Always and Forever

Always and Forever is part of my internal soundtrack. The one from Heatwave, and sure, Luther Vandross. Call me schmaltzy if you like, I accept the title. Those first few bars started playing when I thought, “What is my next post?” And the answer was “Always and Forever…Wadi Rum”.

Wadi Rum is a place like that. It has this feeling of always and forever that came through the flickering uncertain image of a broken black and white t.v. when I was 8 years old.

I was the only one who could get that t.v. to work long enough to watch even a few minutes. It was a challenge to be able to watch a half-hour show, and less than an hour had been my greatest achievement.

There was art, science, and magic to making this t.v. work. First, you turned the dial looking for promising static that meant you might be able to get fully dialed in, then you fiddled with the rabbit ears, then you fiddled with the horizontal and vertical controls. If you got it to hold, you held your breath. Someone might have to stand near the rabbit ears. The merits of aluminum foil extensions had to be weighed. Somehow, while celebrating the success of watching something else for about 10 minutes, there was an ad for that night’s feature film, none other than that great British film, “Lawrence of Arabia“. I begged to have sole custody of the t.v. It was so important to me. The rest of the family was pretty much disinterested, so I got my wish.

What bliss. What great bliss. That is what that film was to me. It was almost as if I didn’t need the t.v. to see, hear, and feel it. I alternately forgot to breathe and inhaled the visions of the desert. The sandscapes were sublime and the music transportive. I was there. So, that was a beginning. There was no doubt that one day, I would find a way to stand in those places and be where these people and things were. It was just a matter of time. Decision made, oh roughly in 1967.

With the passage of over fifty years and all the stars in alignment, decision realized. My trip to Egypt offered the add-on of a few days in Jordan. I saw “Petra” and “Wadi Rum”, and I was in. Could this trip to Wadi Rum possibly come close to what I feel every time I watch Lawrence of Arabia? I could not know, but I was open to what might come.

***

We were in Jordan, traveling by bus down Highway 15, and a little bell went off in my head. It hit me that I hadn’t been noting the highways and populated places along the way. Everywhere around us is history, if we know what to look for. Still on the road, we started seeing places and locations where some events of the Arab Revolt of WWI unfolded. Yes, T.E. Lawrence was here. Not long ago, I had read that archaeologists are still picking up debris from WWI, just lying along the old railroad bed. I wanted to say, “Stop the bus! We need to get off here.” Our Jordanian Tour Guide, Omar, began talking about the Arab Revolt and he pointed out distance markers, relating that to Lawrence teaching military tactics to the Arab fighters. Omar continued to reference scenes from the film as he spoke about Wadi Rum.

We got to the place where the Wadi Rum tour began, got off the bus and climbed into small pickup trucks. This truck ride in the desert was slow enough to allow us to savor the scenery, but not slow enough to be boring. It was also tantalizing, because I wanted to see more, do more, in short, I wanted to explore. Our time in Wadi Rum was only a few hours.

Tour Coordinator Thomas and friends at Wadi Rum.

We rode in the back of pickup trucks. We drove past an overnight camping location that had some basic amenities, like toilets and generators. I climbed up a sand dune, but only part way.

Friend Lisa demonstrates one technique to get to the top of this dune. For perspective, just look at the legs of people in the background.

We experienced Jordanian Bedouin hospitality in a tent where they gave us tea and hoped to sell us mementos. This was a welcome moment away from the occasional gusting wind… and the camels.

The camel herd was nearby, once again confirming my allergy to camel herds. It is as much the died woolen blankets as the excreta of the camels. I was suffering from the first days of a case of bronchitis, caught from a traveler in Alexandria a few days before. The cold meds kept me going, but it sapped me of strength.  Still, nothing could block the smell of the camels. This elicited some very hard sneezing, not a promising sign for my future as a camel jockey.

This Bedouin camp, tourist shop, camel herd location was also adjacent to some petroglyphs where viewing platforms had been erected for the safety of tourists, and I think, for the protection of these treasures from careless or curious hands and feet.

We left the Bedouin camp in our little pickup trucks, and the drive was as serene as an open-air pickup truck caravan can be. We enjoyed the ever changing and ever new landscape as the last rays of the sun were filtering over the horizon.

The beautiful sunset exploded into a horizon of glory.

As I write, the score by Maurice Jarre is filling my mind. The soaring and plaintive motif is what mesmerizes me most. I can confirm that Wadi Rum feels like that and more. That afternoon the place was resonant with apparently inaudible music. How else to describe it? It may be that as air currents move around the mountain crags, they create sound waves our ears don’t hear but the body feels.

Was this the trip to Wadi Rum that I needed?  It was an excellent first trip for me. Many travelers will surely feel sated if they are under the excellent care of a world class tour company, like I was. Our Tour Coordinator Thomas and Tour Guide Omar made sure, once again, to orchestrate perfect moments for us. Travelling with friends made this all the more special.

This wikipedia page for Wadi Rum is a good approximation of the experience. We didn’t do any rock climbing!

Have you been to Wadi Rum? I would love to hear your impressions of the place and the people.