Ships of the desert

Riding a camel is not as easy as one would think it to be.
A couple of friends and myself decided to give it a try, after all it seemed to be a lot of fun.
Mounting the camel seemed the easiest thing to do until I was informed that the said camel only had one huge hump (a Dromedary camel) and all that time I was perplexed looking for two humps and a hollow to rest my buttocks in so that I wouldn't fall off too easily.
First I lifted one short leg across the very wide body of this huge animal, while holding onto the saddle handle, for dear life trying my best not to fall off on the other side.
Stretched open like a can of worms, I wished I had much longer legs, While desperately trying to keep a little dignity it seemed as though my friends was having the same problem.
Soon it was time for these beautiful animals (although they smell awful) to rise to a standing position. Not knowing if the backside or front side are going to go up first I precariously balanced to and fro. (When the camel rises, it straightens its hind legs first, thrusting the rider forward with a jolt, so one needs to hold on tight to the saddle handle.)
A bit difficult when you are trying to lean back as far as possible and fighting gravity at the same time. At this time I was visualising, flying across the camels head, landing flat on my face in the sand with my behind staring the camel squarely in the face. It's big teeth coming down and the camel taking a huge chunk out of my soft all too well rounded rear end. At this point I must have lost some precious braincells from that visual, because I cant recall whether the guide helped me onto the camels hump or whether I miraculously grew taller for a few moments and mounted it all by myself.
At about 2 metres off the ground I just could not get the rhyme 'Humpty Dumpty' out of my mind. Falling off was not an option and getting squashed even less of an option.
(The Dromedary camel weighs about 690kg - 1521lb)
The camel starts moving with a really strange gait. Do keep in mind that the camel's gait is also different from that of the horse. It moves in a parallel fashion with both legs of the same side, while the horse advances the front leg of one side together with the hind leg of the other side. That is why the typical back and forth swaying movement in camel riding is different to that of horse riding. My butt was already aching after the first step trying to hold on with butt cheeks clenching painfully.
One friend points out that there's a few dolphins playing in the surf close to us. From that height you can see a lot more than on foot and I start enjoying the view and thinking less about my aching butt.
After about a kilometre of walking along the beach, the guide brings the camels to a stop, where he gave us a bit of a history lesson about camels and their lives in Australia.
Then the guide did something that freaked me and there was nothing I could do about it except sit on a hump. He walked up to the camel at the front, touched it's ding-dong and rubbed his hand against my leg.
Ewwwwww.............gross!
We started the trek back to base.
Before reaching our destination the guide tells us what to expect and what to do when the camels kneels down.
'You are supposed to lean back as far as possible and keep your body up straight. In the most likely event of not adhering to the given instructions you are bound to go flying over the camels head'.
(Of course the same visual came to mind when we mounted, not a pretty sight)
As soon as the camels came to a stop. The camel behind me came alongside me and started rubbing it's neck against my leg. Ewwwwwwww.........he/she/it must have smelt whatever it was that the guide rubbed on my leg. The rope around its mouth and neck scuffed my leg and I yelled out for help from the guide, who at this time were helping my friends off their camels. No sooner or my camel dropped to its knees and I felt myself losing my balance. Thank heavens the guide acted quickly and with a huge whack he pushed me all the way back onto the camel enabling me to exit with the tiniest bit of dignity in tact.
Will I go back for another ride?
You bet I will, as soon as the butt ache stops !

6 comments:

Baruch said...

Very nice picture. Your description of the ride really made me laugh. How's the butt ache now?

*** said...

What butt ache? I am ready for the next ride!

Max-e said...

LOL. I think I will take camel riding off my list of things to do - especially if the guide is an Australian :)

Glennis said...

Camel riding is a bit awkward, I nearly went over mines head when he stood up! Nice photo of the beasts, I quite like camels.

Ruchi said...

It was fun reading wht u had put... I have had camel rides in India and it was fun.. I was out with my nephew in the evening once then for the sunrise mom went with me. When I came back my nephew was ready fighting with me with all his sweet accent(he lives in USA) - " I wanted to go for the camel ride too Bhua, why did u leave me and go?"
It really was fun!

Unknown said...

Love the story of this photo, it made me laugh so much! The photo is great, but the story with it makes it even more fantastic. And your right, they do smell aweful, but they have such an amazing profile. So when did you say we are going camel riding?