"How did you break your finger?" The Bedouin guide Abdullah asked. I explained about the horse incident. He laughed heartily "you should stick to camels," he replied. "As a child we had a story about how a camel gets its own way." Pausing only to turn over the chicken he was barbecuing he continued. "Once there was a camel, who misbehaved, and his owner beat him. Now the camel wanted revenge, so he hatched a plan. He went and lay in his masters bed and rolled over it and messed it up. The problem was his master had spotted him slowly making his way to it and slept elsewhere. The camel was very frustrated, then he suddenly realised how he could really annoy his master, and promptly died. His master was annoyed!"
Abdullah laughed again, he had met us at lunchtime in Wadi Rum village and driven us out into the desert. We had an afternoon to fill so we're taken around the 'sights' of Wadi Rum. The tour had begun with a stop at Laurence of Arabia's spring, which was a fairly modern looking water trough. Abdullah pointed half way up the rock behind it.
"If you climb up there you get good view." So we climbed, up a very steep boulder field to find the view. We found a herd of very friendly goats eating dried leaves at the top that really liked Edd.
The next stop was sand dune, again this involved a long climb to the top, this time there were no goats, but we did get to 'sand board' back to the bottom, which was fun if rather slow descent. Edd fell over 'avoiding a rock' I managed not to.
The 4x4 continued onto the next stop
"Is this where Laurence went for a poo?" Asked Edd a bit too loudly in my left ear as we entered a gorge in the side of a rock. I'm pretty sure Abdullah heard, but he didn't seem to mind, in fact it turned out later he (and the Bedouin) really disliked TE Lawrence, and that his (rather large) inclusion in the tour was all for the benefit of the tourists.
"This is where the caravans sheltered from the wind" continued Abdullah. They carved Arabic into the walls, and here you can see the Nabatean writing."
A series of hieroglyphics were carved into the rock. They included a small pair of feet.
"This here"said Abdoullah pointing at the feet, "this means there is a path upwards and it is possible to climb the rock." This was by far the most interesting this we saw on the tour, which also included a couple of rock bridges (quite fun to climb up onto albeit a little tricky with only one hand.)
As the sun was setting we arrived at where we would camp for the night. A two foot high wall encircled a small patch of ground under the cliff of one of the rocks that towered over the desert sand. The rock had been warmed by the sun all day and sitting leaning against it was like leaning against a warm heater. Abdoullah fed us an enormous supper of chicken barbecued black, and a range of salads and bread. All washed down with a bright orange drink, which Edd sneakily topped up with some of the gin we had kept from the aeroplane. Feeling happy and full we curled up under a pile of blankets and watched the moon rise.
"You do know it's only half past 8." I had been asleep under a pile of blankets, Edd was lost to the world of game of thrones. The Bedouin guy laughed, "what have you been doing today? I brought some Bedouin music from the camp for you. But you're already asleep." Abdoullah's uncle appeared with another Bedouin carrying a musical instrument.
The problem was we had both got out of bed at 5.15am that morning (shortly after the call to prayer) in order to see Petra in the daylight. It had been a very busy morning, I wanted to ride a horse, Edd was less keen. In the end we ended up riding two ponies into Petra. Mine was called Leila, she was a lively (and well looked after) chestnut with a white stripe. I showed her a picture of Cobbles, she was unimpressed when I suggested they might be related. It turns out she was only 2 and a half. Edd was on another horse, unimaginably also called Leila.
The ruins were spectacular, set in a landscape of pink rock gorges. We went on a long hike around them, eating a breakfast of fig rolls, with Edd muttering every now and again. "It's not quite cheddar gorge though is it?"
After a four hour hike we then jumped back into the car and headed south onto Wadi Rum. Our organisational skills were somewhat lacking in the food department and we arrived just in time for the Wadi Dum tour having only eaten fig rolls all day. The Bedouin took pity on us and fed us large plates of rice with chicken stew (Edd was unimpressed by the consistency- apparently a bit like school dinners.)
