Sunset in Wadi Rum


Lawrence of Arabia has always one of my favourite movies. Filmed on location in Jordan’s Wadi Rum, the film contains some of the most hauntingly beautiful desert scenes in motion picture history. With both Wadi Rum and Petra (recently voted one of the new seven wonders of the world) situated within a two-hour drive from Eilat, my daughters and I decided to include a trip to Jordan during our month long sojourn in Jerusalem this past summer. 

Our tour operator of choice was Desert Eco Tours, a small and innovative Israeli company that specializes in off-the-beaten-track desert expeditions in Israel, Jordan and Egypt. Erez Herrnstadt, a desert-loving Israeli, who was driven by a vision of creating a company that would offer travelers customized, authentic desert experiences and outstanding customer service, founded desert Eco Tours seven years ago. The timing of the company’s creation coincided with the second Intifada, when tourism in Jordan had slowed to a trickle and Herrnstadt was confident that he could offer visitors something unique: customized and authentic desert experiences.

“I have my own way of doing desert tours,” Herrnstadt said during a telephone interview with the Hamilton Jewish News.

“All the small details are important. [We try] to show the desert as a complex whole, and not just run from one famous place to another.”

Desert Eco Tours’ Jordanian guides were hand picked and trained by one of Israel’s top guides according to Herrnstadt’s rigorous standards. The effort paid off. The company, whose website (www.desertecotours.com) offers travelers a wide variety of desert tours to choose from, is thriving and recently completed its 2000th trip.

Among its Jordan excursions were those ranging from one-day trips to Petra by jeep to seven-day camel trips into Wadi Rum. We chose the two and a half day option to Wadi Rum and Petra, including an early morning hot air balloon ride. 

Our trip began mid-day on the Jordanian side of the Eilat-Aqaba border where we were greeted by the irrepressible Salah and an ancient 4-wheel drive Toyota that had seen better days. Salah is a Jordanian of Bedouin heritage. In fact, what we soon discovered was that the majority of Jordan’s population is of Bedouin origin. After a quick tour through Aqaba, we headed northeast into the mountains, enjoying the pulsing rhythms of traditional Arabic dance music blaring on the radio. After about 45 minutes, Salah swerved off the main road straight into Wadi Rum, a 720 square kilometre expanse of rust-colour stretches of sand and towering sandstone mountains.  We gazed out the windows in wonder until Salah stopped in front of a massive wind-sculpted rock, which we immediately set about climbing. Continuing on our way we soon arrived at our accommodations for the evening.  Bait Ali is a charming Bedouin campsite and rest area, complete with tents, modern showers and, amazingly enough – a swimming pool. Exhilarated but exhausted, we relaxed for a few hours before heading back into the desert for a sunset excursion. As Salah prepared cups of sweet Bedouin mint tea, we set off barefoot into the dunes, marvelling as mountains awash in hues of reds and gold were transformed into tones of pinks and purples as the sun set. Later that night after a glorious Bedouin dinner, we headed out again to lie beneath the most magnificent star-filled sky that our eyes had ever beheld. The following morning we rose with the sun for the next adventure: a hot air balloon ride that gave us a bird’s eye view of this immense desert, only a fraction of which we crossed in an hour’s time. It felt like an otherworldly experience to encounter this vast, unspoiled wilderness.

Later that morning we continued on to Petra, a two-hour drive from Wadi Rum. The modern town of Petra is located just outside the ancient site and when we arrived, we found the hotel staff and residents in a state of euphoria because two days earlier, Petra had been voted one of the new seven wonders of the modern world.

Ancient Petra thrived as a major centre and wealthy fortress city at the commercial crossroads between the Arabian, Assyrian, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman cultures under the Nabateans, a nomadic tribe who migrated there from Arabia during the 6th century BCE. One of the world’s most famous archaeological sites, Petra, famously described as a “rose-red city half as old as time”, is carved into the sheer rock face of the massive red mountains of Jordan’s Wadi Musa.

Ibrahim, also of Bedouin origin, escorted us through the Siq, the famous kilometre-long, narrow, and winding cleft in the rock that leads into Petra.  Walking through this remarkable natural feature, its walls towering to a height of 200 meters, is as awe-inspiring as Petra itself.  Abruptly coming into view as we emerged from the Siq was what is universally considered among the most beautiful and elegant remains of the ancient world: The Treasury, carved out of solid rock and standing over 40 meters high. For the next several hours, we wandered through the extensive site on excavated ancient streets dotted with souvenir shops and Bedouin children hawking donkey and camel rides.  Although time constraints and intense heat did not allow for a complete exploration of the site, Ibrahim took us to a recently excavated area known as The Great Temple, where we drank tea with members of the Bedouin team working on the excavations and chatted with Brown University professor Martha Sharp Joukowsky and her granddaughter. Later we climbed up a beautiful trail high into the mountains and visited with an elderly Bedouin man who has made himself a charming home in one of the many caves.

After a hearty buffet lunch served from an on-site restaurant, we began the long walk back through the Siq and to our awaiting cab, which whisked us back to the border, where a Desert Eco Tours representative facilitated our return to Israel. On the Eilat side of the border, Shaul, another company employee, was there to welcome us home.

All of us were thoroughly enchanted by Jordan’s unspoiled beauty, by the Bedouin hospitality and culture and by the attention lavished upon us by Desert Eco Tours.  Erez Herrnstadt’s work ethic, passion for the desert and entrepreneurial skills have created a winning formula proven by this happy client’s determination to book another Desert Eco Tours trip at the next opportunity.