Camel Trek!

When you think of living in Dubai - in the desert - you can't help it; you think of camels!  Fantasies of being whisked away by Bedouins and journeying over the sand dunes on a camel occupy your dreams. 

Well, I didn't exactly get swooped up by a Bedouin tribe, but I did join a camel trek with some of my more adventurous friends!

Look what we found just laying around the desert?!

Kelly and I (okay, well I....) chose the most alert looking camel ~ which proved to be a very good choice!!! Of course, the hardest part about riding a camel holding on!  Well, and getting up!!

TA-da!!!!!

Once up, though, the view is great!  The six of us, led by an intrepid... could he be Bedouin??.. made our way through the desert ~

Funny thing was, we weren't alone in the desert.  We had a jeep following us the whole way so that we could have nice pictures of us on our adventure!  

The camels were generally a gentle lot, but Kelly and I had a feisty one!  He really did not like the fact that he was third in our caravan, and he insisted on pushing his way forward.  Being tethered sort of foiled his attempts at making it to the front of the line, but it did give him a chance to get up close and personal with Maria and April who were riding on the second camel!!!!  I think this bothered their camel because it spent a great deal of our walk peeing!  Who said camels "hold" a lot of water?????  And since we were so close, Kelly and I were a little nervous of having our shoes 'showered'!!!!

The desert stretched out as far as we could see, and aside from the sand cruisers and camels, there was not much to see but the occasional "tree".  We did, however, see this strange fruit growing along our way.  Not sure what it was.  It looked sort of like tiny melons or squash....  

After about an hour trek, we finally reached our destination!!!  Not that the ride wasn't fun, but we were excited about what was next.

Did I mention that the hardest part about riding a camel was getting DOWN?!!  Actually it wouldn't have been so bad, but as Kelly and I both leaned backwards to off-set the kneeling of our camel, I was sprayed with liquid!  My first thought, of course, was, "HE PEED ON ME!!!!!!"  Now, I am not sure how I thought camel pee would fly up around this great beast and hit me in the tummy, but....  Turned out, that Kelly had placed a little bottle of water behind her and as she leaned back, it burst against the metal 'rail' of our saddle!!!!!  Whew!!!

She peed on me??!!??

Onwards to the feast that awaited us!

While waiting for the actual meal and show, we wandered around, taking in the (somewhat touristy) attractions.  My absolute favorite was this stand of sweets.  Not sure what they are called, but they are very similar to doughnuts and they are covered in honey ~ oh yum!!!!

After dinner, we enjoyed the show.  There was a whirling dervish-like act.  It was nicely timed, as the sun set during his performance, giving him a chance to light up his costume!!!!

A fun time was had by all, and we all breathed a sigh of relief when we were assured that our return trip would be by jeep, not camel.  That is, until we got in the jeep....!!!!!!