Hooning With Punk Bedouins

I was first up, due no doubt to the absence of a hangover, and had a lovely hour or so in the brilliant desert sunshine, before everybody stirred. After breakfast, and accompanied by a few groans, we left our full packs behind, took only what we needed for the night in the desert in our day packs, hopped on some seats in the back of a couple of utes, and headed out into the desert.

Only a couple of kms saw us at the 'G Camp', a campsite just for our tour company. No power and no phone reception. A few porta-loos were the only concession to westerners, but it was lovely to be in a remote spot. Wandered over the dunes in the morning (well, minus a few with hangovers), before cooking a simple lunch over the camp firepit.

After lunch we hopped into the back of our utes, and it was off for an afternoon explore of the desert around Wadi Rum. Up and down sand dunes, with views of the hills all around. Fairly stony rather than sandy, and the utes were never in any danger of being bogged. Stopped at one stage to see some hieroglyphics on the rocks high up on a hill which was pretty unique.

After about an hour, we stopped at a Bedouin's tent for tea, though Aywan spent the first minutes telling us that it was a lousy tent for a Bedouin as the door faced the wrong way, the fire was inside, it wasn't made out of leather ....... However, the tea was nice, and we got to experience the musk soap that Bedouin women use.

Then it was slowly back to camp, stopping occasionally to look at the castle in the desert, some special hills, and to give our young Bedouin driver with the punk headdress and boom box in the ute an opportunity to hoon up and down some of the sand dunes with us clinging on in the back.

Climbed the dunes to watch the desert sunset next to the camp.

Joined by a small Italian group, who were homeless, for dinner and the evening. After another dinner of chicken and lamb cooked in the fire pit (keep them coming), we headed out on a night walk through the desert to see what we could find. Actually we didn't find anything, but after 20 minutes or so we stopped on the edge of a rocky outcrop, and gazed at the stars while Ayman made a fire and boiled some tea for us which was great way to spend the first night of 2014.