seeing the world through my own eyes, untainted by TV, radio or newspapers... "The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun." - Christopher McCandless/Alexander Supertramp, itinerant.

Above me, only the distant stars and the shining moon. In front of me, just flames, warmth, and the crackling of burning wood. Beside me, endless tiers of rock.

Yesterday I departed the busy streets of London, arriving by night into the hustle and bustle of Amman, Jordan’s capital city. This morning I set off at the crack of dawn. As the sun appeared on the distant horizon it painted an orange glow across the sky, lighting up the city behind me and the endless stretches of wilderness ahead: I was heading out into the desert. I settled into my cardamom infused coffee, bought from a weather beaten man and his rickety stall, and rested my head on the bus window - the music on my ipod the final reminder of the Western world I know so well.

Off the bus I’m surrounded by foreign voices, young boys selling postcards, a wise-looking Middle Eastern gentleman offering cigarettes. I spend the day walking through the glorious ruins of Petra, towering above me like Goliath over David. I ask for directions to where I am to meet Khaled and Ghassab. As the sun beats down, two men on donkeys escort me over an undulating series of rocks and sand dunes, leaving behind the glory of an ancient civilisation, as we edge toward the village of Umm Sayhoun.

I pass 2 dirham through a window and in its place receive a portion of Mansaf, lamb cooked in a sauce of fermented dried yogurt, a dish traditional to Jordan. Two small children appear, and we converse in the only language we all speak: smiles, simply happy to be acquainted. When the rattling jeep arrives, we start our drive out of the village, across more shifting, flowing waves of sand, through timeless layers of rock that have been there for millennia, arriving at a cave. A cave that is to be my home.

Khaled and Ghassab are Bedouins, and I am to sleep, live and eat like them for three nights. As I look at the stars above me, the moon shining down, the fire keeping me warm, I am seeing the world through their eyes.