Pt1 - 11: THE WADI At 7 the next morning we took the highway north out of Aqaba in a boxy little Daihatsu Feroza stuffed to the roof with four bodies and all our gear. The first stop was a place called Wadi Rum. I’d never heard of it but Micha assured us that according to his guidebook it was worth a detour en route to Petra. I was designated chauffeur for the first leg. It only took an hour of changing gears with the door handle and indicating with the windscreen wipers to get used to the left-hand drive thing, by which time we arrived at the Beau Geste-ish police post at the mouth of the wadi. We paid a modest entry fee and proceeded to the Government Rest House in the little village to orientate ourselves on a vast wall map of the 30km deep wadi and all its tributaries. After dense black coffee we headed through the village and into the wadi proper. I had no expectations about this place so what unfolded before us as we rounded the first bend was a complete and stunning ...