Our actual tour of Wadi Rum had MANY different interesting aspects.  I’ll begin this Desert Tour blog series with the actual landscape itself and how exciting it was to be trucking through the same desert used as locations for movies such as Star Wars and The Martian.

The rock formations are so unique, so bizarre and so beautiful in color that Michael and I did feel as if we were on another planet! Especially Mars!

The movie The Martian, Wadi Rum was the setting of the planet Mars.The movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Wadi Rum was the setting for the desert moon Jedha, a desert moon that orbits the planet of NaJedha. The upcoming movie Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Wadi Rum is the setting for the planet Pasaana.According to Vanity Fair magazine, these Wadi Rum locals had the fortunate opportunity to be part of the cast!

Our ride through Wadi Rum wasn’t on a space ship, but it sure felt kinda crazy at times because our guide was! Our ride was sitting in the back cab of a 4X4 truck with a makeshift awning to keep the blazing sun off us.

Here is our fun guide! Both Michael and I cannot remember his name.  He was a real character! He had no problem making the majority of the conversation about his desire to add three more wives to the one he has already!!

And we were off! I had my camera in the black and white setting by accident – but I like the pictures!

Our first stop was a lookout location for a nice view of the red desert. Michael and I hopped off the back of the truck and our guide indicated that we climb the small slope to the right of the bushes and behind the first rock formation to get a great view.

It doesn’t look like much of a slope, and really it wasn’t compared to the steeper sand dunes we climbed in Qatar.  What was different was the temperature of the sand, it was scalding hot! I was wearing sandals so my feet had no protection from it. That’s what made my short climb so difficult! When I pushed my foot to take the next step, my foot submersed into the sand, up to my ankle and felt like a cake in an oven!

The view as I stopped in the shade of a bush – to give my burning tootsies a break!

Once I made it up, behind the rock formation – the gorgeous view!

This first picture is a favorite…

Looking up…..

Michael decided he was going to climb…

While he climbed, I made my way back down to the truck.  There, I took pictures of Michael on the rock!

This picture is another favorite because the rock formation truly looks like we’re on an alien planet! Can you spot Michael? If you look at the top left peak in the above picture, here is a close up of that remarkable rock formation! It looks like a space ship – the weird mouth looks like the bridge of the ship!

More pictures of this famous, alien planet terrain!

Next stop….petroglyphs, carvings and some graffiti!

S, 🙂