Wander Susan Wonder

Yep. You read that right. We’ll get to that moment in the story later. The first thing you need to know is that prior to this story, I had ridden quite a few camels. I wasn’t a professional, but I think it’s safe to say, I’ve been on more camels than the average person.

I had some friends in town, and they really wanted to see a camel. Well, we were in the desert, but in a city….a city I was pretty new to and didn’t really know where to find the camels. However, I love a good adventure so I was up for finding one, or several. I found a Camel Hospital on google maps and I figured that was an OK place to start…so we headed that way.

The Camel Hospital was closed, but we did find ourselves in a little village area with several tents and you guessed it, camels hanging around outside. It was summer, hot, and during Ramadan, which meant it was the perfect time for people to be sleeping in their tents and not willing to be aggravated by a bunch of over-excited Americans.

I hopped out of the car and slowly approached the tent opening. None of the aforementioned “friends” got out of the car…thanks guys. In my most apologetic voice, I gave the traditional Arabic greeting, “Salaam Alaikum,” honestly not expecting much. Within a few seconds, a very nice man popped out of the tent and greeted me in return. In my best attempt at Arabic, I asked if my friends could take some pictures of the camels and he was happy to oblige. After a few pictures, by friends said, “Ask if we can ride them.” The owner/camel caretaker explained that we would have to some back at night since it was so hot and we agreed.

That night we rolled back up to the tent…the only light coming from our car’s headlights. A camel was saddled up and we were ready to go. One other person in the group had ridden a camel and she volunteered to go first. Up until this point, I had only gotten on a camel in tourist spots. These camels are so used to people climbing on them that they barely move. I noticed that this camel stood up really fast and made a quick mental note of it.

I went next. I was super confident and was ready to go (my first mistake). I put my hand on the saddle (piece of rope) and began to throw one leg over the camel’s back. Well, that stupid camel decided to stand up without me on it fully. Before I knew it, I was spider-manning the side of the camel, hanging on for dear life. I was looking straight at the camel’s neck and could only see the ground (which felt 50ft away) from my periphery.

The poor camel guy immediately tried to get the thing to sit back down, but he had literally just stood up…so I didn’t really blame the camel for being confused. One of my friends said, “Susan, you really aren’t that far from the ground if you just swing your legs down.” Being super freaked out, I only managed to say, “I can’t move.”

Finally, the camel sat back down and I made it back safely to earth. I turned around and most of my friends stood there dumbfounded…..one was rolling on the ground laughing. I started laughing too. What just happened?? I tried to go again, but the camel stood up before I could even grab onto the saddle this time. I decided to take a break and let other people have a go.

All my other friends got on that freaking camel with no problem at all. What was happening?!?! My pride started kicking in big time. I was the desert dweller. I was the most experienced riding camels. I was not gonna leave here until I got on the back of this thing. These people were not gonna show me up!! (We’ll talk about my issues with competitiveness later)

I stepped back up to that camel. I looked at the guy and said, “He’s OK now?” The camel guy replied, “Yep.” “You promise?” I said. Through a little laugh he nodded his head, which didn’t make me feel all that much better. I knew I had to get on the camel quickly, so for the perfect visual….I jumped and pretty much cat pounced the camel and hung on for dear life.

I made it and all my friends cheered. I just shook my head at my life…again. We tried to pay the man, but out of awesome hospitality, he refused. We thanked him, jumped back in the car, and I swore them to secrecy. Praise the Lord it was dark so pictures were impossible. And by swearing them to secrecy, a couple days later I got a call from another friend on the other side of the world saying, “tell me the camel story!” Thanks a lot guys.