Sunday seven of us drove to a camel ranch outside of Arusha to go on a camel safari. It was an interesting experience to say the least. But dont worry. Im planning on saying alot more.
We took a van at 8 o'clock from the house. The road was bumpy and dusty. The six km we took on a dirt path I thought might kill me. The dust was blowing through the vents and the hot sun was hitting my arms through the window. I stayed quiet trying to concentrate on not tossing my toast and coffee on the seat in front of me.
Finally after fifteen minutes off roading in a van from the early 90s... we reached the camel ranch. I clamored out quickly to breath some less dusty air. We waited as they set up our camels and prepared our box lunches.
Soon they brought out the camels with saddles and colorful fabrics thrown on their backs. The camels were a lot larger than I had anticipated. They were at least seven feet tall, so sitting on top of them was disorienting at first. I rode the first camel with Kasmira, a Canadian in our group. We thought everyone was doubling up at first until we looked back and realized we were the only unfortunate ones. Riding a camel double is not a fun experience. I thought I was going to slip off at any moment. I was sitting on the front half and I could feel every bump hitting me. On the way back we convinced others to rotate so we could try sitting alone. The first stop we came to was a baboon cave. The baboons weren't around but the caves and the view were really amazing. The whole time we all kept mentioning how this or that looked like a scene from The Lion King.
The caves were beautiful and they overlooked a large valley. Far in the horizon we could see blue and green mountains. The men who were guiding us were Masai. (Masai are the more traditional village people who live outside of the city I live in and are a huge part of the tourist culture.The Masai have a cheap tourist market and sell beaded bracelets EVERYWHERE.)
These Masai men lived in a village far away from Arusha. The village we passed by, which I am assuming was theirs, was small huts surrounded by a tightly woven stick fence. They didn't speak much English. When we got off and were walking they thought it was pretty funny how slowly I was going down the hill to the cave. I had to laugh and tell them pole pole. I was determined not to fall again. I was just wearing sandals because we weren't aware of how much we would be walking. When we got to the cave mouth one of the Masai started smoking a cigarette. This might be one of my favorite pictures yet. I get a childish satisfaction when i get a truly ironic shot.
We got back on the camels and this time I got my own camel! He was the sweetest camel who was all the way in the back of the caravan. Being in the back was nice because I wasnt crammed in the middle and it was alot quieter (Alex's camel was growling the whole time.)
The guides stopped at a large lion king looking tree and we got off the camels. We sat under the tree and had really good box lunch. There was what seemed to be goat meat, chapati, a banana, an egg, and a mango juice box. When getting back on the camels we were all pretty reluctant. Camel riding is a little exhausting and pretty uncomfortable. We were all laughing because there was a seven day camel safari option on the brochure. Everyone agreed you would have to be insane to pay to sit on a camel for longer than two hours.
This one explains everything
Great pictures.
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