I am pretty sure that as a liberal and nearly-vegetarian I am the kind of person who shouldn’t like the idea of camel rides let alone want to ride one. Oh well. I rode one this past week in Essaouira and loved it. I liked it so much that I’ve been thinking about other vacations I can go on in order to ride camels. Yeah, I probably shouldn’t be admitting that.
A. and I rode camels on the beach. They are pretty big animals and a little bit intimidating at first. But nearly as smelly as I assumed they would be. The scariest part was when your camel stands up or sits down with you on it. There’s a sense that you’re going to fall off the front. They stand up on their back legs first so you lurch forward and then they stand up on their front legs while you hold on tightly.
My camel was Blanco and A.’s was Cappuccino. Blanco is older than Cappuccino. Cappuccino is still a teenager so Blanco took the lead.
After you’re on the camel it’s pretty easy going. Well, aside from the wind that threatened to blow me off my camel. Okay, maybe it wasn’t that windy but it was windy and there was sand flying. I mean just look at my hair. It was windy out there.
We had a lot to see. From sand, to the ocean, some Portuguese ruins and a house that Jimi Hendrix lived in for a couple of weeks which hippies now camp out.
We also had some galloping to do. Man, these camels can move. This was the most fun. I had no idea how fast these animals could go. I mean, they don’t really come off as fast animals.
We also had some snacking to do. Blanco and Cappuccino loved to stop and snack on green things. What made this even better was that our camel guide like to say in thick English, “Cappuccino’s hungry!” when ever the camels stopped to nibble on things. I got a huge kick out of it– I also really liked encouraging my camel in Arabic.
Yalla – lets go!!
Lovely views.
But was it Bulgaria?
@Rohit–Nope sorry. It was Morocco. I was on spring break there but live and teach full time in Bulgaria!
love it. I would love to do this!
Thanks for sharing this. I would really like to ride a camel sometime. I went to Morrocco but didn’t get a chance to do it. Great pictures!
Now I want to ride a Camel!! That looks like a lot of fun =D
Great photos. That looks like some adventure.
Nice pictures! 🙂
nc pics! riding a camel is a wonderful experience
seems like an amazing experience.
that’s one of the things on my Bucket List!
http://www.tracyzhangphoto.wordpress.com/
Looks like fun. I like the photos taken from the camel’s back, somehow seems surreal 😉
you know what? The ugly camel makes the scene and ladies looks even more beautiful. 🙂
quite hard to camel riding..but you did
Very nice pictures and writing! I rode a camel in India up a dune to watch the sunset (with a few thousand other people!), and found it very uncomfortable. I’d like to find more comfortable seating or a more comfortble camel. They are cute animals.
I don’t think vegetarian would come into it unless you rode it with the intent to barbecue it after the jaunt. As for being a liberal . . . You got me on that one. 🙂
Long time no see.
Musta been awesome! =)
Makes me remember — with regret — that I passed up an opportunity, 30 years ago, to ride a camel. I was in Egypt, in front of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, and the camel ride was free. But the darn animal just looked so BIG, and SO mean!
Maybe I will get back there someday…….
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it makes me wanna ride a camel too! it looks like a lot of fun! i like the first pic by the way 😀
Nice pics! lol@planning holidays to ride camels…. I rode on a camel once- years ago in Egypt… quite nice actually but guite scary when the cames gets up and goes down on his knees in the end…. you feel like you’ll tip over from the saddle! Looks like you had a lovely time!
Nice pictures ! I like them
wow! its totally awesome. I’m loving it. How I wish to ride camels like you did. pretty cool.
Yalla! Let’s go!
^_^
Great pics and blog!! Glad you enjoyed you enjoyeds your camel rides. They can be pretty tricky. I had a superb time in Morocco cam-riding (a lonf=g time ago!!) Younsay you didn’t know they were so fast – if you get the chance to to again, try to get to see some Camel racing!
nice pics, want to free from the office and experece it…
Great pictures. Great adventures too.
Great post, great pics, good views. You got to love the camels – if you get used to the smell. 😀
Oh My!
One of my students had a pet camel, called Jikkuboy, he used to bring to school – I used to teach in a remote community in Western Australia.
Smelly yes, but lots of personality, and as he (the camel) grew he became more unsociable and used to chase us occasionally during sport lessons. The kids who were up trees quickly had lots of laughs at their teacher stumbling trying to escape the rampaging Jikkuboy.
Good on you for having a go – never pass up the opportunity to go for a joy ride.
5th one & 7th one are looking really good ….
Morocco is beautiful