After three months of living in the desert, Megan and I finally had our first camel ride while visiting Egypt. Gimicky? Of course! But it was still fun!

To be honest, except for sitting much higher, the experience was very similar to riding a horse. The one real big difference, however, was getting on and off. To get on, the camel starts by kneeling on all fours (as seen in one of the pics below). After you climb into the saddle, the camel first extends his hind legs to a standing position. It is during this time that you will swear you are about to tumble face-first onto the ground from at least 6 feet in the air! Note that there is nothing holding you in place except your death-grip on a small cylinder extending from the front of your saddle, which is barely big enough for one hand. What seems like an eternity, the camel extends his front legs and you level out. Getting off the camel requires the reverse procedure which is no less scary…

My view from atop Bob Marley…

A clip of Megan riding Robin Hood (front). I can’t lie – seeing the pyramids and the city of Cairo as our backdrop was pretty darn amazing! (The woman behind Megan was from South Africa/Canada and the only other person on our tour so we all became pretty good friends.)