It should probably be noted that this far in our trip we had not pre-arranged any tours because frankly, they are simply too expensive for our travel budget. Wadi Rum was the first booked tour we arranged and it was exciting to know that for the next 48 hours or so we would be guided, fed, and accommodated without worry. Happily we rode our shuttle past a camel race track (who knew) and arrived promptly at the Wadi Rum visitor center. The busdriver called out different tour companies for people on the bus. Unfortunately, as we exited the bus, we realized our guide was not there yet, but no worries... this is often to be expected. We bought our tickets into the nationally protected park and waited. While waiting, a man approached us informing that he was the cousin of our guide and that he would contact him. As we waited, we stared at a pricing board, noting that some of the prices seemed less than what we were quoted. Surely then, we must be on the best quality tour....
Time passed by and finally a guy approached us... One that we'd seen earlier. He wanted to see confirmation of our tour, so we showed him. He then lead us to his truck and we began driving toward the village. 'Where are you from?' he asked. 'America' we responded. No introductions. I asked him his name. Brian asked where we were going. He informed us that we would get tea and discuss the program.
We came to a quiet cafe outside a very sleepy village and sat down at a picnic table. He then asked us what we wanted to see. Huh? Shouldn't he know? Doesn't our tour determine the price? He insisted his boss was on holiday in the desert and they couldn't get ahold of him. Apparently, there was a mixup. Still, how were we supposed to know where to go? And who do we pay? 'You can pay me', he told us. Ummmm, but you don't know the price or the tour. We were feeling as though we'd been baited and switched and became quite annoyed. I told him to go away. I probably should have been more polite, but I was ticked off. He was irritated and told us that we would not find a good guide who could speak English nor would we find one with a jeep as nice as his. Mind you, his truck had a ripped apart backseat and when the three of us sat in the front seat, I could see the road through a hole in the floor near the stickshift. 'Whatever' we told him. So he wandered away to talk to some guys nearby.
It was then that we had officially arrived at the first 'glitch' of our trip. All people in this town know each other, are related to one another, or are friends with each other, so gossip travels at light speed. Also, there was only 1 shuttle that came to this town and it came only once daily. That was the bus we'd come in on and that was the bus that had already left for the day. We were already about 7 Km from the visitors center and 12 Km from a campsite to sleep for the night, and oh yeah, did we mention we're in the friggin desert!!!
We continued to sit at the picnic table trying to figure out what to do next. Should we hike the 12 km through the desert? Maybe hire some camels from the bedouin over there and ask them where to go? 'Hell' we thought. This was definitely a pickle, given we now had a bad rap, and no place to get food or sleep.
..Chime in music for our saviors.... two Spaniards hiked in as we were sitting there and provided a map and the location of a campsite. They had paid a young man the other day to drive them around the desert for 8 hours or so, but unfortunately, they didn't know where he was now. As we sat there, the Spaniard saw a young man in a truck who was a friend of the driver they had used the following day. Negotiations followed and we were about to be on our way. But, just before we drove off, our prior sketchy "guide" called the boy over to talk. The boy came back looking at us skeptically, but held his end of the bargain and we began our tour of the desert.
True as we had been told, this boy spoke little English, but his truck was in better condition despite having more than 460,000 miles on the spedometer...yes, you read that correctly. We met up with his best friend (and his friend's tourist cargo) and a 3rd jeep as well. We were very relieved, happy to have a nice driver, and be with 9 other various campers.
Our desert tour included various streams, rock formations, inscriptions, sand dunes, etc while the Bedouin boys raced across the desert in their jeeps. After our guy warmed a bit, he even offered to let us hop in the drivers seat-quite alot of fun, I must say. It's like driving through really heavy snow.
One of the more entertaining moments of the day was when the two other jeeps stopped to eat lunch. Our driver took us about another 100 meters or so further to show us Lawrence of Arabia's house. He indicated we should get out and look, and take pictures (though really the house is more a pile of stones). So we got out. He then drove back to the area where the rest of the group was. Hmmm............guess we'll just walk back. So we walk back, passing our other buddies who had lunches laid out before them, and finally clambered back up to our driver. He looked at us. "Lunch?" We stared at him dumbfounded because when we first negotiated, it was our understanding lunch was included. Clearly it was not. He then improvised by reaching into his truck for a small bag of pita, a can of hummus, and a can of tuna. Delicious. When asked how to get the can of hummus open, one of the bedouins grabbed the can, jammed what was more or less a butter knife with no handle in it, and cut it open. Hey, it worked.
Following lunch, our driver managed to drive his truck up a sand dune where we took turns jumping off the car roof into the sand dune (pics). And as daylight was coming to a close we entered into a bedouin camp with many tents. Some for sleeping, some for eating, cooking, etc. The accommodations were better than imagined, we were in great company, and both parties attempted to overcome the language barrier.
A particularly funny conversation occurred when an australian guy wanted to ask the bedouin boys about camel spiders. Trying to find the right way to express this, he was motioning how a spider crawls with his hands, counting legs on his fingers. The boys stared at him confused until one of them said, "No, camels do not have 8 legs." He was so polite, but they all must have been thinking we were morons. About a half an hour later the camel spider conversation finally was understood between both parties, and resulted in a good round of laughs.
We also watched as the desert sunset was replaced by desert stars. I swear I've never seen a sky filled with that many stars. People say the stars in Africa are the best in the world, but since I'm currently in Africa posting this blog, I can tell you that out there in the Wadi Rum desert-I've never seen stars like that. It looked like someone took the midnight sky and poked millions of tiny shining holes in it. The stars even were scattered near the horizon. Unbelievable. In the end, something that had begun as a fiasco turned into one of the better days of our trip thus far.
Very happy to have a place to sleep in the desert. The bedoiun mats and community tents were even nicer on the inside than the outside. But thank goodness for them, because wow, did the wind blow at night.
Jumping off the truck into sand dunes. The drivers also joined in.
Brian and I high in the sky.
More playing in the sand dunes. The sand was bright orange-red.
View of the desert and hills of Wadi Rum
Driving a beat-up old truck with 735,000 kilometers on the spedometer. Apparently, our bedouin buddy thought I was a better driver than I really am or else he wouldn't have let me do this.
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