Tag Archives: Araba

Wadi Araba Border Crossing

The Wadi Araba Border Crossing

It was a bit like one of those spy movies.  You arrive in the car, there’s no one there, the driver waits and has a cigarette, we hang around, and then out of nowhere, a van appears and another guy comes out.  A conversation takes place, passports are exchanged, and we are all walked to the border.  This was the Wadi Araba border crossing.  Our helper guide was an English guy who lived in Eilat.  He clearly did this all of the time, mainly for day trippers from Eilat, but we were going deeper; three nights at Aqaba, Jordan’s Red Sea resort.  The crossing did not take long.  We woke up a few border guards, walked our bags across a dead zone, and men in black and white camouflage fatigues welcomed us on behalf of the Jordanian Army.  Pictures of the Jordanian royal family were everywhere and on the other end a transit van, driver, and guide picked us up and drove us to the Kempinski Hotel.

The Red Sea.  There it was in between the lights of Eilat and the distant lights of the Sinai in Egypt.  We were in Jordan’s 22 kilometers of access to the open sea.  Welcome to Aqaba. 
Wadi Araba Border Crossing