Wadi Rum - Overnight with the family!

Before I started work with Uncover the World, I took my family (3 girls between 5 & 9) on an adventure to Jordan.  Here's my account of our Wadi Rum adventure.

The Wadi Rum (also referred to as ‘The Valley of the Moon’) conjures up images of a strange, beautiful and forbidding landscape. I’d seen Lawrence of Arabia and read snippets, so obviously, in my opinion I was somewhat of an expert. Sanity check!

T.E. Lawrence described it as ‘vast, echoing and God-like’ and I wanted my children to experience it first-hand. We booked an hour Jeep safari into the Wadi Rum for later in the afternoon – I knew the kids would get really fidgety if it was for any longer. After all I reasoned, once you’d seen one massive, imposing rock formation – you’d seen ‘em all...


Jump ahead a few hours and we’re bedding down for the night, in the middle of the Wadi Rum at a Bedouin Camp. No, our jeep hasn’t broken down; our tour of Wadi Rum was so extraordinarily spectacular and we were all enjoying ourselves so much that we just didn't want to leave!

It is definitely the most awe-inspiring environment I’ve ever seen. The sheer scale of the mountains left us overwhelmed. Some of the mountains have vertical, smooth flanks - others seem scarred and distorted, they look like they have started to melt underneath the ferocious sun and then suddenly stopped, frozen still, mid-melt.

Everything is of giant proportions, the sandstone and granite jebels rise up from the desert floor to skyscraper heights and perfectly sculpted rock formations, tinted slightly pink stare at you from every angle.

Only natural elements have weathered this panorama over millennia to form the most alien landscape beyond most people’s imagination.  

The kids were in their element – this wild desert provided the most unlikely of playgrounds. They loved the sand-dunes, scrambling up and rolling back down.

My eldest and her Dad were in their element too. Scaling huge rocks and climbing up to see Lawrence’s Spring, where somehow fresh water cascades down a steep cliff – well to be honest, it's more of a trickle!

It was such an adventure for all of us. As the sun settled, the kids sketched and copied the ancient cave drawings.

They all then went to help collect dead wood for the campfire – however I use the word ‘help’ in the loosest possible sense. I could just make them out, frolicking in the fine sand, darting back and forth, finding something interesting with every step. The hunt for dead wood must have taken a lot longer than usual and judging by the shrieks of laughter I could hear, was far more entertaining that I would have anticipated.

Our food was prepared and cooked in front of us – delicious smells wafted under our noses and we could hardly wait to sample our wares.

We were not disappointed – in fact, our meal was fit for a king.

We dined by candlelight then settled for the night on mattresses gazing up into the night sky. I have never seen so many stars before, the sky was luminous under the light of a billion, twinkling stars. We all settled down, staring into the milky-way, counting the endless supply of shooting stars. I’m not one for roughing it, but with every shooting star, I counted my blessings to be here – in the middle of nowhere, sharing such a special time with my family.

The song of the Sinai Rosefinch woke us at dawn and we rose from a pleasant slumber with a

mixture of contentment and excitement. As we watched the sun rise together - I had that

spine-tingling sense of awe. I knew that we’d never recapture this moment, but we would

all remember ourJordan family adventure forever.