That Camel Stole My Wife!
Date: 01/16/2007
The author getting to grips with his first camel; and the author’s wife (not in shot) realizing she’s been lumbered with an ornery beast.
International Living Postcards-- your daily escape
Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2007
Cairo, Egypt
Camels have quite a racket going. In photos they appear at rest, noble and serene. But up close they are nasty, bad-tempered creatures. Although I will give them this: They are a surprisingly smooth ride, and quiet. A camel doesn’t have hooves, so he doesn’t clop on pavement. We learned this when we went for a camel ride in Cairo, by the Sphinx and at the foot of the three greatest pyramids in Egypt.
To mount a camel, you climb into the saddle of a recumbent beast while the pilot does his best to maintain control, and while his charge almost succeeds in biting you. Once aboard, and with a good hold on the saddle (which has easy-to-grip horns fore and aft) you lean back as the stern of the camel rises, and hang on tight while he gets his front legs aligned. Now you are ready to ride your camel. We did this with a guy on the ground holding a rope to lead the camel. The pros hold their own ropes.
Almost immediately my wife’s camel picked a fight with my camel, and then ran away with her on board. Rhoda screamed in equal amounts at the camel, and the guy with the rope, and eventually one of them listened, and the brief bid for freedom came to an end. After that, our rides were peaceful, but short.
Tours of the Nile are big business, and lots of operators run excursions here, but we used Lindblad Expeditions. Tour boats park several abreast at docks along the river, so that passengers must walk through two or more extravagant boat lobbies as they go to or from boats and buses. Our room on the boat was large, with big windows and comfortable beds; the food was good, but the water undrinkable. However we were provided with abundant bottled water.
The Nile originates in the rainy African interior, and its lush flood plain lubricates and nourishes one of the earliest, longest lived, and best documented civilizations our planet has known. Tombs, temples, and monuments chronicle an astonishing 6,000 years of history, kings and prophets, even engineers and doctors (brain surgery was successfully performed by Egyptians thousands of years ago).
A week-long cruise along the Nile, including tours to museums, tombs, and other points of interest with experienced and knowledgeable Egyptian guides, showed us that not only are we lousy camel riders, but that our grasp of world history needs a lot of work, too.
Whole libraries are dedicated to Egyptology, but this tour (and a study of the excellent summary of Egypt and its history in the National Geographic magazine of April, 2001) was a good beginning.
Ray Batson
For International Living
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