A long gap since my last post as I’ve been preoccupied with a busy time at work, and my second trip of the year! I am continuing in chronological order, hence there will be a series of ‘Retrospective’ posts until I catch up…
Last night was the final wild camp and even though the massive rocks I had put in the tent had stopped it blowing away, it didn’t prevent the sides of the tent buffeting me all night in the high winds! I was quite glad for morning and breakfast, which heralded the arrival of camels 🐪 These would take us the final 5 or so kilometers to the edge of Wadi Rum and the end of the trek.
Having spent 3 days on a camel in Morocco I was quite excited at the romantic prospect of pretending I was Lawrence of Arabia, however the reality soon became a bit uncomfortable as the saddle wasn’t positioned squarely and I was fighting to stay upright. Jacob (the youngster of the group) was also suffering and we stopped off at a random rock, from which 2 new camels miraculously emerged. Jacob dismounted and, being over 6ft, easily hopped onto his new camel. It was a different story for me as I am a full foot shorter… Once we established I couldn’t actually hoik my leg over the saddle the guide led the camel to a mound of sand and indicated I should use it as a step, but the camel was too far away and my leg wasn’t long enough! Much hilarity ensued and eventually I somehow climbed on and we continued our stately progress through the desert.
Sadly saying goodbye to Wadi Rum we re-entered civilization and drove to Little Petra with lunch at a restaurant on the way. At this point I have to extol the virtues of our wonderful #ExodusTravels desert team, in particular Musa the chef. I was amazed at the delicious food he produced single-handedly out of the back of a jeep! While the food at the restaurant was tasty, his was much better 😋
We ended the day with a walk around Little Petra, thought to be a stopping place for camel caravans and traders traversing the silk road and colonised by the Nabateans around the 1st century C.E. They carved buildings into the sandstone of the canyon and fashioned waterways leading to underground cisterns to store water. We more or less had the place to ourselves and I marveled at the thought that it was created over 2,000 years ago. After the decline of the Nabateans it was occupied by Bedouin nomads until 1985 when the area was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The bed in my little hut in the Bedouin camp close by felt very luxurious, and I fell asleep dreaming of tomorrow’s visit to Petra – a place I’ve wanted to see for years.
Elizabeth Mooney 