Wadi Rum was a place I knew pretty much nothing about just a week or so ago. Now…it’s one of my favorites. It’s the desert where Lawrence of Arabia hung out and they filmed the movie. It’s vast and open and filled with mountainous rocks and everywhere you look is a picture waiting to be taken.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. We started our day going to a pottery shop that’s partially funded by U.S. Aid. Some local women make and sell the pottery to raise money for the community. They help to fund schools and other programs. It’s very cool pottery for a very great cause.

Then we drove an hour or so out to Wadi Rum. Our first order of business was lunch at Captain’s Camp, kind of a Bedouin hotel. They took us out back to watch them get the lunch…this guy grabs a shovel and starts uncovering a pile sand. There were a couple of blankets and then a large metal plate. They removed all of that and a pile of aluminum foil and pulled out a three foot, three-tiered rack with rice, chicken, lamb and vegetables. They light a fire and let it burn out and then slide this rack down in and bury it…kind of like a Bedouin luuah.

They threw it all together and brought it out to us and we ate and ate and ate…and then the fun began.

We were off for a jeep tour through Wadi Run and a stop for tea to watch the sunset. This whole trip has been full of experiences that I never would have imagined and this was another. To sit and sip tea with Bedouin as the sun set over the mountains was amazing!

We’re now in Aqaba for a bit and then off to the Dead Sea tomorrow. Aqaba is a port town down on the Red Sea. I’ll have a report on Aqaba and the Dead Sea tomorrow. Please enjoy the images from Wadi Rum until then.