Karen and I spent a couple of days in the Wadi Rum desert of Jordan. We drove through the desert in the back of a pickup truck with benches along the side and a covered roof. There are a range of vehicles, uncovered, burn you to a crisp vehicles to air conditioned Land Rovers. We spent the night in the desert at a camp. We called it the Holiday Inn as the Tents were green and white, Holiday Inn’s colours. There were four of us in the back of the pick up to see the sites of the desert and to picnic in cannon and 11 of us to sleep at the “Holiday Inn.”
There was a Bedouin man there to cook our dinner and keep an eye on us. Our dinner was amazing. The chicken was cooked in a steel drum that was buried in the ground. It was the best meal yet. At night we went and watched the sunset and ran into the four Irish boys we keep seeing everywhere. Funny how some people’s paths just keep crossing. We speak to them every time at length, but actually don’t know their names, so we did a formal introduction at the sunset viewing spot. Turns out they were at a camp just down the desert.
The stars that night were amazing. What an experience. It was nice to relax and have absolutely nothing else to do but take in our surroundings and the stars as we didn’t have electricity or wifi to entertain us.
In the afternoon we went to a rock formation in the desert that is called the bridge. I scaled the rocks to get to the top of it and get a picture of me soaring at the top. It was a feat to get to the top, a real workout and my thighs were shaking on the edge, a combination of the effort and height probably.
We have done the border crossing and were not met by the most pleasant of border guards or immigration people. But after a wait, a ton of questions and a bunch of paper work they finally let me in. Karen just got the questions and was good to go, I was sent to sit down, fill out a form and wait until the man came to get the form, then wait. But all and all we are here and now in the Holy Land in Jerusalem in Israel.
On our way out of the desert we took the Desert Highway and saw Black Market gas for sale along the road. There were pickup trucks along the road with barrels and 20L jugs of gas for sale alongside tomatoes also for sale. The pipeline runs through Jordan from Saudi Arabia so it is siphoned off and sold on the Black Market, the young boy puts a hose in the 20L jug and siphons it out with his mouth and your gas tank is being filled.
We also had the there is no room at the Inn experience in Jerusalem. We took a bus from the boarder to town, and then a taxi to a hostel with 77 rooms to find out they were full. We had not pre booked anything as everywhere in Jordan was empty, but not in Israel. A couple of phone calls later by the hostel and we walked across town with our packs and stuff and are staying in a room that looks like it is part of a cave.
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