As you remember, in the previous part we made it to the solid part of the desert just in time for a beautiful sunset. The asphalt was nearby, and to reach it, we only had to cross the railway. I thought there was only one railway in Jordan – from Amman to Syria, but after googling, I realized that there's only one passenger line, while the one near Aqaba is a freight line used to haul phosphates.
In the dark, we got onto the highway, figuring we'd need another couple of hours to reach the visitor center, from where we could call to be picked up and taken to the camp. The thing is, there are no hotels in the Wadi Rum desert, only overnight stays in Bedouin tents. There are dozens of such camps scattered across the Wadi Rum park, to suit every taste and budget.
Some of these tents are so luxurious that you don't even need a hotel. We, however, booked a camp that wasn't quite glamorous enough to have canopies over the beds, but judging by the reviews, it was perfectly decent, called Salman Zwaidh camp, after its owner. The camp hosts had been emailing us for a few days to find out when we'd arrive, but you know that letting them know our exact arrival time in advance is tricky for us, so I just told them we'd call upon arrival, but it would definitely be after sunset.
Just as we strapped on our headlights and started pedaling hard uphill, hoping to arrive in an hour or two, a jeep drove past, braked next to us, and, following the already familiar Jordanian custom, the driver asked where we were headed. Something put me on guard, because usually the greeting sounds like: “Do you need any help?”. But here the guy immediately asked where we were going. Exhausted, I didn't catch on right away, but a minute later I stopped and walked up to him again, and bam – he shows me a printout of our reservation.
Unexpected, and damn pleasant. The man had been driving back and forth in the dark simply because he wanted to meet us — and he didn't even know what we looked like or when we'd arrive, only that we were on bikes. Now that's Bedouin service!
