In the Presence of the Stupendous Hills, Part 2

“Men have looked upon the desert as barren land, the free holding of whoever chose; but in fact each hill and valley in it had a man who was its acknowledged owner and would quickly assert the right of his family or clan to it, against aggression.” - T. E. Lawrence, ‘The Seven Pillars of Wisdom’, 1926


We woke up at dawn about an hour before breakfast and had a look around camp.  Since we had arrived at dusk the previous night, we hadn't seen the camp in the daylight, or the surrounding countryside.  Rum Stars Camp is located next to a huge sandstone mountain at the edge of one of the many valleys of Wadi Rum.  In the distance are some of those 'stupendous hills' that Lawrence talked about.  And in the early morning light, the red and orange of the sandstone was even more brilliant than in mid day.


Rum Stars Camp...

The view from the camp...

Some artifacts we found out in the desert...

Roads in the desert...

“The Bedouin could not look for God within him: he was too sure that he was within God.” - T. E. Lawrence, ‘The Seven Pillars of Wisdom’, 1926

Today, our second day, was again going to be an all day journey in the back of the pickup truck.  Tomorrow we had planned a five hour camel ride through some of the other outlying areas of Wadi Rum.  After breakfast, we loaded again into the back of the pickup, Eid as our guide again.  Raphael and Amanda had gone on to another Jordan destination, so this day we had Elena and Damiano,  a couple from Finland and Verona, Italy.  Our first stop was to be a 4 mile trek up on a hill overlooking valleys and mountains right next to Saudi Arabia.  So after about an hour in the pickup, where we saw more beautiful landscapes and quite a few camels, we arrived at our first destination.

Note: all of the camels here are domestic, none are wild (I don't think there are wild camels in this part of the world).  They are very valuable animals and even though they look like they are out in the middle of nowhere, their owner always knows where they are.

So we hiked up a trail to an amazing viewpoint, overlooking a huge valley with many mountain ranges in the background.  This valley is where they filmed much of the recent film, "The Martian", as it looks more like Mars than almost anywhere else on earth.

The valley where much of "The Martian" was filmed...

Out there n the distance is Saudi Arabia...

Eid and Amy...

Tafas: “Truly now, you are a British officer?”

Lawrence: ”Yes.”

Tafas: “From Britain?”

Lawrence: “Yes.”

Tafas: “Is Britain a desert country?”

Lawrence: “No, a fat country. Fat people.”

Tafas: “You are not fat?”

Lawrence: “No. I’m different.”

 - ‘Lawrence of Arabia’, directed by David Lean, 1962

As we walked along, I noticed many thin rocks on the ground, a lot like flagstone.  Eid picked one up and showed me that on the surface of the rock were many sea fossils.  As it turns out, these hills are chock a bloc full of fossils, this area being sandstone and about 400 to 600 million years old.  As we looked more, it seemed that almost every rock lying on the ground was full of fossils!

”This creed of the desert seemed inexpressible in words, and indeed in thought.” - T. E. Lawrence, ‘The Seven Pillars of Wisdom’, 1926


We walked around this wonderful landscape for a few hours and then drove to another picnic spot.  Eid started talking about lunch and how we were going to have some delicious goat and maybe some camel.  Poor Elena and Damiano looked a bit disappointed and Eid asked if they ate any meat at all, because almost all of the lunch would be meat.  Sorry, they didn't, but they would just forgo lunch.  Too bad.

We got to our lunch spot and walked up next to this huge rock and laid down our straw mat.  The four of us sat there for about a half hour, wondering what Eid was doing, although we could hear him making all sorts of commotion next to the truck.  He soon came up to us, carrying this huge frying pan full of delicious veggies!  Turns out our trickster guide, Eid, was joking all along as we had a four course vegetarian meal of salads and cooked goodies.  And of course, it was all washed down with "Bedouin Whiskey", their tasty tea.

A scorpion Eid found along the trail.  This kind, he said, is quite lethal...

We went to a couple of other nice spots, including a huge natural arch and a large rock that looks just like a chicken.  We also climbed several hundred feet up on a huge rock, where the view was magnificent and we got to do our 'jump' again!

The "Chicken Rock", where we played a game of throwing rocks in that tiny hole in the middle.  Eid won every game...

Then we went to the sunset spot to watch another dramatic sunset.  This one came complete with two Jordanian army helicopters coming from the distant west, circling us at about 200 feet, and heading off again.  Not sure what that was all about.

We met some of the new guests, including a couple of young nurses from Spain.  Soon, the sun was setting, the sky turned a beautiful yellow/orange and we were all in heaven.  But we were definitely ready to get back to camp, have a shower, a nice dinner and go to bed for the big camel ride.

On the way back, the four of us talked about getting to the shower as fast as we could, as there was only so much hot water from the solar water heater.  When we arrived at camp it was almost dark and Amy got out of the truck and started running up to the tent while I was getting our stuff.

As I was walking to the tent, there was a small crowd gathered by the path and Amy was on the ground, holding her arm and wincing.  She had tripped on that same damned step, fallen and her arm had hit a sharp rock and she had a huge cut!

She took one look at her cut, looked up at me and said, "We have to get out of here and to a hospital, right now!"

To be continued......