Test – Rum to Red Sea

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Heading south down Wadi Rum, the trail passes beneath the towering cliffs of Jebel Rum and Jebel Um Ishrin through the region described by T E Lawrence as “Rum the magnificent, vast, echoing, and godlike.” It passes between the cliffs of Jebel Khazali and their ancient rock art and crosses Jebel Qattar with its concealed “dripping spring,” still winding between the unique and colorful backdrops of Wadi Rum’s sandstone desert mountains. Turning west again, the trail leaves Jebel al Qiddar and its wadi to head west down Wadi Waraaqa, passing a number of cisterns dotting the route to the Bedouin village of Titen. 

 

From Titen, the trail follows old shepherd paths, weaving its way west across desert wadis and over granite mountains striated with basalt dyke intrusions. At the last pass, hikers suddenly gain their first view of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba, beyond which are the mountains of Sinai. The descent from the pass leads down to long sandy wadis reaching all the way to the welcoming and warm waters of the Red Sea – the end of the Jordan Trail – between the border with Saudi Arabia and the port of Aqaba. 

Days: 6

Length: 112 km

 

Main sites in the Rum to Red Sea Region:

• Wadi Rum (World Heritage site)
• Wadi Rum Bedouin village
• Lawrence’s Spring (Ain Shellaleh) and the Nabataean Temple
• Dramatic desert scenery – sandstone domes and granite and basalt striated mountains, changing color constantly throughout the day
• Bedouin encampments
• Village of Titen
• Red Sea
• Aqaba Red Sea Resort

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Book this Region through

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Aside from Wadi Rum and the city of Aqaba, this region is not reachable by public transit – to reach points along the trail you’ll have to drive or hire a taxi or, more likely, a Bedouin driver with a 4-wheel-drive vehicle.

 

For a major tourist destination, Wadi Rum is somewhat difficult to reach. If not driving, you’ll have to find one of the few daily buses that reach it or take a bus running along the desert highway and then walk or try to catch a taxi the rest of the way.

 

Rum Village, about 10km down a dead-end road past the Visitors’ Center, contains a few shops and the Rest House (a cheap restaurant and accommodation option); Jeep tours taking you to a desert camp will leave from the Visitors’ Center. Both points are on the Jordan Trail route.

 

As mentioned on Jordan Jubilee, the most exhaustive and updated resource for travelers, a daily tourist bus (arranged by hotels) runs in the early morning from Petra to Wadi Rum and then back again; and a once-a-week luxury JETT bus runs from Amman to Wadi Rum on Thursday night. Given the general unreliability of transportation in remote locations, travelers should not depend on these buses when leaving Wadi Rum but should instead plan to hire private transport.

 

If finding public transit all the way to Wadi Rum is too tricky, your other option is to take any public bus (not JETT or a tourist bus!) that runs along the Desert Highway (for example, between Amman and Aqaba) and disembark at Rashidiya Junction. From here, you must find private transportation or walk along the road heading east to Wadi Rum and Diseh.

 

Aqaba, being a major city, is easy to reach by bus from anywhere that has buses; and transportation within the city is easy and cheap by means of green local taxis.

There is no public bus leading to the southern terminus of the trail along the Red Sea shore; you’ll need a taxi from Aqaba for pick-up or drop-off.

For more information on transportation in Jordan, click here.

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Aqaba is a large tourist town and has plenty of hotels. The wilds of Wadi Rum are also full of tourist camps, which usually operate by picking up visitors at the Visitors’ Center and taking them to camp via a scenic jeep ride. Self-supported hikers are still generally an unknown breed; but if you hike into one of these camps, you may be able to stay the night there if there is room or even pay for transport to another camp. In both Aqaba and Wadi Rum, of course, overnight options vary widely in terms of cost, level of luxury, and quality.

 

Rum Village also has the Rest House, a small restaurant which offers tent camping in its backyard for 2JD for using your own tent and 3JD for using one of theirs. This price includes a shower, which may or may not have hot water.

 

Unless you make a detour off-trail to stay in one of Wadi Rum’s tourist camps, there are no accommodations in this region – wild camping is the way to go.

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To download the GPS track, Click here.. 

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Download map as PDF

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