Feb 19th – Lawrence's Arabia

The bus left Petra at just past 6 in the morning and drove us into Wadi Rum where we'd meet our guide for a jeep tour of the desert. This picturesque desert was made famous as one of the staging areas for Lawrence of Arabia to make his push/stand against the Turks. The desert has fine sand and massive red mountains jutting up all around.

We spent the first few hours driving around to various points in the area to climb up rocks and take pictures of the various geological formations. It was not the ideal day due to cloud cover and later a sand storm, but it was still beautiful. The highlight was watching my sister attempt to climb up and then run down a massive sand dune...classic. In the mid-afternoon we were dropped off at the camp we'd be sleeping at and where we'd have dinner that night.

We weren't exactly sure what we were supposed to be doing, so we just rock scrambled up a few mountains and then wandered around the area barefoot, feeling the sand between our toes and doing our best t avoid thorns and scorpions.

The dinner was actually pretty darn good. Chicken baked in an under sand oven, fresh veggies and rice. We ate until we were full and then we headed out to the sand with blankets and mattresses to look up at the stars. It was gorgeous and there were many shooting stars, but it was not quite as amazing as Mongolia. We slept in a large tent with the rest of the people on our tour.