Saturday 16th January - Wadi Rum to Petra

We were both a bit reluctant to get out of bed this morning, having enjoyed another peaceful night in the desert.  Our carefully chosen campsite positioned to get the morning sun was foiled by the jebel to our east which kept us in the shade until 0830, so we ate breakfast away from the van in a warm sunny spot.  The Kelly Kettle has proved its worth these last couple of days, quickly boiling water for tea and the washing up, using just a few twigs for fuel that can be readily found lying around.

It took a couple of attempts to make it up a slope of soft sand, and then we threaded our way through the jebels northwards to find the perimeter road.  We re-inflated our tyres back to normal pressure once we hit the tarmac and drove back to Wadi Rum visitor’s centre as this was the start point for the walk we’d decided to do today.

 
We spent about three and a half hours first walking to the Severn Pillars of Wisdom (named in honour of Lawrence’s book),

then cutting through Makharas Canyon to come out on the east side of Jebel Umm al-Ishrin,

before coming back around north over the red sand dunes. SPOT

It was a great walk, with our lunch spot (just after we exited the canyon) giving us great views across to Jebel Barrah and Umm Nfoos.

We both had heavy legs as we arrived back at the Land Rover and a warm glow in our faces from the brilliant sun. 

It was then a quick 80km drive to Wadi Musa, gateway village to Petra - we’ll visit the latter tomorrow and the next day.  We’ve managed to find an open wireless access point and have checked the weather forecast; fingers crossed tomorrow will be good but it looks like there may be rain on Monday (which won’t make Anne happy).

A quick shop for bread and a shwarma (accompanied by complimentary mint tea) before we retired to our hotel room for the night; not as good as camping out in the desert, but more convenient for an early start tomorrow.