Egypt, Continued

We went to the panoramic view area and there were many camels. In this are you rode out into the dessert with a view of the pyramids. If you took the ride around the pyramid area where we saw the first camels you rode among the people in a parking lot. This was much better.

The first challenge was getting on the dumb thing. We each had our own camel. I got on mine first. Even when they are down on the ground they are big!!!!! These seemed to be much bigger than the ones we saw in Oman, but we weren't trying to ride those. There was a stirrup on one side and I did get on. Then up he went. I the man kept telling me to lean back and I was, but still almost went flying. The back legs were first, then the front. It was really, really scary. Once I was up I was trying to watch Jeff, but I was sliding off the side. I finally did get myself situated and scared or not, I was doing it. Off we went down a big sand dune and we had to really lean back again. We thought it was hard to take pictures from a bus, try taking them from a moving camel!

It was just beautiful. No one was around us. The pyramids were in view and it was silent. We went along, sometime with the man holding the rope and sometimes not. Jeff's took off and wanted to go back to the staging area. Then the guy was trying to get Jeff and I was in charge of mine. It was really fun. It lasted at least 30 minutes, but probably more. As Liz noted, the neatest part was when we heard the Muslim call to prayer echoing across the sand, riding a camel with the pyramids in view. I will never forget it. It was really, really neat. It gives me goose bumps even writing about it.

To be continued...
NEXT: The Sphinx, and more.