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

Wadi Rum

Arrive after lunch rather than at nine, take the jeep run in the good light, eat zarb out of the sand, and walk far enough from camp to lose the last lamp.

1. 1:30 pm 1

   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 pm 2

   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 pm 3

   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 pm 4

   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 pm 5

   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 pm 6

   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 pm 7

   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.