This is truly a unique desert tour in Jordan. Our desert survival course will take you to the Arabian Desert made famous by the movie Lawrence of Arabia.  Initial training and acclimatization will take place near the old city of Petra, where we’ll ride Arab horses (no riding experience necessary at all) and see Petra from a way no tourist can these days. From Petra we move deep into the desert of Wadi Rum, start to learn how to drive 4x4 vehicles and trek, abseil and live in this beautiful, but harsh environment.

Our guide and the local Bedu tribesman will take you through all you will need to know to survive.  Eventually the training is behind you and for several days in a small group you will be placed in a simulated survival and escape situation, though our staff will be monitoring you throughout, purely for safety reasons. With just a basic survival kit and little water you will have to navigate your way out of the desert to safety. We call this Long Drag where there is not only the practical problems of daily existence to cope with, but also the psychological difficulties of not having those modern luxuries, of being in a strange environment, of little water, of lack of sleep, of an arduous environment and hard walk………….can you cope?!

Day 1:  Aqaba Airport - Aqaba
Our representative will meet you upon arrival at Amman Airport to assist with your visa to Jordan.  After, meet our driver and continue to Aqaba for dinner and overnight.  

-Please arrange for your flight to arrive in Aqaba in time to make a team meeting in the hotel about 5pm. It gives everyone a chance to get to know each other and we’ll go through various briefs for the upcoming trip.

Day 2:  Aqaba - Petra

After breakfast at the hotel, we head by vehicle to the ancient city of Petra, about 2-3 hours from Aqaba. We’ll settle into the hotel and after lunch head out to spend an afternoon training on Arabian horses.  Dinner and overnight in Petra.

Day 3:  Petra
Breakfast at the hotel, then we will start the Petra site visit.  When in Jordan no trip will ever be complete unless you have visited Old Petra, a city with many thousands of years of history, but that became abandoned and lost to the world until rediscovered by Westerners in 1812. It is one of the Seven Wonders of the World.  We’ll start our trip in a unique way, riding Arab horses at first light through the Siq and into Petra. We have all morning to check out Petra and its over 800 monuments. After lunch we leave the horses behind and head out of the old city on foot, with a short trek into the surrounding mountains, before meeting our transport back to the city. This is our last night in civilization and last chance to sort gear and leave behind what you won’t need when we get into the desert.  Dinner and overnight in Petra.
 

Day 4:  Petra - Wadi Rum
Breakfast at the hotel, then in a small convoy we leave Petra city today by 4x4 and take the back mountain and desert roads to Wadi Rum. The journey will take 3-4 hours and cover some pretty awesome terrain; though for this leg you won’t be driving so you have no pressure!!  Around lunchtime we’ll cross the last tarmac road before going deeper into the desert where we’ll take lunch.  Our base camp for the next several days is many miles into the desert, near a well and surrounded in all directions by sand dunes and huge sandstone mountains. There are sand dunes in other parts of the world as there are amazing sandstone mountains, but here in the south of Jordan is the only place on the planet where you find both together and combined they are spectacular!  From now on, you will be camping in the desert in individual tents and there will be a few group tents for stores/rations, but you'll be doing all the work of running the camp from keeping it clean and so on. Lunch, dinner and overnight camping.

Day 5:  Wadi Rum
Breakfast at the camp and on our first day we’ll start with some 4x4 driver training (with you being the driver of course). How to handle the vehicles in everything from deep sand to hard boulders, inclines and declines and of course keeping the vehicle going in a very harsh environment and getting it unstuck, when you bog it in.  Lunch, dinner and overnight camping. 

Day 6 - 8:  Wadi Rum

Breakfast at the camp, then we’ll head out each day by 4x4 to explore the desert, trek through the dunes and mountains, abseil off some of the awesome faces and maybe the odd rock arch. We’ll learn to navigate in this amazing place where everything is pretty much yellow and looks the same, whether by map, compass and pacing, GPS or the traditional way by the stars. You’ll also have to learn how to survive in one of the harshest environments on earth. How do you get water in a place where it almost never rains, what to eat when nothing seems to grow, how to you find shelter in weather that goes from +40c by day and then down to freezing at night, and how to make fire to keep warm when there is nothing to burn?  The desert is a harsh environment and learning how to survive in it is not easy!  Lunch, dinner and overnight camping.

Day 9:  Wadi Rum

Breakfast at the camp and our last day as a whole group in the desert. You’ll have the safety brief for the upcoming challenge and we’ll have time to sort out some last minute kit items, check over what you’ve learned and get ready to being cast out without the staff into the desert.  We’ll kick it off in style though by making a traditional meal of goat, roasted in the sand of the desert and as usual you’ll be doing all the work from slaughter to washing up! Lunch, dinner and overnight camping.
 

Day 10:  Wadi Rum

Breakfast at the camp then to get even further into the desert and where we’re going to leave you we need to use the “ships of the desert,” camels. These amazing animals can go weeks without water and in extreme of temperatures and so for centuries have been the best way to travel.  They are also pretty big, can smell a lot, seem to like to spit and are certainly an acquired ride!  They are simply awesome and by far the best way to get you to the start of Long Drag!  Accommodation and food for the next three days is what you have in your survival packs and what you find over the next several days.

Day 11 - 12:  Wadi Rum

Long Drag is a small team survival and escape exercise. Using the skills and knowledge you’ve acquired in the last week and in small groups you have to get yourself out of the desert!  A rescue team is out there, but they are bogged in by the desert and can’t get to you quickly. You don’t have enough water to wait for them to reach you. If you are to survive, you have to get to them.  You will have to cover many, many miles of desert, navigating as you go and using the conditions and environment in the desert to help you get out! It’s hot, it’s freezing, you’re dehydrated and hungry and the miles of trekking through the desert will take its toll – but it’s the only way to be rescued and survive....Can you cope?! Mobile campiing.
 

Day 13:  Wadi Rum - Aqaba

Tired, hungry, thirsty and elated you’ll eventually meet the rescue team who can take you the last few miles to civilization to Aqaba. You will have escaped the desert and now you can relax with a massive meal, Turkish bath and argeelah in the beautiful sea resort of Aqaba. Dinner and overnight in Aqaba.
 

Day 14:  Aqaba - Aqaba Airport

Breakfast at the camp then according to your flight details, we will transfer you to Aqaba Airport for departure.