Day 5 - Petra to Wadi Rum

We were awake very early this morning due to a power cut at 6.00. It was very dark and I needed a torch to visit the toilet and woke Paul up. He went off to find out if it was just our room but it was all the hotel. Power was back by 6.30 but we were already wide awake so go up then.

We left at 9.00 and our first stop was Little Petra. It is much smaller than Petra but has some interesting rooms and caverns that have been carved into the sandstone rock. It also has a small Siq. It also has a disproportionate amount of souvenir sellers.

It is believed to have been used for storing goods that were traded by the Camel Caravams that came from other parts of the Arab world but mainly for storing wine as the temperatures in the caverns were constant and cool.

Landscape at Little Petra

The end of the Siq with onward passage to Petra

(with all the souvenir sellers)

The office building where all incoming and outgoing

trading stock was recorded

Storage Caves

We then continued to Wadi Rum which was a 2 hour incredibly scenic journey firstly across the mountains near Petra and then across an agricultural area where cereal crops that do not need irrigation are grown. We then entered Wadi Rum which is very mountainous in places but mostly sand. Many films have been made here including Lawrence of Arabia. There is lots of discarded plastic and other rubbish around. There are hundreds of tourist camps around and we are staying in one of them. The rooms resemble bedouin tents.

After lunch we were taken out on open trucks to see more if the area. During our tour we stopped to climb to the top of one of the rocks to get a better view around. It was a steep climb to the top and most of the group made it. We also stopped to see some rock carvings dating back to 300 BC. Following that we were taken for herbal tea at a traditional bedouin camp. The tea was infused with cinnamon, cardonom and sage. Our final stop was to see the sunset. It was nice but not spectacular.

We returned to the camp and had dinner before going out of the camp to a darker area to see the stars. When our eyes adjusted to the dark we could just see the Milky Way. It was hard to identify the plough as there were a lot more visible stars around it.