Page 75 - The Light Dragoon 2024

The Regimental Journal of The Light Dragoons
with the weight of the packs as the terrain was becoming less rocky and more sandy, sapping the energy from the legs. The JAF again invited us to share their evening meal of chicken and rice. The weather had thank- fully begun to change and the temperatures dropped to below 25oC with cloud cover and plenty of shade available.
Towards the end of trip, we celebrated Remembrance Day after a 16km walk and had a short service taken by Major Mackey. After the service the team distributed poppies out to the UK SP and JAF team and we played the Last Post and Reveille. With the JAF having been heavily involved in activities in Syria, they appreciated sharing this part of our culture with them and made for a moving service.
On our final day of the trek our Jordanian hosts who were by now our good friends insisted that we had to visit a challenging slot canyon. The literal translation of the canyon name came out as rather crude... it is dark, deep and dry. An apt description which made for much amusement. This amusement was defiantly surpassed when the mountain of a man that is Capt Chamberlain was stuck for a short while as his massive chest was too large to fit through the canyon! Luckily after anlot of sweating, pushing and swearing he squeezed through.
That night we came to the final phase of our trip and spent a night in the Wadi Rum camping pods which was an incredible experience in a landscape, incomparable to anything many of us had seen before. Here we got to explore what is an incredible area. The highlights would defiantly be the fact that we had a troop (plus) of Light Dragoons mounted for the first time in our modern history. This time, instead of horses, it was Camels! We also had a 4hr open-top-vehicle drive through Wadi Rum, visiting Lawrence’s house, Seven Pillars, and conducting a Sand Dune race
with a very close finish between Capt MS and Capt Griffiths. At one of the stops was a small volleyball pitch, so we split into A and B Sqns and had an informal inter-Sqn match with a JAF member assisting each Sqn – naturally A Sqn won.
After an incredible 48 hrs in Wadi Rum we moved south to the city of Akaba. The team were incredibly fortunate to be hosted at the Al Manara Luxury Hotel where we looked back with very fond memories of an incredible trip.
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