Wadi Rum: an afternoon in the back of a pickup, and a night with no light in it

Wadi Rum

1. 1:30 pm1

   Visitor Centre: protected-area fee, then meet your Bedouin driverWadi Rum

   7 JD entry, covered if you hold a Jordan Pass, and this is where your camp's driver collects you - your own car stays in the lot, no private vehicles go into the reserve. Book direct with a camp rather than through an agency: the same night is routinely half the price and the money stays in Rum village. Get the driver's WhatsApp before you set off; phone signal is patchy past the Seven Pillars.

2. 2 pm2

   Pickup bed out to Lawrence's Spring and Khazali canyonWadi Rum

   Around 60 JD a head for the afternoon run plus the overnight. Sit in the open bed, not the cab, and wear something over your face - the sand off the track is constant. Khazali is a narrow slot you can walk 100 metres into, with Thamudic and Nabataean inscriptions cut at eye height on both walls; ask your driver to point out the camel and the pair of feet before you go in or you will walk past all of them.

3. 3 pm3

   Um Fruth rock bridge, and the climb everybody does badlyWadi Rum

   Fifteen metres of free-standing sandstone arch you can walk up onto. Going up is easy and coming down is not, which is the whole problem - a Bedouin will spot you for a couple of dinars and it is worth it. Grippy shoes; the polished bits are polished because thousands of people have slid on exactly those bits.

4. 4:15 pm4

   Red dune at the north end for the last hour of lightWadi Rum

   In December the sun is gone by about 16:45, so this stop moves an hour and a half later in June - fix it off actual sunset, not off the clock. Climb the dune and sit on the ridge; the drivers park below and make tea on a fire while you are up there, and that is a set piece they do every day and it is still good.

5. 5:45 pm5

   Camp, tea, and the zarb comes out of the sandWadi Rum

   Around 60 JD per person for a tent, dinner and breakfast at a traditional Bedouin camp; the bubble domes with glass roofs run three to four times that and you sleep with light pollution from the camp's own lamps, which is a strange thing to pay extra for. Nights in December drop near freezing - ask how many blankets and whether there is a gas heater, because the answer varies wildly between camps at the same price.

6. 7 pm6

   Dinner in the big tentWadi Rum

   The zarb is chicken and vegetables buried over coals for a few hours and lifted out in front of everyone - go and watch them dig it up at about 18:45, that is the part worth seeing. Included in the camp price. There is no alcohol in Rum village; if you want a beer, buy it in Aqaba and ask the camp first.

7. 9 pm7

   Out past the last lamp for the starsWadi Rum

   Walk ten minutes on the flat sand until the camp's string lights are behind a rock, then sit and give your eyes twenty full minutes with the phone in your pocket. That waiting is the whole thing and almost nobody does it. Take a bearing on a cliff shape before you set off - flat sand at night looks identical in every direction and people genuinely get turned around.