We swim off the hotel beach in the morning and then we are taken by coach for a 2 hour trip into the desert to the protected area of Wadi (“Valley”) Rum. Our guide tells us that he is a Christian and that our bus driver is a Muslim but that, like the other 5% of the Jordanian population that are Christian, he is treated well by the Muslims and that they have good interfaith relationships. 50% of the population (so about 3m) are Palestinian refugees and are more radical and so listen to Al Jazeera.
The Jordanians are proud of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and of their friendly relationships with the West. Like Egypt they recognize Israel and have a 144km border with Israel.
After going through more security check-points staffed with lots of army guys with machine guns, we are dropped off at the entrance to the Wadi Rum Reserve to begin our jeep safari deeper into the desert. Super landscape of wind sculpted sandstone mountains and sand-sand everywhere and as far as you can see and it’s very hot but very dry so you don’t notice sweating, just have to remember to keep drinking water almost continuously. We see the Seven Pillars Mountain that Lawrence used for the title of his book and the visitors’ attention is drawn by the maps and signs in this Reserve to a great many sites here that are associated with him- his house etc. and our guide points to the railway (still in use today) that Lawrence (by teaching the Nomadic Arab Tribes here how to use explosives) blew up.
We get to watch a fantastic desert sunset and then continue in our jeeps to a Bedouin encampment for dinner and entertainment.
The bus takes us back to Aqaba using almost the same route that Lawrence took when (according to his own account at least) he gathered the various tribes together to attack the Turks in Aqaba from the rear-from across the Negev desert, which was considered to be impassable at the time. (The Turks had all their guns pointing out to sea against the expected British attack). I have borrowed Lawrence’s line from David Lean’s great movie, “we are going to Aqaba!” for the last few weeks and Christine has been getting a little bored of that but, now that we are here, we both are again filled with the romance of the story and want to see that movie again as soon as we can. (We have just downloaded Agatha Christie’s “Death on the Nile” for Christine’s Kindle so we can get in the mood for the next week as we boat up and down the Nile.)
Ahmed, our guide, tells us and the rest of the folks on this bus-load of English tourists the Lawrence story the way that Lawrence told it. I later ask him if the Jordanians see it that way and I can see him sizing up my tolerance for his reply before starting his response. He explains to me that they do like Lawrence and regard him as being a friend of the Arabs and helpful to their 1916 revolt against the occupying Turks but that they think he was mainly a translator between the Arabs and the British Army and an advocate of their cause. He says that they also agree that he taught them how to use explosives but they think that the Arab tribes were combining against the Turks anyway and would have done so without Lawrence’s help. Ahmed tells me that Al Jazeera recently aired a documentary downplaying the importance of the 1916 Arab Revolt and showing Lawrence’s own photograph of his naked, and male, Syrian lover. Ahmed adds that Al Jazeera are always trying to draw the Arab world away from the West and tries to increase the distance between the two cultures but that the Jordanian government tries to manage Al Jazeera’s messaging as best they can.
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