Jordan Day 5. Wadi Rum

31 Jan. Left for Wadi Rum at 12 noon, driving along the tops of hills in fog. We were on the road which leads to Akaba on the Red Sea, the only port in Jordan, so it wasn't surprising to see lots of huge trucks. Had a short hold up because a truck/trailer unit had jack-knifed further ahead. The police had it well in hand; they were letting cars and vans through but the big rigs had to wait.

When we arrived at Wadi Rum, we swapped from our van to two four-wheel drives. The drivers wore long robes and had the customary local red and white checked head-dress with two black cords around it. Our first sight was the Seven Pillars of Wisdom, a formation named in honour of T E Lawrence who helped lead the Arab revolt during World War I. It's a tall rocky mass that looks a bit like pillars.

The area is sometimes called the Mountains of the Moon. A wadi is a valley, but this huge area (1000 sq km I think) is more like a wide plain with great mountainous formations rearing up out of it, with rounded tops and stripes of different colours all the way down. Great lumps of stone are piled at the bottom of many of them, and there is sand, sand, and more sand in every shade you can imagine from cream to orange to brown.

As soon as we passed the Bedouin village, we left the sealed road and drove on the sand. It was amazing, stupendous, breath-taking! Just a pity that the sun wasn't out at first - we were so lucky yesterday to have sun at Petra. A few people were out there on camels, which really added to the atmosphere. Eventually there was some sun which really brought out the orange and pink colours of the sand. Bedouins in a tent offered commercial hospitality - drinks of tea. They were based near a narrow canyon - really just a split in the rocks.

There was quite a lot of growth; scrubby green bushes, leafless small trees (well, it is winter) and small plants with a foothold in the sand. The book I bought says that spring flowers burst out at the first sign of water.

At times, when you looked into the distance, you would have sworn there was sea water, because of the ripples in the sand, but it was just a paler colour. We saw some graffitti - a drawing of a camel and some Greek writing. Then the sun broke through as it was heading down the sky about 4 pm and that made for great photos.

Yet another fantastic day on the most fantastic trip of my life!