11/7/09
Camels are extremely hilarious looking creatures, and if you have not ever encountered one, I encourage you to go to your local zoo, rodeo, or circus, and meet one immediately. Ok, to be accurate we rode dromadaries, which only have one hump whereas camels have two, but for all intents and purposes, they're the same.
Some of my favorite things about camels:
1. Smoosh pads - The bottoms of their feet have this really cute smoosh pads, named such (by me) for what happens to them when they touch the sand. The smoosh pads were easiest to see in action on the white camels.
2. Nifs - Nif is Arabic for nose. And camels have really soft noses, a nice fuzzy contrast to the coarse hair on the rest of their bodies. They also have two sets of nostrils - they breathe in through one and out through the other. It's pretty cool to watch.
3. Disappearing Legs - When they sit down (which involves way to many motions for it to be practical from a Darwinian perspective) they fold their legs up all funny underneath them and it looks like they don't have any!
4. You can ride them through the desert.
So after all our detours and toils, we finally began what we initially set out to do - RIDE CAMELS IN THE SAHARA! Since we were such a big group we had two guides who each led half of us. I think these guys are pretty amazing because they do the whole journey on foot, and let me tell you what, walking in that sand really isn't easy.
It was about as amazing as you expect, and made even more amazing for me being surrounded by such great people. Of course we all named our camels straight away. Mine was Eunace, and while she didn't really allow herself to be pet, she did her job well and didn't give me any grief during the trek...I've really no clue whether or not the camel was female, but it looked like a Eunace in any case. It was one of those experiences you can't believe you are actually having. We all handled this by calling people from the camels. My conversation with my mother went something like this:
Mom: Hello?
Me: Hi Mom!
Mom: Hi baby! What are you doing?
Me: Riding a camel in the
Mom: Oh my gosh! That is so cool!
Me: Yeah, so I can't really talk, but I wanted to call you!
Mom: Ok bye!
After about an hour of trekking we stopped to Sandboard, one of the attractions which led us to choose the tour group we did. Sandboarding is just what you think it is - snowboarding, but on the dunes. It was pretty hilarious to watch everyone try, mainly because the snowboards didn't work so well on the sand. Everyone would jump up with such force and then not really go anywhere. Lyall was the only one who managed to get any kind of speed, which he was very very happy about. A couple of us had a sand-toboggan race down the dune!
After playing around for a while we got back on our camels and continued on to our campsite, which was with a Bedouin family with a collection of tents, each able to house a different number of people. Behind the "hotel tents" were the tents where the family lives, including a few women and children. They also have some tents for preparing food and tea. Behind this, several meters away were the "bathrooms." They were pretty hilarious, and comprised of simply two toilets sitting next to each other on the sand. They were surrounded by three walls and a ceiling, and completely visible from the camp as there were no doors. Rustic.
As the sun set we could feel the temperature drop dramatically, and it became increasingly chilly as the night went on. That sun is pretty powerful! The night sky in the
After some dinner and lots of huddling together under blankets, our hosts invited us to a campfire with them, where everybody took turns playing drums. About as cool as bellydancing with the Berber ladies earlier that day. They then put us to shame by telling us riddles in our own language which we couldn't figure out. As we were sitting around the campfire we watched the moon rise, which I didn't know it did. We saw a light coming from behind a dune and wondered aloud to one another what it was - a car? not likely. another campsite? we didn't see it on our way here. the moon? no way, couldn't be! But yes, it was the moon, and it was so incredibly bright. As it continued to rise, its radiance caused more and more stars to disappear.
We had a hard time keeping the fire going as all the wood around is extremely dry, so we turned in for the night. After two days of being awake and very busy we had no trouble sleeping.
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