Operation Desert Storm

Get ready for a long post I have lots of catching up to do.

So I got over my Delhi belly which wasn't so bad. I am sure it will happen again. but that is to be expected in a foreign country. Friday morning we hitched a ride by jeep with one of the hotel staff and he dropped us off about an hour into the desert where we met the camels and the guide. We made some new friends: Philippe and Guillaume from Francde who live in Haute Savoie somewhere, 2 guys from London Andrew and Steve, and a girl from thailand Soline (I suspect that was her european name). We where 7 in total and got on really well.

Elodie´s Graceful mounting

We met our camels and they all looked stupid with cartoon like grins, but they where cool. We alternated between a few hours riding and a couple of hours rest under the shade of a tree. Riding the actual camel was quite peaceful, they move really slowly and sway back and forth and at the start its quite nice. Its only when you are an hour into the trek that you really start to feel your inner thighs, bum and stomach to burn. The whole mounting and dismounting was quite an interesting and strange experience. The first time it was a real thrill. What happens is you clamber on to him (which was a real struggle for me having really short legs) and then the guide shouts jeh jeh jeh and then the camel makes a strange grunting noise and then suddenly he hoists up his long hind legs and you get joulted forward so you have to lean back dramatically so that you dont go flying, and then he hoists up his front legs so you have to do the opposite. Then its the reverse when he settles down to let you off. It was very much like riding one of those hydrolic rodeo bulls you may find somewhere in a Texas bar.

Me at the 3rd stage of camel mounting as he gets up on his knobbly front legs

My camel looked ridiculously goofy, with MASSIVE teeth and a protruding lower jaw. His bottom lip stuck out loads too. When he walked his long neck moved like Falcor from the Neverending Story and he made deep, load groans that vibrated his entire stomach. Andy's Camel "Raju" looked like the village idiot because he had a loose bottom jaw that just hung there. He was apparently in a fight with another camel a year ago and the other camel dislocated it or something. Steven's camel had to have been the mangiest creature I have ever seen, with brands and bald patches and tatoos (sorry guys, if you are reading this) and we named him Skanky. He also strayed from our group the next morning and it took the guide an hour to find him a couple of dunes away. I think Steve was secretly relieved. Elodies was probably the most intelligent one. Mister India. He lead the troup constantly. The trekking its self was spectacular.

The views where just amazing. Sandy dunes, cacti and srubs as far as the eye could see. I felt like I was wandering through the set of a Sergio Leoni western, and was thus constantly humming the theme to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. There was even, at one stage a skull of some creature thrown in for good measure. Almost like it was planted there for tourstic effect.