Abdoullah and his uncle began to sing, it was somehow all quite soporific. The warm cliff hid us from the light of the full moon, which lit the mountains in the distance. Eventually the Bedouin left to check his sheep, and we immediately fell asleep.
Abdullah laughed again, he had met us at lunchtime in Wadi Rum village and driven us out into the desert. We had an afternoon to fill so we're taken around the 'sights' of Wadi Rum. The tour had begun with a stop at Laurence of Arabia's spring, which was a fairly modern looking water trough. Abdullah pointed half way up the rock behind it.
"If you climb up there you get good view." So we climbed, up a very steep boulder field to find the view. We found a herd of very friendly goats eating dried leaves at the top that really liked Edd.
The next stop was sand dune, again this involved a long climb to the top, this time there were no goats, but we did get to 'sand board' back to the bottom, which was fun if rather slow descent. Edd fell over 'avoiding a rock' I managed not to.
The 4x4 continued onto the next stop
"Is this where Laurence went for a poo?" Asked Edd a bit too loudly in my left ear as we entered a gorge in the side of a rock. I'm pretty sure Abdullah heard, but he didn't seem to mind, in fact it turned out later he (and the Bedouin) really disliked TE Lawrence, and that his (rather large) inclusion in the tour was all for the benefit of the tourists.
"This is where the caravans sheltered from the wind" continued Abdullah. They carved Arabic into the walls, and here you can see the Nabatean writing."
A series of hieroglyphics were carved into the rock. They included a small pair of feet.
"This here"said Abdoullah pointing at the feet, "this means there is a path upwards and it is possible to climb the rock." This was by far the most interesting this we saw on the tour, which also included a couple of rock bridges (quite fun to climb up onto albeit a little tricky with only one hand.)
As the sun was setting we arrived at where we would camp for the night. A two foot high wall encircled a small patch of ground under the cliff of one of the rocks that towered over the desert sand. The rock had been warmed by the sun all day and sitting leaning against it was like leaning against a warm heater. Abdoullah fed us an enormous supper of chicken barbecued black, and a range of salads and bread. All washed down with a bright orange drink, which Edd sneakily topped up with some of the gin we had kept from the aeroplane. Feeling happy and full we curled up under a pile of blankets and watched the moon rise.
"You do know it's only half past 8." I had been asleep under a pile of blankets, Edd was lost to the world of game of thrones. The Bedouin guy laughed, "what have you been doing today? I brought some Bedouin music from the camp for you. But you're already asleep." Abdoullah's uncle appeared with another Bedouin carrying a musical instrument.
The problem was we had both got out of bed at 5.15am that morning (shortly after the call to prayer) in order to see Petra in the daylight. It had been a very busy morning, I wanted to ride a horse, Edd was less keen. In the end we ended up riding two ponies into Petra. Mine was called Leila, she was a lively (and well looked after) chestnut with a white stripe. I showed her a picture of Cobbles, she was unimpressed when I suggested they might be related. It turns out she was only 2 and a half. Edd was on another horse, unimaginably also called Leila.
The ruins were spectacular, set in a landscape of pink rock gorges. We went on a long hike around them, eating a breakfast of fig rolls, with Edd muttering every now and again. "It's not quite cheddar gorge though is it?"
After a four hour hike we then jumped back into the car and headed south onto Wadi Rum. Our organisational skills were somewhat lacking in the food department and we arrived just in time for the Wadi Dum tour having only eaten fig rolls all day. The Bedouin took pity on us and fed us large plates of rice with chicken stew (Edd was unimpressed by the consistency- apparently a bit like school dinners.)
Abdoullah and his uncle began to sing, it was somehow all quite soporific. The warm cliff hid us from the light of the full moon, which lit the mountains in the distance. Eventually the Bedouin left to check his sheep, and we immediately fell asleep.
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