Camels and Sand

One of our last days in Dahab I really wanted to go on a camel ride. (I mean, we were in camel country) So we picked a day trip involving a camel ride, a hike through White Canyon, lunch at a Bedouin village and then a camel ride to the pick-up point.

I was super psyched about the camel ride, although KP was not. She chose to walk. (A decision she later regretted as her feet sunk in the sand and made hiking twice as hard.) I loooved riding the camel. The camel lies down and you kinda have to hop on. (My jeans were in the process of ripping a whole in the crotch so climbing on and off the camel was especially perilous) Then to stand up, the camel unfolds its back legs first and then the front legs. So you do a kinda slow motion bucking bronco move. I almost fell off one time. As we started our hike through the desert the guide held onto the reins of the camel. Later he let me do the steering. Not really the brightest idea because I had no clue where we were going and the camel was a bit confused.

Rode the camel for maybe 45 minutes before hopping off and drinking some Bedouin tea at a little Bedouin hut. It’s basically some sticks in the sand with big palm looking leaves on top to create shade and then carpets spread over the sand. It was actually quite nice. Then we had to climb down the side of a cliff (I kid you not; it was a 25 foot vertical drop. But there was rope! Safety first.) Also I was trying to climb down it one handed. KP was being very amusing and I wanted pictures.

So then we trek through this massive canyon that literally appears out of nowhere in the middle of the desert. It’s called the White Canyon because some walls are entirely made of white sand. Very pretty. We hiked for an hour and a half or two hours through sand canyons and then climbed to the top and looked out over the rest of the canyon before heading towards an oasis next to a Bedouin village.

We got there and settled down into a sturdier Bedouin hut. Same carpets but this one had a decent roof. One of the Bedouin ladies and her kids cooked us an amazing lunch.

I then hopped back on my trusty camel for the last bit. At one point we literally scaled yet another cliff face; this time going up. Really hard; we got off the camels because they were not too happy about it either. Then we saw some rock. The guides seemed to think it was really important. Something about it being old and having early Christian graffiti on it. I couldn’t see anything old through all the modern graffiti. (It’s great that DH loves MB but I don’t particularly care) I rode the camel for only a bit more back to the road before being picked up by the shuttle back to Dahab. And thus ended our last Dahab adventure.