Wadi Rum is a desert area in Jordan. It is where Lawrence of Arabia lived/hid and built a following that he then led during the Arab Revolt. [The Arabs dispute many of Lawrence’s later writings and the degree to which he claims to have been responsible for their success. Anyway…]
It is a rather beautiful area. Full of sandstone carved by wind and flood waters. Some very early signs of civilization [rock carving] are readily visible almost anywhere you look.
I found the area interesting, but I was still awe-struck by Petra when we visited Wadi Rum. If I had to do it over, or if someone asked my opinion, I would go to Wadi Rum first, then Petra.
We stayed 2 nights in a camp in Wadi Rum and did a 4×4 drive and a camel trek.
MY CAMEL TRIED TO KILL ME. HE THREW ME 30 FEET AND THEN STOMPED ON ME. THEN HE BASHED ME INTO THE ROCKS.
Ok, so maybe that is stretching it a bit.
To get on a camel, the camel tender/herder gets the camel to lay down, you climb on, and the camel stands up.
My camel decided to stand up while I only had one leg over. I fell off, and then the camel rolled over on top of my leg. No big deal. Except that I landed on my camera and managed to COVER it in find red sand. It still makes a grating noise when I turn the manual focus ring. I have a feeling that this is going to turn out to be a very expensive camel ride.
So, I got back on the damn beast. [Honestly, if I had been alone I probably would have paid the camel driver and sent him on his way. But I had witnesses]
Got back on and went for a relatively pleasant stroll through the desert. It took me about an hour to get over the anger and embarrasment of being pitched off the beast.
I was starting to enjoy it and get into the rythym of it when we stopped to water the camels.
To get water, they had to walk up to this trough that was in the wedge of rock. We were still on the camels. My camel decided to bump with another camel and fight for space at the trough. He managed to bump me into the rocks several times during this. And I had to lean over sideways to avoid having my head BASHED INTO THE ROCKS.
A good friend of mine wants to cook and eat a llama, because one tried to push him off a cliff in Peru many years ago. He says “It’s personal!”.
I understand now. I plan to return and our guide says he will give me lessons on preparing camel…