Day 71
Sleeping location: A quiet corner of the desert near the Wadi Rum visitor centre, Jordan
Distance (km today/total): 104 / 5947
Estimated climb (m today/total): 600 / 53100
Grains of sand encountered: 2,146,960,783
Day in three words: Our just deserts
It stayed peaceful throughout the night and into the morning, so we rose with the sun and enjoyed some oats and coffee without having to worry about packing up quickly. Once we left it was a short push back to the main road, but from there it was pretty easy going. Lots of rolling hills* over rocky ground, with some big flocks of sheep and lots of huge vultures gliding above. When we stopped for water the shop owner tried to rip us off but, was easily argued down once he realised we knew the legitimate price of things. After this he became weirdly friendly/needy and insisted that we stop for tea and that he followed me on “sistergram”. It feels like people here don’t really understand the concept of a rip-off; things cost what someone is willing to pay for them, and his initial price was just his opening offer. Perhaps we should judge less (and haggle more).
After the rolling hills we began to gradually descend, and the terrain got more and more “deserty”. The road we were on merged with the Desert Highway, which is the biggest/fastest north-south road in Jordan; thankfully it wasn't too busy, but the surface left something to be desired. After a bit more descent we found ourselves in a sandy desert with big rock towers in every direction. Our route took us off the highway onto a smaller road which went through a town, so we stopped at a shop for some supplies. The man charged fair prices for once, and wanted loads of pictures of us with his cute kids, so we liked him. After this we carried on down the smaller road but there were loads of random sand patches everywhere, which are a nightmare to ride on, so we went back to the clean smooth(ish) highway. We had a surprisingly decent chicken lunch at a service station cafe, which also miraculously stocked the chocolate coins that Rebecca had been craving, so we liked this too. A man asked us about our journey, then said “is it with Guinness” which I took as him joking that we were powered by Guinness, so I replied, “no, hummus and bread!”. He looked confused and walked off. Rebecca then pointed out that he was probably referring to Guinness world records rather than the drink, so he probably thinks we are trying to get our names in the Hummus Book of Records.
Another fast section on the highway led us to the turnoff for the Wadi Rum desert area. We were straight into the middle of proper sandy desert with emptiness, rock towers and abandoned things in every direction. It was very atmospheric and starkly beautiful. After an hour or so this road took us to the Wadi Rum national park visitor centre. After Petra I was expecting some rinsing here, but was pleasantly surprised with how chilled out they were. Wild camping was allowed inside the park, wherever we wanted, and all we had to do was register with the local police.
We found a great spot almost immediately, a couple of hundred metres down a sandy track from the road. It had massive rock ridges on all sides, including a great view of the Seven Pillars of Wisdom, which for some reason is a Lawrence of Arabia themed rock**. When we arrived some wild camels were wandering about, and there were some cool desert plants including a strange mini melon thing. It was incredibly quiet and still once the wind dropped, so we slept without the tent. The stars are meant to be amazing round here but it was a full moon, which diminished them, but it was still a wonderful camp spot, definitely one of the best of the trip so far.
Also worth noting - this is the first day in Jordan we’ve done 100km, which means it’s also the first time Rebecca has done it on a loaded touring bike. After numerous short days it’s nice to know we can crank out the distance when things don’t go against us.
*Or mountains, as we were hovering around 1500m
**And, to me, only contains five pillars
Distance (km today/total): 104 / 5947
Estimated climb (m today/total): 600 / 53100
Grains of sand encountered: 2,146,960,783
Day in three words: Our just deserts
It stayed peaceful throughout the night and into the morning, so we rose with the sun and enjoyed some oats and coffee without having to worry about packing up quickly. Once we left it was a short push back to the main road, but from there it was pretty easy going. Lots of rolling hills* over rocky ground, with some big flocks of sheep and lots of huge vultures gliding above. When we stopped for water the shop owner tried to rip us off but, was easily argued down once he realised we knew the legitimate price of things. After this he became weirdly friendly/needy and insisted that we stop for tea and that he followed me on “sistergram”. It feels like people here don’t really understand the concept of a rip-off; things cost what someone is willing to pay for them, and his initial price was just his opening offer. Perhaps we should judge less (and haggle more).
After the rolling hills we began to gradually descend, and the terrain got more and more “deserty”. The road we were on merged with the Desert Highway, which is the biggest/fastest north-south road in Jordan; thankfully it wasn't too busy, but the surface left something to be desired. After a bit more descent we found ourselves in a sandy desert with big rock towers in every direction. Our route took us off the highway onto a smaller road which went through a town, so we stopped at a shop for some supplies. The man charged fair prices for once, and wanted loads of pictures of us with his cute kids, so we liked him. After this we carried on down the smaller road but there were loads of random sand patches everywhere, which are a nightmare to ride on, so we went back to the clean smooth(ish) highway. We had a surprisingly decent chicken lunch at a service station cafe, which also miraculously stocked the chocolate coins that Rebecca had been craving, so we liked this too. A man asked us about our journey, then said “is it with Guinness” which I took as him joking that we were powered by Guinness, so I replied, “no, hummus and bread!”. He looked confused and walked off. Rebecca then pointed out that he was probably referring to Guinness world records rather than the drink, so he probably thinks we are trying to get our names in the Hummus Book of Records.
Another fast section on the highway led us to the turnoff for the Wadi Rum desert area. We were straight into the middle of proper sandy desert with emptiness, rock towers and abandoned things in every direction. It was very atmospheric and starkly beautiful. After an hour or so this road took us to the Wadi Rum national park visitor centre. After Petra I was expecting some rinsing here, but was pleasantly surprised with how chilled out they were. Wild camping was allowed inside the park, wherever we wanted, and all we had to do was register with the local police.
We found a great spot almost immediately, a couple of hundred metres down a sandy track from the road. It had massive rock ridges on all sides, including a great view of the Seven Pillars of Wisdom, which for some reason is a Lawrence of Arabia themed rock**. When we arrived some wild camels were wandering about, and there were some cool desert plants including a strange mini melon thing. It was incredibly quiet and still once the wind dropped, so we slept without the tent. The stars are meant to be amazing round here but it was a full moon, which diminished them, but it was still a wonderful camp spot, definitely one of the best of the trip so far.
Also worth noting - this is the first day in Jordan we’ve done 100km, which means it’s also the first time Rebecca has done it on a loaded touring bike. After numerous short days it’s nice to know we can crank out the distance when things don’t go against us.
*Or mountains, as we were hovering around 1500m
**And, to me, only contains five pillars
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