted and hopped on the back of a lovely beige camel which I rode
for the next twenty or so minutes across the desert as part of a camel caravan
made up of locals and tourists alike. Whilst thrilled to have had the
experience, I have to say it was one of the most uncomfortable rides of my
life! The motion of the camel moving up and down meant my legs were chafing the
sides of the saddle, the handle at the back of the saddle (necessary to hold on
to when the camel awkwardly gets up or sits down again) was uncomfortably
rubbing against my lower back, and my lovely camel had a habit of lifting one
of its back legs off the ground meaning I swiftly tilted dangerously at random occurrences,
all meant that twenty minutes was more than enough for me - I'm definitely more
of a Land Cruiser type of girl! But I loved being able to do it, and shall tick
it off of my bucket list.
Our
final stop of the desert tour was an area where various visages of Laurence of
Arabia were carved into the rock, and where a large tent had been erected for
visitors to stop for traditional tea. Whilst we drank our tea, one of the
tribesmen came around with solid perfumes of amber, musk, and a mix of the two,
which he rubbed on her hands. Had he not done so, I could have easily gone home
without them, but they smelt so fantastic we had to purchase - what a wise
selling technique.
Without further ado, it was time to move on to our next destination, although I wish we'd had longer in the desert than just a few hours. The camps there looked impressive, and a night under the stars would have been truly imaginable, so if you find yourself in Jordan, make sure you add a night in the desert to your itinerary, and tell me all about it when you do! Next stop for us - the Dead Sea, coming soon to the blog!
I
hope you enjoyed today's travel blog! I'll be back with more very soon
so make sure to stay tuned on my Twitter @CiarasCountry, and drop me a
message in the comments below with any comments or questions you may
have about my adventures - thanks for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment