Tunisia - Camel Ride at Douz

After many more hours on the bus and a couple very unsanitary rest stops, we stopped just outside Douz for our camel ride. Most of the camels were tied in pairs and led by a guide. I was on the second camel of a pair. On the first camel was a father. His son was solo and his wife and daughter were on another pair. Of course, since my camel was in the rear, it had to be the fesity one who wanted to hurry up!

She really was one of the more attractive camels - she just liked making funny faces!

The camel ride was where I saw one of the more unfortunate incidents of my trip to Tunisia. The son had a young lad come up to him and literally shove an open bottle of coke into his hand. Of course, the next thing you know, this guy is asking for money. A similar thing happened to the group of people who went on their camel ride just before us. Before getting onto the camels, they were given traditional desert garb to wear. Thinking it was part of the experience, they accepted it, only to realize too late that it was not, as money was demanded of them. I had read stories on the internet of such things happening, and in fact people had said that the aggressive and sometimes deceitful sales practices were a reason for either not visiting, or not returning to Tunisia. As tourism is still developing in Tunisia, it is really too bad that they have not realized that tactics such as this will not attract more tourists, but rather keep people away.

Eventually we stopped and got off our camels to watch the sun set. It was very peaceful. At least until some guy's cell phone rang! Half the time I can't get decent cell coverage in the middle of a city in a developed country, and this guy is talking on his cell in the middle of the Sahara!

After the sun set, we thought we would be heading back. After all it was getting dark and cold!! But first we had to wait while all the guides gathered and had a cigarette. Never mind that they haven't eaten since before the sun came up - it was the nicotine cravings that were getting to them. I was pleased to see one guy wander off on his own to pray.

Once the camel ride was done, we made the short trip to our hotel. Since it had been a long day of travelling (12 hours) and we were due to get a wake up call at 4 am, I had planned to eat and go to bed early. However, I ended up chatting with a very interesting British family for 2 1/2 hours. I did sleep soundly once I got to bed however!