A laugh escapes me as our car goes flying over an unseen speed bump. I’m launched so far out of my seat that my head almost hits the roof. Despite now driving down a more narrow part of the King’s Highway we are still speeding down the road, slowing only slightly at the realization that there may not be enough room for two way traffic. The sun is getting low in the sky and we are still not close to our destination. Getting pulled over by the Jordanian police has set us back and we are now trying to make up time.
We’re still not sure why we were pulled over. After 35 minutes of talking to the police in broken English, handing over rental agreement paperwork, drivers licenses and a phone call to the rental company to see if they can’t help translate just what is going on. Eventually we are given a ticket for . . . something and head on our way. After we are out of sight of the police, out of curiosity I pull out my smartphone open up the Google translate app and try to figure out what the ticket is for. After five minutes I still have no idea.
We’re in middle of the Jordanian desert near Wadi Musa. The sun is low in the sky and the landscape is starting to change dramatically, we turn and start heading into the beautiful rock formations we’ve seen from a distance over the last few hours. The only lights on the road come from our car.
As we journey inwards, the road becomes more narrow, more winding and definitely more precarious. We navigate steep single lane roads with hairpin turns —stopping dead at the crest of a hill to allow a farmer and his heard of goats and donkeys pass us. The last rays of sun are starting to fade and the full moon is hidden behind the mountains and a layer of clouds. We laugh and half jokingly (half serious) admit that should the car either breakdown or should we miscalculate a turn, we’d probably not survive, and it would take officials a long time to find us. Thankfully our handy Google maps — we are increasingly happy that it’s still working in the middle of the dessert mountain roads — says that we are fifteen minutes away from our destination — glamping bubbles a half hour outside of Wadi Musa.
We finally arrive to our “hotel,” air-compressed bubbles half way up a mountain road that offers amazing views of the valley below and mountains we’ve just come from. The full moon is finally peaking out illuminating the landscape and it feels like such a departure from the rest of the world.