Rounding Up
Seventeen camels and four dedicated and experienced cameleers made it possible for us to have our adventure. For the duration of our trip we too became acquainted with camels and learnt to love and hate some of them. We also made some great friends and laughed a lot with the other cobs (tourists).
Every day we awoke just before sunrise. On some mornings we were greeted at this insane hour by frost on our swags. On these icy cold mornings much struggling was experienced as we tried to put on as many clothes as possible before leaving the toasty warmth of the swag. I never managed to master the art of completely dressing and brushing teeth in the swag as others boasted of doing. Needless to say by the time Tom and I had convinced ourselves that leaving bed was a good idea, dressed and rolled up our swags we were always the last to breakfast.
After breakfast and while BJ (one of our fellow travellers who had volunteered for garbage duties in the desert) burnt the garbage, we all tried to help the cameleers herd the camels towards the camp. Josef would then give us a signal and we would all unhobble one camel each. Usually we would try to be as near as possible to one of the better behaved camels like Vicki, Shah or Istan. The more stubborn camels or red tag camels were avoided. We would then attempt to lead the camels to the line where the saddles were. Often I wondered if I was leading the camel or if was humouring me on its way to work making a few detours for food (a camels major preoccupation).
Often one of the cameleers would have to help them on their way, shouting secret camel language like ibna (go), urdu (stop) hoosh (sit) or hupp hupp (go quickly you stubborn animal).
Every day we awoke just before sunrise. On some mornings we were greeted at this insane hour by frost on our swags. On these icy cold mornings much struggling was experienced as we tried to put on as many clothes as possible before leaving the toasty warmth of the swag. I never managed to master the art of completely dressing and brushing teeth in the swag as others boasted of doing. Needless to say by the time Tom and I had convinced ourselves that leaving bed was a good idea, dressed and rolled up our swags we were always the last to breakfast.
After breakfast and while BJ (one of our fellow travellers who had volunteered for garbage duties in the desert) burnt the garbage, we all tried to help the cameleers herd the camels towards the camp. Josef would then give us a signal and we would all unhobble one camel each. Usually we would try to be as near as possible to one of the better behaved camels like Vicki, Shah or Istan. The more stubborn camels or red tag camels were avoided. We would then attempt to lead the camels to the line where the saddles were. Often I wondered if I was leading the camel or if was humouring me on its way to work making a few detours for food (a camels major preoccupation).
Often one of the cameleers would have to help them on their way, shouting secret camel language like ibna (go), urdu (stop) hoosh (sit) or hupp hupp (go quickly you stubborn animal).
© 2005 - Vaneeta & Tom
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