Camel Safari

Going on a Camel Safari was one of the activities that many of the students here had been trying to do for weeks, but it never seemed to work out.  Thankfully, we called the company this week and the last opening until the end of July was this past Sunday. I was really excited to do something different this weekend.  I mean, I have loved going on hikes and seeing the waterfalls, but I'm not really that big of a hiker.  Also, while the waterfalls here have been beautiful,  there are waterfalls I can hike to at home too.  I wanted to do something totally different, and I'm pretty sure no one offers Camel Safaris in Oneida.

So I got up early Sunday morning to take the hour and a half drive to the Camel Safari.  The area where the Camel Safari was located was very different from Arusha, despite the fact it is so close.  Arusha is very lush and green,  it almost has a tropical look to it.  Where the Camel Safari is, the land is very arid and dry.  The land scape is very stark and more like a savanna.  It was so strange how quickly the landscape changed, but I couldn't really pinpoint when the switch happened.  One second it was green and wet, the next thing I know it's brown and dry.

 

When we got to the Camel Safari place the Masai people who run the Safari brought out our camels.  The camels were huge.  They must have been at least 7 ft. tall.  It was quite intimidating to stand next to these huge animals knowing you would be riding one soon.

The Masai had the camels sit for us, then we had to climb into the saddle.  Once we were all in the saddles they had the camels stand back up.  Easily the scariest thing from that day was when the camels would stand up or sit down with us on their backs.   It was fun, but also terrifying.

The first hour on the camel was really fun, painful, but fun.  I loved just getting to see the landscape around us.  It was so beautiful.  Unfortunately, the camel ride went on for another hour or so.  Granted there were breaks, but it still hurt to get back on that camel.  The landscape started to get a bit old, and we didn't really get to see many animals despite the fact it was a "safari".  We really only saw some gazelles from far away, some lizards and birds, and some dic dics.  Seeing those animals were cool, but I had expected more.   I did still have fun though, and in the end I'm glade I went even despite the fact that I now have a huge bruise on my tailbone.