As amazing as Petra was, it is hard to say which part of our Jordan trip we enjoyed more – Petra or Wadi Rum. Before we started planning our trip to Jordan, I hadn’t even heard of Wadi Rum. It is also known as the Valley of the Moon, a name that is a really good description of what to expect. It was spectactular.
Wadi Rum is in the south of Jordan on a high plateau at the western edge of the Arabian desert. The sand and sandstone is colored red by iron oxide and creates a very striking and dramatic landscape. It is extremely interesting geologically, with topographical features that are older than the Dead Sea Rift. Wadi Rum was also once along a migratory route that humans took out of Africa. Over 20,000 petroglyphs and rock inscriptions have been documented inside Wadi Rum, tracing human existence back 12,000 years.
We drove from Wadi Musa (Petra) down to Wadi Rum to meet our tour guide at 9am. We booked a private jeep tour with a small local Bedouin-owned company that had good reviews online. They did not disappoint. We met at the owner’s house where we got to meet his whole family.
After a cup of tea and a short introduction, he sent us off with his son as our driver/guide for a full day adventure before staying at their camp overnight in the desert.
There were several stops over the course of the day, all of them were interesting and the scenery was spectacular. The first stop was a Nabataean temple that was very close to Wadi Rum village. This area was once on the Nabataean trading route between Saudi Arabia and Petra in the last century B.C. We didn’t learn too much about the temple except that it was constructed at about that time and also likely functioned as a civic and administrative center for the area. The complex was very large and an impressive amount is still standing. We had the place to ourselves for our whole visit.
The second stop was a hike up a rock formation to a underground spring that was used as a water source for the Nabataeans over 2000 years ago. We spotted petroglyphs near the spring symbolizing Dushara, the supreme god worshipped by the Nabateans.
After we descended from the spring, our camels were waiting. We were to take a 2 hour camel ride to our next stop. We were all excited….except Ronan. He was nervous. As we got closer to the camels, the nervousness became anxiety. We tried talking to him but it became pretty clear he was not going to get on a camel.
The camels took us to our next stop – a large sand dune and rock formation. The kids all tried sand-boarding and then Ronan and I climbed to the top to get an amazing 360 degree view over the valley.
The next stop was a Siq that was known for the many petroglyphs on the rock walls. It was incredible to stand on a rock ledge and see so many carved symbols and drawings of the Nebataeans. We had very little explanation about the significance of the petroglyphs but still we had the feeling of being so close to so much important history. One day when I have some more time on my hands, I’ll do some research with Brett and the kids to understand better all the drawings and symbols we saw that day in the Siq.
We were then taken to an interesting rock formation with a cantilevered rock out over the valley below. I had a bit of vertigo walking out on the rock with the kids but it was worth it.
The last stop before heading to the camp was a beautiful vantage point on a sand dune and watch the sunset. Idyllic, right? Not exactly. As soon as we got there, Riley declared that she had to go to the bathroom but she absolutely wouldn’t go without privacy. You can only imagine how far I had to go with her to find somewhere to hide. I got back just before the sun went down and had a beautiful 10 minutes watching the sunset before the next emergency. The kids were wrestling and Iain got sand in his eyes. He was screaming. I dropped my amazing, trusty (and expensive!) travel camera in the sand when I heard Iain screaming. We rinsed his eyes a few times but it was a few days before he was back to normal. My camera…not so lucky. Cameras and sand are not a good combination. Unfortunately most of the photos from the rest of the trip have been with my iPhone. I still bring my camera everywhere but sometimes it refuses to zoom, sometimes it won’t focus, and sometimes it just won’t even turn on.
Since we arrived at our camp at night, we didn’t really get to explore our surroundings until the sun came up the next day. Turns out our tent was right below a vertical rock face that had some serious (and seemingly recent) large rockfalls. A nightmare for a geotechnical engineer like me. Thank goodness that I went to sleep the previous night blissfully unaware.
On the way from our camp back to Wadi Rum, our guides were short a driver and asked Brett if he would drive the truck back with me and the kids in the back. He had a blast.
Wadi Rum is a spectacular destination. It’s a destination in its own right but when you can combine it with Petra (which is only a short drive away), this is a dream vacation if you are willing to be a bit adventurous. The history, the people, the landscape….all of it is just so unbelievable and unforgettable. We did not feel unsafe at all and looking back now (3 months and 5 countries later) and we can’t believe how lucky we were to get that experience.