Floating on sand.

If you want to learn a real off-road riding skill then find soft sand, the kind of soft sand that is tens of meters deep and as fine as sugar.  Once you've got a great pile then ride it.  Quickly you will find that if you touch the front brake, come off the throttle too quickly, try to turn or even have your weight too far forward then you will crash.  Once you've got over this initial problem then you will feel the whole bike moving under you, the front wheel will turn the bars almost from lock to lock while slipping from side to side.  The rear wheel will be doing the same and the bike will feel as if its bending in the middle giving the feeling of aquaplaning or floating.  Once you have felt this then you are nearly there.

Now you have the floating feeling and you're slightly unstable it’s time to do the one thing that you will feel couldn’t be more wrong:  Open. The. Throttle.  Open it wide and the bike will transform from a slipping, floating seemingly uncontrollable beast into a sand beater and suddenly it will make sense.  You’ll welcome the floating feeling and the bike will carve through the sand like a snow board through fresh powder.  Now you’ve mastered sand. 

Ah, soft sand...

First impressions of Wadi Rum.

My wife and I packed our son and our kit into my trusty Mitsubishi Lancer and drove the 3 hours down the Desert Highway to the turn for Rum.  After another 40 minutes we arrived in Rum Village and pulled into the car park where I saw that Khalid, the owner of the camp we were staying in, was waiting for us with his Toyota 4x4.  After brief introductions we loaded our kit into his vehicle and headed into the vastness.

As we left the village the rising rock walls on either side of us opened into the vastness of the Wadi itself which is imposing to say the least but the best is yet to come.

Very quickly it became apparent that Wadi Rum is massive, really massive.  Rock features that looked big from the village seemed to grow as we drove into the wadi and found points of reference.  4x4s and camels could be seen like ants at the base of the towering cliffs.  We like to measure things using a London bus for scale but I don’t think there are enough busses in London to measure just one of the features in Rum.

As if the size wasn’t enough the colours, shapes and textures aim to overload the senses.  Dull red sandstone cliffs flow into the brighter red sand of the wadi bottom and that gives way to sand that is so white that is hard to look at and nearly impossible to make out bumps and depressions, which I’ve since found make riding tricky.  The face of the cliffs look like a Hollywood director has carved out nesting ledges for a creature in a sci-fi movie.  In reality it’s the result of erosion over thousands of years.  

I spent the 20 minute drive looking from one feature to another in amazement, trying to commit everything to memory.

My wife looked on with the  amusement of someone recognising their own reaction to the place in another.  She had ridden (a nag) through Rum some 5 years previously.  

Wadi Rum from Khaleds camp.

What am I doing?

Welcome to my blog.  I've been thinking about doing something like this for a while and have finally got around to it.  Read on to experience my very own "look-at-me-aren't-I-awesome" page.

I've been living in Jordan for nearly 6 months now and have found the country and her people to be among the most interesting I've come across.  I say that having visited some 25 countries over my 31 years.
Jordan is exceptional in that the more you see the more you realise there is to see.  It's a seemingly endless place for exploration and, in my opinion, the best way to see it is from the back of a motorbike.  In my case a Triumph Tiger.
There are a number of very simple reasons that I rate the motorcycle above any other mode of transport for exploring a new place.  Foremost among which is the feeling that you are very much part of the place you are moving through.  You can feel the change of temperature, taste the dust and smell your surroundings (not always a good thing).  Second to this is the vulnerability. There is no doubt that you are vulnerable on a motorbike and some people will see you as an easy target.  However the majority of mankind is made up of decent people and they will recognise your vulnerability as quickly as those who wish to do you harm.  The difference is that they will go out of their way to help you, it amazes me to see the generosity of people who have nothing towards a biker, the experiences that come as a result will remain with me forever.  Finally, peoples reaction to a bike.  Unlike cars and 4x4s a bike immediately breaks the ice.  People want to know where you have come from, where you are going, why you're on a bike and not in the comfort of a car?  Children want to sit on it and adults offer a, sometimes grudging, amount of respect for what your doing.  That is why I choose the motorbike...    

Boys in Rum village try the Tiger for size.