Wadi Rum

On our way to the Red Sea, we took a little trip to Wadi Rum - a wadi is a dry river bed, and this area is filled with lots of camels (regular brown ones, but some cool black - mostly - and whitish ones too) and goats, and rock formations that made us feel like we were back in Southern Utah.  I had a flashback of camping trips with my cousins when we were kids, and climbing up onto one of the arches, and my shoe falling off the other side as we emptied out the sand.  My dad and his brother, Curt had to drive allllllll the way around the campground to get to where my shoe had fallen so I didn't have to go one-shoed for the rest of our camping trip.  We didn't lose any shoes, but we did get to do some rock climbing.

You can't really tell, but Fin is wearing her blanket as a scarf - she was randomly attached to it that day.

This is Will, Nate and Hussain, our driver - he was really great.  The climb looked pretty easy on this one, so Fin and I braved it and joined the boys.

Hussain was so worried about Will right here - as was I - he kept climbing around while Nate was trying to get a picture - the boy loves climbing. - Well, let's be honest, so does the big boy:)

The boys climbed onto this arch - Finley and I stayed below to take pictures.  Finley was really worried the whole time about them - she kept saying "Where Dada?", even when she could see them up above.

I should have gotten the zoom lens out, but I wanted to see the whole arch too - those specks are Nate and Will.

You can just see our desert vehicle - no shocks or a/c and so we rolled the windows down while we were stopped, but that let in dozens of flies and Finley and Will kind of freaked out about them being in their space.  We even had a friendly Bedouin stop and offer us a camel ride, but after our rides in Petra, we declined.  It was lucky he was there though, our jeep had some mechanical issues right after we left this spot, and he was able to help Hussain with something under the hood (all I saw was something that looked like a plastic tie get pulled out of the engine and tossed on the ground).  Well rounded guy:)

Possibly an old Bedouin dwelling - must take better - or any - notes while on our various treks:)  And an old well.

 A fig tree that apparently produces delicious fruit - we were a couple of months too early to try it (and probably not brave enough - well Nate probably would have:))  Nate climbed back up in there to check it out, and then Will had to climb up too - Hussain was a really good sport about helping the kids climb up and down.  He was also pretty agile in his local garb.

 Cool giant beetles - sometimes she is all girl, and sometimes such a tomboy!