A slight break in the itinerary for a more leisure day driving back to Amman. The return drive from Wadi Rum to Amman was around 4-5 hours. This was a more relaxing day for us. We left the camp after breakfast and made multiple stops along the way.
This local baby didn’t mind us at all as we moved around in our Martian Tent
The tour company does a good job of breaking up the drives to make sure people have plenty of opportunity to use the bathroom and get snacks. We had lunch at the same “Midway Castle” that we did on the way down. Thankfully, this time people were far less sales-y and we were able to look at more things.
We were also relieved because this next hotel we would be at for three nights – so less unpacking just to repack. This was the same hotel we stayed at on the front part of our trip.
The room this time was much better than the first night, another small win!
This little fella met us again as we pulled up to the hotel
We relaxed in our room before making our way over to the Amman International Hotel – that did have a full service bar and restaurant. A Russian woman was our server, and we enjoyed talking with her.
Just as our food was coming out, Steffan from our group walked in. We invited him and his wife Nicky, to join us. We sat around and had a lot of good conversations.
We woke up with incredibly sore legs after walking so much the day before. Thankfully, the day was pretty light. We were set to make our way to Wadi Rum, which is something that we were really looking forward to.
The drive wasn’t too terrible – we made it to our camp pretty early. We were able to check in right away – which was awesome! We were so excited – we had paid for an upgrade to have a Martian tent. It was worth every penny!
Highly recommend the Martian tents!
We were set to do a 4×4 ride through the desert right away. Most people sat in the back of the truck bed, but there wasn’t enough room for all of us. Andy and I were inside the back of one of the trucks, at first it was a little disappointing that we weren’t outside. We quickly realized that the sun was hot and even more dusty.
Heading into the desert wild
A few people offered to switch spots with us, but we decided it was fine inside at that point. We stopped at a few different scenic points from different movies – or that were just naturally beautiful.
It was so beautiful – felt like we were on another planet!It’s so fun to get to see camels everywhere!
I think we were on the tour for about 2 hours. We got to see quite a bit. After we got back, we had a few hours before our communal dinner.
Deserts do have incredible sunsets!
We relaxed in our tent – and then took a few pictures as the sun was setting. We had heard another guide tell his group to arrive on time to watch them pull the food out of the ground. This is a traditional way of cooking – called a Zarb. Marinated meats and vegetables are buried in a sandy oven in the ground – which is supposed to leave the food really moist and flavorful.
Cooking underground; chicken, potatoes and carrots
We had dinner with some individuals from our group – which was really fun to sit around and chat. I didn’t want to say anything out loud, but all of my food felt really gritty. I compared notes with Andy later, only to realize it was me! I still had sand in my mouth from the 4×4 ride!
We had signed up for stargazing because Wadi Rum is supposed to be a dark sky environment. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as dark as some of the places that Andy and I have visited in the past. It was really cool though, there were two parts. The first section was pointing out different constellations and the second section was looking through five different telescopes that were pointed at different items.
The moon and Venus
Sirius, the brightest star – the North star – a nebula in Orion’s Belt – Pleiades – and one that we can’t quite remember. On both the way there and on the way back we did get to ride in one of the 4×4 truck beds. Glad we got to do it on a short distance – and at night!
The stargazing group – I’m hiding behind the giant man in white. This isn’t our actual tour “group” although there were a few from our bus!
We returned to our tent because it was late at that point. It was a really unique way to spend our 10 year anniversary!
Scribbles and Snapshots 