Jordan part 5: Living in a Beduin Camp in the Wadi Rum desert
Wadi Rum was a place I had not heard of before I started looking in to going to Jordan, the only thing I really knew was that I wanted to visit Petra. But as I started reading up on Jordan, every article mentioned that Wadi Rum was something not to be missed. So after a little bit of research I found out that instead of just going on a tour through Wadi Rum it is actually possible to stay in a camp there.
These camps are all run by beduins, but they are not true beduin camps as they are not all that portable, and even have flushing toilets. It’s almost glamping. So i booked a stay at a camp called Wadi Rum Fire Camp.
When I arrived in Wadi Rum I was picked up by a man in a pickup truck who took me to a house where we met up with a few other people staying in the camp. And from here we started the first tour of Wadi Rum.
I was partnered up with 6 people from around the world. We sat in the back of a truck and were driven around to different locations of interest in Wadi Rum. I once again got to challenge my fear of heights as modt of these locations were hight up and required quite a bit of climbing or hiking to get to. But it was an awesome tour, and the people I got to travel with were super nice and helped me whenever I was about to give up, so I am very thankful for them and their support.
The next day it was just me and a beduin who did not speak english left in the camp, so I decided to go for a little walk alone in the desert. I only walked around for about an hour or so, but it was a quite special feeling to walk around out in the open all alone like that, I would recommend it to anyone. Though don’t go too far away as there are no cell signals or anything out there, so make sure you can find your way back.
My next tour was just me and a beduin. We went to see some more sights in Wadi Rum, but we also went to visit a couple of actual beduin camps, and hung out with some camels in the middle of the desert. It was a lot of fun, he was very excited to teach me about beduin culture, and it was an experince to just get to hang out in a beduin camp drinking tea and eating some sort of salty goat milk.
Wadi Rum was truly amazing, and none of my pictures do it’s beauty justice. As one of the articles I read when researching this trip put it, you go to Jordan to see Petra, but you go home with Wadi Rum in your heart. And I think this is true, the stillness and beauty of this place is just unmatched by anything I have ever experienced, and laying outside looking up at the stars at night in the middle of nothing is an experience I will never forget. So Wadi Rum comes with my greatest recommendation.
The sunsets
Each day we ended by climbing to the top of a cliff/hill to watch the sunset. It is quite an impressive sight, and the colours are just incredible. So ending my story of this journey with some sunsets seems fitting.
