Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SOUTHERN HIGHLIGHTS
Don mask and flippers and hover with the pipe fish over spectacular coral gar-
dens in the
Red Sea
(
Click here
)
Taste fresh tuna steaks in one of the excellent fish restaurants of
Aqaba
(
Click
Relax at one of Jordan's southerly
coastal resorts
(
Click here
)
and enjoy the
three 'S's (sun, sea and sand)
Live a 'Lawrence moment' by riding through
Wadi Rum
(
Click here
)
on a
camel, visiting the places made famous in
Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Enjoy the banter between Bedouin drivers on a
4WD excursion
(
Click here
)
through Wadi Rum
Book a private tent and personally delivered dinner on your own sand dune in
Diseh
(
Click here
)
for the ultimate candlelit supper
Camp with the Bedouin in a goat-hair tent in
Wadi Rum
(
Click here
)
and exper-
ience the night sky in all its glory
History & Culture
There is a magnificent road (A35) that leads from Wadi Musa, with westerly glimpses
across expansive Wadi Araba, to the escarpment of Jebel Batra. Here the road joins the
Desert Highway and hand in hand they sweep onto the majestic floor of what is com-
monly called the Southern Desert. For centuries this has been the home of the Bedouin
whose tribes rallied together in the most convincing expression of the pan-Arab ideal dur-
ing the 20th-century Arabic Revolt. The cry of 'to Aqaba' still rings between the towering
walls of Wadi Rum, carried in the whistle of the freight train as it winds along the now-
placid tracks of the Hejaz Railway.
As romantic as the nomadic life may seem, many of the Bedouin tribes have turned in
the past two or three decades to a settled life. The desert, much of which is characterised
not by the picturesque features of Wadi Rum but by inhospitable plains, doesn't take pris-
oners. Life to this day is hard here, even for the Bedouin and, in the words of Lawrence,
'a death in life' for strangers. Take the journey along the Desert Highway, along the edge
of the mighty Badia, and you'll quickly learn a new respect for this extreme environment
- and for the people and wildlife who have adapted to its privations.
