SUNDAY 7/15/12

WADI RUM & AQABA

After a restful night of sleep in a quiet desert we woke up to this. Breakfast in the morning and then ready to head out to Wadi Rum for desert hiking.

Olive oil, Sesame seeds baked in an open oven

Desert Volleyball court

                               Rock Camp crew










We had already contacted Saleh, a tour guide in Wadi Rum for a tour of the area. We wanted to hike and trek the five bridges of Wadi Rum. We met Saleh in the entrance of Wadi Rum and we followed him straight to his house. After a review of the tour we took off.

We parked our car there and he took us by Toyota Landcruiser, an old Toyota Landcruiser, to the different spots. We went to the famous Lawrence of Arabia's spring, we also visited his home. He lived in the area during the early part of the last century. Then, we got to the bridges. We couldn't actually trek 3 of the bridges without a climbing guide and about 2-3 hours per. So we settled for the two easy climbs and one long range pic. We saw the famous mushroom rock then we went sand boarding.

Lawrence of Arabia's house

Climbing on the bridges

Adriannnnnnn I mean Letiiiiiiii!!!!!!!

The rock was so hot Leti burned her hands

When our shoes, socks, underwear, shirts and everything else was full of red sand we went back to Saleh's house. His wife had prepared a traditional Bedouin meal, chicken on a bed of rice, kind of like a yellow rice, with potatoes, eggplant and cauliflower. We had the same thing at the Rock Camp but this time it was way better. After that, we did some bartering and Saleh was paid. 

About to go boarding ala Bedouin on red sand

Bedouin dish

Aqaba here we come! Diving in the Red Sea has been something I've been very excited about ever since knowing I'd be close to it. We traveled to Aqaba after lunch, a quick 40-50 minute drive and arrived at our hotel. A hotel dedicated to scuba diving. Simple yet comfortable. The diving centre is right in the hotel and the girl there was very nice and informative on the diving activities. After settling in and programming the dives for tomorrow we hung out by the pool and had some dinner. Looking forward to some beautiful diving tomorrow. We were told that a big sea turtle was spotted on one of the dives today. Last week they said they saw a whale shark. Hopefully we get to see something like that. Talk about a highlight!

First look at the Red Sea

Our room was the Barracuda