Among the dunes and magical colors of the desert, we found a gem; a glam' camp where we stayed for a dreamy weekend. Come along on this journey to a land of wonders, in Wadi Rum, Jordan.
In a secluded area of the desert, surrounded by whimsical rocks in shades of beige, rust and pink, we arrive at The Villas, a Bedouin Boutique Resort. We are welcomed by Bedouin brothers Salem and Mohammed with delicious dates and coffee inside a glass tent overlooking the desert. We are so cozy on the couches with a delicate Al Sadu weaved traditional geometric pattern, that we almost forget to get to our room. We then step on a wooden bridge, a structure that links cabanas, conceived by Salem, one of the owners, who imagined the entire eco-friendly space. We arrive in our room; a comfy cabana made with natural materials, equipped with a wooden shower, air conditioning and heating, and an open view onto the desert. Time for a camel ride with our guide Ayman, Fazaa the camel stops to graze at every grass patch, while his fellow Chahine paces calmly through the sand, leading us to a secluded spot where we admire a sunset over the dunes. Ayman prepares tea with maramiya (sage), yansoun (anise), na3na3 (mint) and a drop of sugar. He tells us Fazaa is a race camel and proudly shows us Tik Tok videos of him sprinting through the sand and winning awards. At night Saeed, the chef, invites us to watch the barbeque coming out of the Zarb, a traditional Bedouin oven improvised in a hole inside the sand with food cooked over coals for several hours. It results in the tenderest lamb and chicken with luscious vegetable and other local delicacies on the generous Bedouin table. The meal ends with tea and Umm Ali dessert; warm bread pudding, silky milk and cream sprinkled with nuts. We spend the evening sitting in front of our wooden villa, gazing at the stars in the sky, listening to the silence of the desert.
The next morning, we are welcomed with breakfast; little jars of goat cheese, jam, eggs and oranges which Alex tells us are grown just outside, we look out and spot a couple of small orange trees growing in the desert. Onto a day of exploration in our jeep with Abou Fahd. We discover rock formations so majestic and beautifully shaped they look surreal. We pass by the Mushroom rock, the Burdah rock bridge, stop by the ‘house’ where Lawrence of Arabia is said to have stayed during his odyssey, and walk through the reddish, narrow, Abu Khashaba canyon. We take a break in a sheltered spot all to ourselves, shaded from the ‘ham’ (the heat) by gigantic rock cliffs, and Abou Fahd cooks us a picnic on an improvised fire. He then drives our jeep, over dunes, to the Khazali canyon where we step inside to discover walls covered with carved Nabatean, Kufic, Thamudic inscriptions and petroglyph drawings, thousands of years old. We have a laugh running down the Al Ramal dune a high sandy point in Wadi Rum where Abou Fahd tells us Bedouins go up to have a 360 view of the desert when they lose their herd. Our final stop is for tea, in a plain stretching onto what looks like mountains into the horizon, that turn from yellow to greyish blue, the further they are away. We come back at our camp after sunset, where The Villas star-like structure is twinkling in the night, lit with solar energy. The chef has prepared a grilled fish from the Red Sea delicately perfumed with herbs. We sit by the bonfire in a Bedouin tent chatting with other guests at the camp. A moment of contemplation on our last morning, we relax on the patio in front of our villa, basking in the atmosphere of the Valley of the Moon (Wadi Rum), observing the wonders of this world before we hit the road back to reality.
