Kerri had the oldest lead camel (18 years old), and had a lot of trouble keeping it on track. She ended up with a rope burn on her fingers as it yanked the rope out of her hands to grab at some bushes to eat. We were tied to her camel and sat back to enjoy the view.
The Wadi Rum desert is a protected area and we had to pay a small fee, at the visitors' centre on the outside of the town. It was difficult to work out what was being protected as there were dozens of 4 wheel drive vehicles and tour companies lined up on both sides of the entrance looking to take visitors into the park.
As we rode to the camp we saw convoys of vehicles criss crossing the desert and loads of Bedouin camps set up amongst the rocks. There didn't seem to be any protecting of the desert from what we could see. Rubbish blew everywhere and there were loads of people.
The camel I had was not well padded and I could feel the wooden slats of the saddle so I got two blisters on my bum, one about 6cms long! I'm glad we didn't do a full day ride like some people signed up to.
We never got to see a good sunset as it was dusty and quite misty. When we arrived at Sunset Camp we were shown our tent that looked no better than the Palestinian refugee tents we had seen in Lebanon and Jordan! What a disappointment. We at least expected black goat-hair tents in the traditional materials but got bits of raggy old carpets tied together with bits of string. The roof had filled with sand and was in danger of falling onto us in the night so John had to empty it. There were no sheets on the mattresses, the pillows were rock hard stuffed with old rags and the duvets were dirty and everything was covered in sand. Luckily we have sleeping sheets we can use in situations like this.
It made us think of our ger experience in the Gobi Desert and for such a poor country they were able to prepare a clean, comfortable and authentic experience for us.
We were told by Muhammad, the owner, to buy some food for lunch from his shop and this along with our bags was taken to the camp ahead of us. When we unpacked we found that our food was missing and then discovered it being cut up by the cook for the evening meal! We were able to replace it from his supplies later.
The wind was blowing off the snowy mountains in Syria and Turkey but originating in Scandinavia, so it was freezing. We sat around an oval tent that had a fire pit and drank lots of small glasses of sweet tea and chatted to some of the other 30 camp guests. There were people from Israel, France, Holland and Italy.
Dinner was a rice and chicken dish with lots of salad vegetables (some of them ours) and gritty sand in the sauce. The Sudanese chef they employed stood in front of the tip box and asked each person to read the sign about putting money in it for him. This was the same guy who pinched our food.
In the morning we met our guide and with an Israeli couple we got into our 4 wheel drive jeep. The guide had to hot-wire (put two wires together) to get it started. It had no brakes and filled the inside with diesel fumes. The fuel tank had a plastic bag stuffed in it, two doors opened from the outside only and there were no window winders to open or close the windows so some stayed permanently open while others remained shut. We had to push a few times to get going and had to enlist help from some other groups so a 6 hour tour turned into 9 hours! The bonnet was wired on so it didn't fall off and the wheel nuts were all loose! There were no traffic police in the desert.
We climbed rocks and ran up and down sand-hills and drove round in a circle all the time not too far from the camp.
At lunchtime the guide lit a fire in the protected area, made tea, heated some bread, made a salad and opened a can of sardines. We didn't need the food we had bought at Mohammed's shop after all. Our guide played the urd, a traditional guitar, and sang to us. He made the whole experience fun as he had a great smile and took my teasing in good humour.
In the afternoon we saw the spring where Lawrence of Arabia fame drank water and also saw some rocks which were once a house where he stayed.
The first night we arrived there was no hot water although we were told there would be some so we were ready for a shower after our 9 hour tour. We arrived at camp to find there was not even any water let alone hot stuff. We are used to carrying packets of 'baby wipes' for such emergencies. The toilet facilities were pretty squalid really, sewerage flooding the floor, waste water leaking from broken pipes and all this in a protected area. The Mongolians could teach them how to do it better in the desert!
