Touring the red sands of Mars

High on the list of things to experience was the red desert of Wadi Rum and the Bedouins that live in it. It feels so remote and alien that you cannot help but wonder what it is really like.

The reality there is somewhat mixed.

In Wadi Rum there are dozens of camps spread throughout the desert near different rock formations and the first real desert experience we got was a jeep drive to ours. Suddenly we hopped on and, with our guide, drove straight out of the road onto the wild desert. I’m sure I had a smile stamped on my face for the first 5 minutes of the ride as it felt totally unpredictable. 

It was sundown and we were moving around sand traps, there were semi-wild camels moving around and with the exception of a few other pick-up trucks, it was red and barren wasteland.

On day 2 in the desert we decided to take a 3 hour tour with a Camel ride included. We rode with the same guide as we had on the initial ride and it was a bit awkward as even though his English was pretty good he seemed to be uncomfortable engaging in conversation withA. Though we cannot be entirely sure why, it seems that the young and rather religious youth does not easily engage in conversation with women whereas the elders seemed to not have any issues with talking or even shaking hands with ladies.

As for the desert, it seemed to lose something during the day 2 tour. Sure, you can snowboard on the sands of the desert, you can have perfect Instagram pictures on rock cliffs and you can even see rock carvings which may have been done by the Prophet himself but it all seems commercialized. For sure it was enjoyable but everywhere seemed to be a checkpoint to drop tourists off and make some money out of it. Understandable as that may be, it was a definite minus for us.

I’d definitely still recommend the tour but probably not the longer versions of it. It seems that the tour goes to all of the same places and deciding to do a 3 hour or a 6 hour tour simply means you have more time to rest between each of the same spots. Up to you.

As it turns out most modern day Bedouins are not really nomadic and do not live off the desert in the way that you or I would likely expect them to and who can blame them? The first and last impressions I had of Wadi Rum village, where most locals have moved to, weren’t the most fantastic one but in hindsight and given the chance to live in a shabby village or a tent in the desert, I would probably have made the same choice myself. 

That being said, we did see more than one goat herder both in Wadi Rum and near Petra so even though things are changing, the more traditional ways do not seem to have been lost just yet.

What we also did was ride some pretty awesome camels!

Sitting on them was easy enough but as they get onto their feet you are put in a forward angle on your seat which requires hanging on not to fall off. A did not get warned that the camel was getting up and almost flew off. Almost! She’s a trooper.

The camel tour itself is rather calm as a guide walks by your side guiding the camels. It does, however, give an idea as to how it might have been for people to move around the desert on those wonderful beasts back in the day. It was also really nice to see the bond between the camels and the guide. He spoke to them all the time and removed unwanted bushes from their fur in a kind of tenderness of someone who certainly cares.

A big shukran to our camel guide for sharing his time and camels with us!