Camel Safari

So, our camel safari started with half an hour in a jeep. We road out to meet our camels already pretty far into the desert. We each had our own camel. Mine was named Michael Jackson. I know, but MJ wasn't so bad. And he was always the lead camel. We each had a driver with is, though they sat behind us. They led us out for a while. Getting on and off the camel was it's own adventure, because they really move a large distance in a very awkward movement! Once the riders got on, mine let me have the reigns. I was the only one! I'd like to think my years of horseback riding had something to do with it, but who knows. We road through an alternation of scrub and vast dunes, which were absolutely beautiful. The camel motion is pretty pronounced, and my saddle was on crooked, which led to lots of bruises the next day. We road for a few hours, and then towards the end, raced! They go FAST. And I almost fell off, like really, the guy picked me up and put me back on because of the saddle! My camel won, of course, and I loved him for it. Great fun.

After that, we walked up a particularly large dune and drank chai while watching the sun set. The sun doesn't set there the way it does at home, because it disappears completely from view, but leaves tons of light, due to the high dunes, and the light eventually just fades away. Dinner was too gross for us to eat any unfortunately, but we still had a great time talking, and getting attacked by giant black beetles. Seriously, the suckers were humongous, and gross, and we kept finding them all over us. But, we did have great talks, met some other travellers, and Jessica and I, after running far away from the camp, went streaking. You can see 1 ft. in front of your face, despite the stars, so we were safe, and now I can say I've gone streaking in the desert :).

Speaking of the stars, I've never seen so many. They look so much closer than at home, yet Orion looked smaller. You could literally see the milky way because you could see the haze. It was beautiful. We slept literally under the stars, just 4 beds next to each other, and the open sky. Absolutley unmissable experience. Would do it again in a heartbeat.