,We had a long day yesterday, leaving at 7:15 AM and driving to Petra and Wadi (valley) Rum. We last visited Petra several years ago right after the Arab spring. Petra is an ancient city featuring burial caves and temples carved out of the sandstone cliffs. The entrance is a slot canyon or siq, where the carvings start, and gradually widens to an open area that eventually leads, after an uphill climb with hundreds of steps, to a final building carved into the cliff high over Petra, called "the Monestary" (but actually a temple of some sort.)
In our first stop at Petra a full day meant a tight schedule, and although Judy made it to the top and caught a glimpse and photo of the Monestary, I was feeling very weak, likely the result of some bad food the day before, and stopped maybe 5 minutes from the top with time expiring to get back to meet our ride. With heat, foot traffic like unlike our first trip, where we had a full day to explore, we made an exhausting trek back to the lunch spot and after a quick lunch, boarded the bus for Wadi Rum.
Wadi Rum is in a UNESCO World Heritage site and preserve just northeast of Aqaba, in a landscape of enormous sandstone mountains rising from a flat desert. Rum is only one of many wadis in this area, and is a mecca for climbers with towering vertical-walled cliffs like a multitude of Half-domes. Google it.
We were transported across a wide section of desert in pickup trucks seating 6 in the bed and 1-3 in the cabin. I chose to ride in the cabin as we bounced our way to first a viewpoint, then to a Bedouin camp for dinner, and Bedouin music and dance featuring a bagpipe(!)
As we drove across the desert our driver pointed out a camp where the King, Abdullah II, often helicoptered in for a Bedouin feast. Seeing three busses enter that area he said a visit was likely that night. Sure enough two helicopters appeared as we ate dinner in our camp. I can't say if the president was in one, but it seemed likely.
We arrived back in Aqaba around 8:30 PM.
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