Petra done and now it was time to head off to our next destination in Jordan; Wadi Rum.

Most people would not have heard of Wadi Rum. Well, let me try and help “visualize” it. If you have watched any of the following movies and remember the scenes with red sand dunes, then you “know” Wadi Rum already 🙂 .

  • Lawrence of Arabia
  • The Martian
  • Dune
  • Dune: Part Two
  • Prometheus
  • Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
  • Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
  • The Last Days on Mars
  • May in the Summer

Well, that is where we headed next. It was going to be roughly 2 hrs drive from Petra. The long walk around Petra had taken it’s toll on the children. And sleep was the best way to gain back the energy 🙂

Soon the sun was setting. And the landscape did not disappoint. Here is a view from the drive:

We were to stay at a Bedoiun camp in Wadi Rum for the night. Given that we started a bit late in the afternoon, we only reached after dark. The last part involved us getting picked by a 4×4 jeep, as it involved going on non-paved pathway to get to the camp. Once we checked in to our rooms, we headed off to have dinner. There were several other guests already at the dining area. Soon we were chatting away with a family from New Zealand. They were travelling with their 2 daughters who were of similar age to our children. The children immediately became friends and wandered off on their own. Their plan was to stay out a bit late into the night in the hope that they would get to see lots of stars. Sadly that did not go too well.

Next morning we woke up early. We wanted to go and watch the sunrise. To get to the viewing point, we had the option to ride camels or on the back of a 4×4 pickup. We chose the latter. Here are a couple of photos taken from the back of the pickup while riding to the viewing spot.

Here are a few photos from the viewing spot while we waited for the sun come up over the horizon.

The sun finally started to show itself!

Here are a few others that we took before we decided to head back to the camp.

The ride back was also cold!

Here are some pictures of the camp that we stayed at:

Post breakfast it was time to head off to our next destination; the Dead Sea. We first needed to be dropped on the main highway from where our regular driver would pick us up. So we huddled into a 4×4 and headed off. But soon the driver stopped. One of the rear tyres had come off the rim!

He called the team at the camp. We soon saw the vehicle that had picked us up the previous evening coming to help us. That dropped us off to at the main highway.

4 hours later we go to get our first view of the Dead Sea from the road.

Check-in completed at our resort, we headed off to do what every visitor does when they come to the Dead Sea; go and experience the Dead Sea. All spa resorts located in the area had their private access to the Dead Sea. Ours did too. Here is a view of the walk down to it.

I had heard that one just floats in the Dead Sea, given the salt level in the water. We were all curious experience that for ourselves.

The routine that one follows is to

  • take a dip in the water
  • come out and apply “black-ish” mud that is kept in a bin on the beach
  • After around 15 minutes, get back into the water and wash if off
  • rub salt extracted from the Dead Sea all over the body
  • finally wash it off in the water again

Trust me, you skin feels like that of a baby! I was skeptical about it at first. But by the end of it, I was a convert 🙂 .

The rest of the day, we just spent time lazying around and enjoying the property. It was pretty big, with several swimming pools and a water park. And there were not many guests 😀 .

Next morning it was time to start our journey back home. So post breakfast, we said goodbye to the resort headed and headed off to the airport. The morning was misty.

Finally at the airport, we thanked our driver who had driven us safely over the many days around Jordan. And we took our last photo of the trip before we stepping into the airport.

Bye bye Jordan!