See the sunrise over Wadi Rum

“The morning stillness was absolute. Dusk is often a riot of activity; back home the cicadas assert their presence with insistence throughout sunset, mosquitoes hum, and the last moments of daylight are often aggressively seized by nature. But sunrise? Sunrise is a softly quiet affair. Few are up at this hour, animals and humans alike, and our camels took a plodding pace, stopping for grass snacks at their leisure as we watched mother nature’s pastel paint brush slowly change our surroundings. The shadows and grays of pre-dawn slowly gave way to subdued tinges on the orange rocks. Within five minutes subtlety left as pastel pinks, blues and oranges tinged the rock and dessert landscape for hundreds of miles around. Light bounced off the far corners of the mountains. Our camels, oblivious to the concert of colors, continued moseying while we were left awed.”

“The camel was wider than any horse I've ridden. As a physician, I can tell you if you have recent pelvic or hip injuries, it's probably not a good idea to take this trip. We rode for about 25 minutes, past moon-like landscapes and rock formations in the dark that appeared different as the mist of the morning broke into dawn, alien to those envisioned under the harsh edges of the midday sun. Just as you're wondering if you can ride any further, in my case about 20 minutes, you see others on camels clothed in western dress and realize you're not in this alone. We rode just a few minutes further, to the clearing where we could get a direct line of sight to the sun rising in the east. The sunrise was more spectacular, I think, than the sunset. It happens quickly – an indication of proximity to the equator– and the semi-darkness we'd dealt with since shortly after leaving our camp dissipated into nice long shadows around the rock formations that allowed some nice shots of our camels' shadows on the return trip to the Bubble Camp.”

“Much of the conversation at breakfast was about the sound the jet fighters throughout the night, but a number of us made our way to a view point in the valley beneath the camp where we could watch the sun rise. Delightful to watch the light catch the peaks of the mountains behind us, then work its way down their flanks and out across the valley.”