Wellness desert retreat in the Wadi Rum, Jordan

You may arrive in Amman or Aqaba. Welcome to Jordan. Depending on where you arrive, the itinerary will be tailor-made for you. This itinerary is based on arrival in Amman. You will be picked up from the airport by our driver to spend the night at the Dead Sea. The hotel has a private beach. Maybe today you can already float in the Dead Sea and wrap yourself in the black mud that is available.

If you arrived late yesterday, today you will float in the Dead Sea and wrap yourself in the available black Dead Sea mud. Your body receives the mineral wealth from the Dead Sea. Your skin will be happy with it, you can feel it afterwards, when the skin is silky soft, like a baby's. The skin easily lets the minerals pass through. Your body is intelligent and absorbs the minerals that want to be replenished at this moment. The magnesium percentage is about six percent, so you will also feel your muscles relax and yourself become calm. A great preparation for your retreat in the desert and your walk through Petra this afternoon.

Petra

Either you leave for Petra after breakfast or you are ready at the agreed time to travel further. Petra was the capital of the Nabataeans. More than 2000 years ago they settled in this area and left behind many "buildings", mostly carved out of the rocks. Despite the many earthquakes that caused the inhabitants to leave, there is still so much beauty to admire. Untouched after all these years. Petra was hidden for a while, forgotten by the people, erased from history. Until in 1812 the Swiss Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, accompanied by the Bedouins, put Petra back on the map. He was a gifted drawing talent, you can admire his prints in Petra.

To have a guide in Petra or not?

If you are interested in the history and anecdotes about Petra, I highly recommend a guide. (50 JD for 2 hours, available in several languages ​​at the Visitor Center). If you prefer to daydream and marvel at the beauty of this place, Petra is easy to do with the help of a map available at the Visitor Center. Perhaps you brought a travel guide with you to read the necessary information.

To the Wadi Rum desert

You travel quite a few kilometers from north to south Jordan this day. The driver will pick you up from Petra in the afternoon, your luggage will stay with him or will be stored in a hotel. It is a beautiful drive to the Wadi Rum, you see the landscape change every half hour.

Overnight in a Bedouin desert camp

Upon arrival you can almost immediately join the traditional dinner that is often prepared underground, and served with an extensive buffet. Your "room", a tent is nicely decorated, you have your own private bathroom in the tent, with shower, toilet and sink. There are real beds, the electricity works partly on solar panels, partly on a generator. There is air conditioning in the tent and wifi in the camp. The desert camp is located in a beautiful sheltered place in the desert. Surrounded by rocks, a sand dune and with a view of one of the valleys in the Wadi Rum.

The retreat starts at your beautiful place in the desert camp. On the energy healing and meditations page you will find a lot of information. Just like on the Arabian Therapies page. We start with an accessible meditation. Then we take a walk together in the area where you can immediately gather the supplies for your vision board. Lunch is in the desert camp. The afternoon is filled with different forms of energy healing. Depending on what is needed at this moment. On the one hand it is playful, on the other hand there can already be enlightening moments and you feel that something is happening. Let the retreat work on you. Above all, let it go again because the processes have been set in motion. Like a child who is concentrated on one thing for a while and then suddenly leaves it behind to go play somewhere else. Enjoy your day in the desert, the sun and the warmth and let yourself be carried away. In the evening you sit around the campfire, another delicious dinner is ready, you look at the stars and your bed is waiting for you.

Today you will change your surroundings. You will be picked up to spend a day at "Wildflower of the Desert". In the small green oasis in the desert, with all the animals that have their own place and play a role in the retreat. This can be done with the wisdom of the horses and the herd, or with the dogs, the cats, the chickens and the pigeons. It is often surprising what can come out of this in the retreat. The animals are central today. What can they tell you, point out, make clear, how do they react to you, who do you feel attracted to. The meditation is also with animals. What is your totem animal, what does it stand for. Your insight card is from a deck with horses. A fresh lunch with vegetables and herbs from the garden, the food forest with fruit trees, vegetables, kitchen herbs and medicinal herbs, awaits you. After lunch we will continue with the energy healing and you will receive an Arabic therapy. Before dinner you will brought back to the desert camp to spend the night there.

Although every day is different at the retreat, today the focus is on movement and expression.

Camel riding

From the camp you will be taken, riding on your camel. A beautiful journey through the desert for an hour. You see much differently than when you walk. Now you swing along with the movement of the camel. Your muscles are in motion, meditation is easy in this movement. Try to make a telepathic connection with your camel. Does he have something to tell you? Ask a question. Sometimes an answer comes immediately, sometimes later suddenly at a time when you do not expect it.

Movement at "Wildflower of the Desert"

After a few rituals of the retreat we will move freely. If you have favorite music that you like to hear, please bring it. There will also be music. In between there will be a healthy lunch from our own garden.

Expression

Through a creative expression. There are colored pencils, paper, watercolors and brushes. Let your imagination run wild based on something that has come up during the retreat. Choose your colors for it. It can mean something, it can be abstract. You can follow your brush or pencil as it strokes the paper to discover a pattern later. Some people love to draw "doodles", figures or scribbles that you scribble on paper during a conversation, that sprout from your pencil.

Belly dancing

The first principles of belly dancing to music and how it feels. With a few instructions you can already dance. Lovely in the open air. It's about the movement and the fun, not about the performance and presentation.

Dinner and overnight stay in the desert camp

You will be taken back to your own spot, where you can again choose from what is on the buffet.

