Day 14 (First half): The Camel Trek

I woke up really early at around 6 am since we all slept outside. After changing my shirt, brushing my teeth and using the toilet, I sat and wait for about an hour before our camels arrived. Our plan was to do a camel ride to see more of the Wadi Rum early in the morning before the blazing heat arrived. The temperature in the desert rose very quickly. At 6 am, it was about a chilly 65F/18C, and by 11 am, the temperature was at least 95F/35C.

At 7:30 am, our camels arrived. The Bedouins eyeballed our weights, and appropriately sort us into different camels.

 

On a camel (plus bluest sky ever)

The Bedouins basically walked us deeper into the desert and then made a U-turn back to our camps. The sights of the desert was pretty much the same as yesterday because we didn't travel very far (plus, since I was on a camel, most of my pictures were blurry). However, the camel ride was very strange. So the camels themselves look as though they really couldn't care less (I can't say they don't give a sh*t because all they do is poop randomly as they walk). Their eyes are always half shut to shield against sand and they only walk slightly faster than a turtle. Here is a video of the ride:

And... here are some pics that weren't blurry:

Loved how the light added contrasts

Two toned sands

If only I use Facebook.......profile pic for life

Baby camel

My camel after the ride

After the camel trek, we ate breakfast at camp and found out that one of the pickup trucks couldn't start. They tried to jump start the truck for about half and hour before giving up. Thus, since we were running late (we had a boat cruse to catch later that day), they just packed half of us in one truck and then sped off. I chose to stay for the second round so when they picked me up, they were really speeding. It was basically a roller coaster ride because they were driving up and down the sand dunes at around 40 mph/65 kmh. We then got in our van and then from there we drove about 70 km to Aqaba.

Of course, in every car ride, we hear a new story. This time, the tour guide was talking about the camels. So the first thing about the camel is the camel's milk. He said that it was magical, that it can even cure Alzheimer's ("There's your cure for Alzheimer's", I told my roommate, who's a doctor). Now this was the point where I stopped listening to any of his facts because nothing cures Alzheimer's! Well, on a more believable note, camels are actually expensive. A camel is about $1000 and a pregnant camel is about $3000. So if you own a herd of camels, you're quite rich. The King of Jordan also sponsors an annual Camel race, where the grand prize was a brand new car. Racing camels can actually run up to 30 mph/48kmh! Camel races are popular in the Middle East apparently, but most likely because they can't race horses.