BEDOUIN ROADS PRESENT
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Jeep safari |
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Wadi Saabit from the other direction
Wadi Rum
Information
General
information As many
days as you like, hiking and scrambling!
One day trips
Two day trips
Three or more days
Unusual programmes
Extra excursions
or "add-ons"
Short self guided hike to Wadi
Climbing
Wadi Rum
Information
General
information As many
days as you like, hiking and scrambling!
One day trips
Two day trips
Three or more days
Unusual programmes
Extra excursions
or "add-ons"
Short self guided hike to Wadi
Climbing
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We shall be sleeping in a different place in the desert each night, and will ask you to bring sleeping bags; we shall supply mattresses. Like all of our programmes, it is flexible : you can choose to leave out a day or add a day from another programme to it (for this we suggest a day from the Wadi Rum Adventure selection). It is nominally a jeep programme, but if you want to get out and walk for a bit, there would be no difficulty.
Day One : we start off with our classic jeep tour as given in the programme "A day with the Bedouin". We start in the village and drive first to Lawrence's Spring and then to the red sand dunes in Wadi Um Ishrin and to Jebel Anafishiya where you can also see some Nabatean inscriptions. We continue, visiting "Lawrence's House" from where there are some great views, and then to the Barragh Canyon. Here we have lunch. There is an optional short hike in the canyon for about a kilometer. In the afternoon we drive to where we have a view up the mountain of the bridge on Jebel Burdah, and then to Um Fruth Bridge (which you can climb if you wish - it is about 20 meters high) and Khazali Canyon. We do not usually actually visit the Seven Pillars of Wisdom since this is very clearly visible from the Visitors' Centre. We can go there if you wish, but there is not really all that much point since it is better seen from a short distance away.
This will be a desert bivouac, such as we make for ourselves when we go into the desert : we choose a sheltered spot out of the wind and where the early sunshine will not wake us too soon, everybody helps to gather dead wood for the camp fire, we sit around it to talk as the food is cooked and, except in the deepest winter, we sleep on mattresses under the stars, cosily tucked into blankets or into our own sleeping bags. Water will be available for washing as much of yourselves as you want to. We supply soap but not towels for this. Just find a private place in the rocks and go to it! It is a good idea to pick our your sleeping spot before it gets dark. You can sleep near to the fire or move away from it to have more privacy, just as you like. We shall have chosen a place where you are most unlikely to meet any snakes or other unwelcome wildlife - this is something we learn when we are very young! Day Two : we continue south - now we are really in the desert and far away from the village and the usual tourist track. We pass numerous red sandstone massifs, and through Wadi Noghra we reach the lonely Wadi Saabit, one of the longest and widest of the east/west valleys. Wadi Noghra is at the end of the Khasch Ridge, where we bring people hiking on several of our programmes.
At the end of Noghra, we arrive finally in Wadi Saabit. You will probably see many camels here, especially in the spring, when they are there with their babies. If we have had any real rain during the winter, the grass is good here.
We are heading towards a tiny valley, hidden in a
cleft of the cliffs and well protected by an area of soft sand. It is quite
difficult to drive anywhere really close to it, you might have to walk at the
end. This valley, known as the Siq um Barid, ("the cold canyon") is hidden in a cleft of the mountain, close to Wadi Noghra and on the northern edge of Wadi Saabit. Even when you are only a few meters away, you don't realise that it is there. It is perhaps 50 meters long, delightfully cool and green, and the many inscriptions there show that ancient people knew and used it. There is a place where water collects when it runs off the mountains, and the many drawings of ibex show how the people lived by hunting. The strange inscriptions at the entrance are most unusual - do they represent identification of certain members of the tribes, or of important people? Nobody knows or has any better idea about this. In the afternoon we across the dried stream in the middle of Wadi Saabit (this is sometimes an exciting crossing!) and on the southern side, we head west, to another unexpected tiny valley close to Jebel Albzouri, of which the walls are completely covered with inscriptions. They are quite incredible, no drawings, this time, just writing in an unknown alphabet.
These inscriptions have been copied and recopied, but to my knowlege have never been translated. One wonders why the valley has been singled out for this. There is a Natatean well at the far end, which seems to indicate that the Nabateans had something to do with this, certainly they knew about it!
The western end of Wadi Saabit is the area where most of the camels are to be seen. The valley is more open here, and wider, the high cliffs are mainly in the east. While many of the camels are owned by the local Bedouin tribes, a large proportion are brought in from other areas where the grass is less abundant. Some of them are even brought from Saudi Arabia! We continue to the west towards the area around Jebel Sweibit. We are still in the heart of the red sandstone area of Wadi Rum, the scenery is spectacular and the many small massifs dot the landscape. The shadows are getting longer as we settle into our new bivouac.
Day Three : we start heading north again, back towards Rum Village. The adventure isn't over, but it is coming to an end. We are driving through one of the great climbing areas of Wadi Rum, where some of the most experienced climbers come regularly. You will notice that the sand takes on a different colour as we leave the south. It is still red, but not as pink as in Wadi Saabit and the area around it. In fact, the sand often has a different colour in different places, ranging from white up to really deep red.
We have a choice of roads for the way back : straight north past Jebel al Moghar (see the map on our website), and to Jebel Qatar and its dripping well, and past Jebel Khazali to arrive in the village. There is also another way, further west, which follows the beginning of the Desert Road to Aqaba before heading through some beautiful and unknown valleys, to arrive in Wadi Rumman, to the west of Jebel Rum. Wadi Rumman was used by the Army at one time, and has suffered for it, but it is now mostly visited by climbers, since many of the routes to climb Jebel Rum start from there. If we have time we could go to the very end of it, where the oryx enclosure is, but we are not very likely actually to see any of the oryx: the enclosure is huge, and they are usually hidden away in the little valleys running back into the mountain.
Please note the page about "Private Tours"
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