dispatches from here » jordan

The Jordanian Desert, Wadi Rum 2009

ano — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 04:52:55 +0000

In 2009, I had the opportunity to spend some time in the deserts of Jordan. Wadi Rum, in the southern half of Jordan, is a deep red valley, with a sandy base and surrounded by steep cliffs. Its where Lawrence of Arabia and Red Planet were filmed (yes, it does look like the surface of Mars). To this day, the bedouin continue to live there, in a slightly modified but still nomadic lifestyle.

This was possibly not the most auspicous start to a long trip through the Jordanian desert. Before heading out, we borrowed some water from the camel trough to top off the radiator. Not the frayed steel wires holding the radiator in place and the singed cardboard covering the car's battery terminals.

The natural landscape would be breathtaking, if it weren't so desperately intimidating.

Wadi Rum is a huge gorgeous red desert in Jordan. The soft red sand dunes are literred with huge rock formations infringing upon the horizon.

Wadi Rum looks like the surface of Mars. Sand and rocks and harsh mountains with little else.

Heading into the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan. The bedouins in have traded in their camels for dilapidated but functional Land Cruisers. They break down but are easy to fix; held together with string and tape.

Some of the bedouins continue to live in tents in the desert, pitched at the feet of mountains that provide shade and wind protection.

We interrupted our long day of offroading in Wadi Rum to stop at a bedouin tent in the middle of the desert for a tea break. Warm and welcoming despite the weathered appearance.

Deep soft red sands drifting between the cliffs.

We collect scrap branches in the desert and build a fire in the hot shade. Despite the searing temperature its still tea time in the Jordanian desert.

Stuck in sand. Time to unload and dig push push sweat sweat dig dig push sweat

Buzzing across the desert in Wadi Rum Jordan in a dilapidated Toyota. There were many times I didn't think we would make it across.

The roof provides the only shade for miles.

Wadi Rum, Jordan

Beautiful rock formations stud the deep red desert. Our attempt to cross it was met with a few hiccups as our 4x4 kept overheating.

The desert feels to stretch forever, and we're far from camp as the sun hurries to set.

Gorgeous sand dunes shift across the desert in Wadi Rum.

Flat tire #1. Lets hope its the last, as we only have one spare.

Crossing desert rocks and sand isnt easy on the cars. It doesnt help that they're 40 years old with bald times. We eventually made it out and back thanks to our bedouin driver's efforts.

Wadi Rum consists of hundreds of square miles of gorgeous red sand and desert.

Crossing Wadi Rum, Jordan.

Crossing the desert on camelback

Watching the sunset from a cliff overlooking the plains. As if this place could get any more red!

Camping for the night, Wadi Rum, Jordan

Slow but steady

A very real problem.

10 weeks in 3 minutes

ano — Sat, 30 May 2009 01:14:23 +0000

As many of you readers know, I spent the 10 weeks starting Feb 12 in the Middle East, through Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt. The core of that time was spent in Syria, living in an Iraqi refugee camp and putting together a documentary film (more on that later).

To keep things interesting and to log my travels, each day I took a photo telling the story of that day somehow. Most of them were done with a tripod and wireless remote, with an occasional bystander snapping the photo. I tried to switch things up, and the fact that I didn’t spend much time in the same place helped out.

Check out the complete slideshow below, 10 weeks of daily photos while bopping around the Middle East.

Hit the play button to get started.

Petra Photos

ano — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 13:47:11 +0000

I spent two days exploring Petra, and it is definitely amazing. The key was getting up well before sunrise and hiking through the Siq all alone and being the first person to arrive at the Treasury façade to watch the sun rise onto it. I had the entire imposing monument in silence all to myself for a few hours until everyone else began to trickle in. Its an entire city carved into the red sandstone hills and you need at least a week to fully explore it (>45km of main trails to monuments). The most enduring feeling is just the sheer size of the carved facades. On the second day, I logged 19.5 km of hiking (thanks GPS!) and the shawerma at the end of the day definitely hit the spot.

I hate taking pictures of major monuments…everyone has seen them (in person or in photos) and because they are so huge, there are only so many unique ways of portraying them. Although I did take all of the basic site photos, I wont bother posting them (you’re all big enough to do a flickr search). But I will post a few photos…

For scale, thats me at the front entrance. The only way to get a solo shot is to be there at 6 am...

Hanging out at the giant amphitheater

One condition of this trip was that I promised my mom I would ride a donkey…so here’s the proof. I named my donkey Khosro (Khosro the khmara) and he helped me make it to one of the peaks overlooking Wadi Arabi. Side note: its way more difficult to ride a donkey and take pictures at the same time than I could have imagined.

Don't let his intensely fierce expression fool you, he's actually pretty nice.

Except when he tries to eat my camera.

Outpost overlooking Wadi Araba

Five or six of me to give the picture scale. Just a little twist on the standard "Look at me in front of some major monument" photo.

Petra

ano — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 04:06:14 +0000

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