Visit to authentic living Bedouins

Everything you need goes with your desert expedition. The 4x4Wheel will pick you up from your desert camp. You will go with the Bedouins into the desert to the quiet, non-touristy places, where Bedouins still live authentically in the desert. It is an experience when you can meet them and see how they brave the desert in cold and heat, in storms, rain and at night. They are often together with their herds. Sheep, goats, camels, in the spring there are many young animals. Everything you need is there. Very basic, and yet happy to live in the freedom of the desert, to know no boundaries, to go when the vegetation that the animals have eaten is less. To build everything up again in a new place, the tent, the corral for the animals. A free spirit in a free body, in nature.

By jeep, walking, climbing, enjoying the views

The jeep takes you to different places where you can either climb a sand dune, or where there is something to see such as rock drawings, a water reservoir, a natural rock bridge, a view. In certain places it is nice to walk a bit. Or climb a rock. There is so much to see and do in the desert. Also if you love to sit in certain places and look around or observe the animals.

Sand bath

If the season is right and the sand is warm, a sand bath is prepared for you. Bring some old cotton clothes to sweat in the sand. Afterwards, there is bottled water warmed by the sun, with which you can rinse yourself off in a private spot.

Lunch and dinner

The lunch break is at a suitable and beautiful place. The Bedouins prepare a fresh lunch, while you can explore the place, you can also help if you like. Towards evening the Bedouins look for the best place to spend the night. Almost everything is unloaded from the jeep to make a comfortable place to stay. The preparations for dinner begin. During the day the Bedouins have already gathered wood for the fire, to warm you in the evening and sometimes also for cooking, although a gas bottle is included.

Sleeping under the stars

After dinner the setting changes a bit to choose the best place for everyone to sleep. You sleep in comfortable clothes, just like the Bedouins under the stars, the moon and the Milky Way. There are small tents available that almost nobody wants to sleep in, if you have the choice to feel the wind caressing your face. You can look at the stars for hours, make a wish on the shooting stars. Occasionally you see a comet that moves more slowly through the sky than a falling star.

After breakfast in the desert you return to "Wildflower of the Desert". Of course there is an opportunity to freshen up first and fresh herbal tea is ready. After a day and night in the desert back to your base, one with nature. Surrounded by few things, while everything you need is there. For one an adventure further away from your comfort zone, for another coming home to the life that is meant for you.

Wisdom of the Bedouins

The Bedouins who are still deeply connected to nature in the desert, it is their way of life. The freedom in their hearts, in their lives, to be able to go and stand where they want. The peace and quiet, while there is much to do that they like to do. Just being connected to the others in the group, nature, the conversations, they enjoy it. Only here in the desert is there space for philosophizing, listening to the elders, even as a child. What strikes me every time during storytelling, the children are sometimes very young. They sit quietly listening, absorbing the stories, feel at ease, being part the group. As if they already know that these are magical moments. It does not matter what is being told, sometimes a poem, sometimes a story from life, from family history, or from the Koran, there is often a lesson in it that others can use. These oral transmissions, sometimes from a distant past, sometimes from the present, make others think, take the story with them. They are often more valuable than what you learn at school. In this way, the wisdom of the elders is transferred to the listeners and the young. With the speed of life in the city where different norms and values ​​apply than in the desert, you see that much of this wisdom transfer is disappearing, unfortunately. The roots now grow less deep in the earth, life becomes more superficial and you are busy keeping all the balls in the air. There is more looking at the outside world and living this, than making the inner journey. In this way you become increasingly distant from your roots that then no longer grow firmly in the ground.

Energy Healing

Do you feel a change yet? Now that you have given yourself this time that you so desperately need to recover and embrace your true self again. We continue with the energy healing, with the sounds of the tuning forks to heal your body and mind at a cellular level from all the ballast you have loaded onto you. Or have collected through your lifestyle and what has been done to you by others during your life. This energy healing happens almost automatically because it is, as it were, a reset to bring your cells back into balance through the various sounds. Also remember that the wisdom of life is waiting within you to come out. You are getting more and more space because the ballast that you carry with you, and that does not actually serve you, is becoming lighter and lighter. This way you can better tap into the wisdom of your ancestors.

Lunch, dinner and overnight stay

A healthy lunch from the garden is served again. Before dinner you are back in the desert camp where you will spend the night.

After breakfast you return to "Wildflower of the desert".

Arabian therapy

With gemstones on and near your body, which carry so much wisdom to give you their powerful energy and messages, you will feel reborn and relaxed after the treatment.

Energy healing

You will once again come into contact with the energy in which you can tap into more and more easily to allow these healthy and healing frequencies and vibrations into your body. Everything you have done in the past retreat days comes together today. The circle is complete.

Lunch, dinner and overnight stay

A healthy lunch based on what the garden has to offer. Dinner is again in your familiar desert camp. This is the last overnight stay in the desert.

After breakfast, the driver will take you to Aqaba to your hotel in the city. Depending on the time of the appointment in the Hammam, he will take you there. The rest of the day is free in Aqaba to go to the souk for example for some souvenirs to take home. Take a walk on the Corniche along the beach to arrive at the Mamluk castle in the east, where the oasis that was Aqaba is still visible. There are also two museums that you can visit there. Not far from your hotel is Ayla, the oldest part of Aqaba that has been excavated. The remains of one of the oldest churches built with mud bricks are also nearby.

Hammam experience

A wonderful wellness experience to conclude. Your body is steamed, scrubbed and briefly massaged. Stripped of everything that no longer serves you... With a silky soft skin, clean inside and out, you can return home again.

Lunch, dinner and overnight stay in Aqaba

In Aqaba there are many restaurants around your hotel where you can sit and have lunch and dinner. Aqaba is located on the Red Sea, the fishermen go out daily to deliver fresh fish. If you are a fish lover this is the place to be.

The driver will pick you up at the agreed time to take you to the airport in Amman or Aqaba. You will take a whole desert experience and retreat back home with you, to pick up your life again while the retreat is still working, to enjoy the experience and the photos and videos. This trip will always remain in your memory.