Jordan!: Days 4 and 5

I've always considered myself to be a city girl, in spite of my suburban upbringing. Throughout my childhood (and indeed, until about a month ago) the idea of sleeping outside of a semi-permanent structure, and moreover, not showering on a regular basis, held absolutely no appeal for me. I live in a world with electricity and indoor plumbing, why should I elect to go without those things when it's not absolutely necessary?

Forget that Liz. She is gone; wandered off a cliff or into the swirling red sands in Wadi Rum. Since my return from Jordan, I have wanted nothing more than to go back to the desert, to watch sunsets and sunrises over an endless horizon, to walk through the sand barefoot, to sleep under nothing but a blanket of stars. (Well, stars and a nice, thick sleeping bag. Maybe a couple of sweatshirts. And a scarf, and socks. Socks are a must if you are going to the desert.)

We arrived in Wadi Rum at dusk, threw our bags into the tents, and set out to explore the cliffs around the campsite. I led Caprill up to an overhang near our camp, which would later provide some excellent photo opportunities; unfortunately, within minutes my utter lack of night vision would become a serious problem, as we struggled to find the way back down to camp without walking off the edge of a cliff. Luckily some guys from the tour group who were departing camp that evening showed us the way back down, and we grabbed a few teas and found seats around the central fire ring.

Our fellow campers were part of an Arab tour group (our guide said they were probably from the Levant - Jordan, Syria, Lebanon or Palestine - but not which part specifically), and they were, for lack of a more suitable term, tearing it up. Colored lights were set up, Arabic music was blaring on the stereo (I recognized some Sa'ad al-Sougyer) and the men were out there shaking their hips like there was no tomorrow. Anyone who suggests that bellydancing is just for women, quite frankly, is a moron - it is absolutely hypnotizing to watch these men dance. For a few numbers, specifically "Hetagowaz," a number of the women joined in, but the men dominated the floor throughout the evening. Later, after that group departed for Amman, we switched over to some American club standards and danced for about an hour before setting out for a nighttime desert trek.

We were led maybe a quarter of a mile out into the red sand desert, just far enough to be outside the lights of our camp and the one around the mountain, but close enough that the odds of us getting lost were fairly low. And then, for an hour, we just laid in the sand, looking up at the most amazing stars I've ever seen in my life and watching them shoot across the sky. We returned to the campsite briefly to suit up in additional sweatshirts and socks, grabbed a few blankets, and went back out for another hour or hour and a half, swapping ghost stories and memories from time to time, but mostly just laying in the sand and soaking up the incredible view above.

After only a few short hours of sleep, Mark woke us up (by scratching on the wall of our tent and scaring the living daylights out of all of us) and we all piled into Jeeps for a sunrise tour of the desert. Our first stop was only about two miles from our campsite; we climbed a beautiful dune and with the mountain behind us and a plain below, watched one of the most amazing sunrises I've ever been lucky enough to see. After sunrise, we got back in the cars and drove across the plain to see an ancient map of the mountain chain. Carved into a huge rock that I can best describe as a dolman (you know, where you eat your Dole pineapple) is a scale map of the major mountains in Wadi Rum, encompassing their height and location, both in relation to one another and to a handful of small rivers and streams in the area. Abier told us that when the map was rediscovered by European archaeologists - having been known for years only through oral tradition - they used military helicopters to check the accuracy, and discovered that the ancient stone map was better than the ones they had developed!

Upon our return to camp, we enjoyed a huge breakfast of eggs, bread, foul and vegetables, then packed up our belongings and departed for the Dead Sea, our last stop before heading back to Cairo...