A rainy night in the desert

Travel remarks

Dark clouds are gathering above the desert …

Everyone warns you that it will be cold in the desert at night, but they are simultaneously offering stunning sunsets and stargazing far away from polluted air. Clouds aren’t supposed to be in the equation, but that didn’t stop them at all. What does nature care about a tourist offer … Soon after we arrived to Wadi Rum, it became clear that we will not see any dramatic sunsets, but we were still hoping for a clear night sky. Instead we got rain.

The desert is beautiful, no matter the clouds.

It started with a couple of drops, which I ignored because I was convinced that I’m only imagining them. After all: it won’t rain in the desert, right? We went to hang out with the Bedouins and other tourists, and had an excellent dinner during which the sky finally decided to honor us with rain. And then with a bit of thunder and lightning, because otherwise it wouldn’t have been dramatic enough.

The inside of a Bedouin tent in which my brother and I slept. No, of course there’s no electricity.

Once it became obvious that the weather won’t clear up, Bedouins jumped into action. They covered their big communal tent with an additional canvas, because the roof definitely wasn’t waterproof, and they put double blankets into our tents to make sure that we wouldn’t be cold during the night. I felt like they hadn’t been expecting the rain either, but at least they were ready for the eventuality.

A storm is brewing.

We woke up in the morning to find a muddy sandy ground. A short walk showed how deeply the wet sand actually goes and it was fun to dig until I reached the dry layer. But luckily the temperatures were rapidly rising. So quickly, in fact, that I got sunstroke. Ah well, at least I managed to see the desert beforehand …

Continue (The Red Sea, sunstroke and food poisoning)