A stranger in the night

Ash organised for his friend, Jafah, to pick us up the next morning. After a short tour of Jafah's houses (great views of Aqaba!), we set off into the desert. It felt like we were driving away from everything, with the windows down, Arab music blaring and the mountains (massive piles of rubble) rushed past us.


The first time you are in the desert it's breathtaking. The silence overwhelms you and it's hard to believe that people live there. We burnt our feet clambering up sand dunes, stumbled on a movie crew, climbed a bridge-like rock, survived Mel's first attempt to drive in a manual and helped to tow a family's jeep... everyone seems to know everyone here - or at least, people have the time to stop those in need.


After an amazing sunset, we hung out at the camp, only talking (well rather, showing photos and playing a form of charades) with a large family from Amman until dinner was ready; then we went straight to bed in our tent (see below right).

Mel woke up first and heard footsteps. Someone stopped in front of our tent and said in a soft voice, "Hello. I love you. Goodbye". I called out, then Mel told them to go away. Then someone tried to enter our tent, not quite triggering the booby trap we'd set (a bottle of water... we didn't have much at our disposal). We screamed and the owner rushed over and offered us his tent for the night. Despite Mel being armed with her Swiss Army knife, neither of us slept much that night.

There were people up almost all night trying to catch him, but they never did. I can understand that this doesn't happen all the time, but we don't think we did anything to provoke it (we were covered up the whole time and weren't chatty with anyone but the family) - still, it did seem to taint that part of the trip a little.