I was invited to join a hike hosted by The Jordan Trail from Wadi Rum to Aqaba by the Jordan Tourism Board. This was an incredible opportunity that I couldn't turn down. This is a 6 day guided hike over 112km of terrain. The Jordan Trail sorts out all your camping, water and food needs for the whole trip too. The landscapes were amazing, and hiking through it all was a great way to experience it.
We joined the hike 1 day of the the 6 in the evening. We arrived in the Wadi Rum desert surrounded by some unbelievable mountains and stars all over the sky. The moon was half when we went so the stars can be even better than the photo below in a darker moon cycle. I had to take some shots when I got there (see below), then I went to meet the others round the camp fire.
We woke up to a spectacular sunrise, I grabbed my camera and headed right out to capture this landscape basking in some stunning light. I found a telephoto lens to be the most useful one here, making the mountains nice and compact. There were so many different great angles and compositions. The area had a very surreal feel to it.
After this amazing sunrise, we proceeded have breakfast then to start the hike. The food was delicious in general, lots of hummus, rice and meats. The chicken and fish were my personal favourites!
There were some beautiful sites all along the way. With the temperature being 23 degrees it wasn't as hot as I thought it would be. Very nice weather for hiking. Going in November was definitely a good idea!
We would bring a pack lunch with us everyday, this was very much needed after all the hiking, and usually included fruit, a drink, some kind of treat, soft cheese, tuna and hummus.
I found the locals very friendly and highly photogenic too! We arrived at camp just in time for sunset. So I grabbed a few people to pose in some shots for me and we found a perfect little rock to stand on for silhouettes.
These shots were taken directly next to the campsite. After we relaxed for the evening and prepared for our hike the following day.
I got up for sunrise, and hiked about 1km away from the camp to get some slightly different compositions/ mountains in my shots. There was a sandstorm brewing that morning, and a lot more cloud cover in the sky. This was not the best for my equipment, but made some very interesting conditions for photos.
I also managed to get a nice shot of the local guides in their traditional clothing that morning.
Then we had breakfast and started the hike for the day. The sandstorm was getting much more furious now and the clouds were covering the sun up nicely for some interesting conditions to get more content!
As the day went on the conditions started to clear. We walked through some unreal valleys and gorges. My favourite thing was all the textures in the rock. they almost looked like they were melting. I had never seen anything like it.
We arrived at this camp early. Jordan trails and the tourism board kindly offered us a driver so we could go and see some parts of Wadi Rum we hadn't seen before. There were a few spots that I had noted down including some natural bridges.
The bridges were a fantastic spot for getting portraits. We had a lot of fun walking/running and then sitting in the bridge.
I spotted a crazy good location as we were driving through the desert. I got the driver to take us there for sunset. There were so many different shots to be had here.
For this shot I had to get everyone in position, run into the car and got the driver to pull away giving a nice distance for me to capture this on my tele lens. The landscape looked even more incredible in the sunset light, it really brought out all the textures.
After this sunset we went back to camp and chilled out for the evening. For sunrise the next day we decided to head to this canyon we had hiked through on the way to camp. The sunrise wasn't the best, but the canyon made up for it! It felt great climbing through and taking in all the scenery.
This was our last day in Wadi Rum. We started hiking towards Wadi Waraqh which is a semi arid desert. The mountains have granite in them and there is foliage here giving me a new kind of landscape to shoot. Walking through the desert and seeing it all gradually change was one of the best aspects of going through on a hike.
I loved all the lone trees, would definitely come back for a sunset/rise at one!
We arrived at the camp early again and decided to climb up one of the mountains nearby for the sunset. The summit was unreal. The guides came up with us and were showing us that you could see Saudi Arabia and Israel from the top! This was definitely a highlight of the trip.
The next morning we had to set off early, so I couldn't get anywhere specific for sunrise, there were some great shots on the hike itself though. There was some real fire in the sky that morning!
We stumbled across a herd of Camel towards the end of the hike. They allowed us to get reasonably close and the man herding them was happy for us to take photo/ video. So couldn't really turn the opportunity down! It was an amazing experience to get up so close and personal with them.
That evening the guides took us to a beautiful mountain summit for the sunset, the view was spectacular and the landscape had changed yet again. The sea of Aqaba was in sight!
I loved all the textures in the mountains and valleys, the view was definitely a winner.
The next morning we had to start early, so as the sun rose, I documented the hike down to Aqaba. Walking through these layered valleys was so cool!
As we arrived in Aqaba there was an award ceremony and a well deserved swim in the sea. The whole experience was unbelievable. I would highly recommend. If you have any questions feel free to get in contact.
