Morocco, Marrakech - Day 2 Afternoon
The afternoon took us out into the desert for a once in a lifetime adventure…. Camel riding.
Apparently, this is a ‘thing' as there were many of these little compounds. Ride a camel and then do a quad ride out into the desert, followed by a traditional Moroccan dinner and show. We were looking forward to the new experiences.
First, you have to get on these very tall animals, but it should be easy if they are still laying down. So swing your leg over and hold on the saddle bar…. and hold on tight. The camel stands on it's back legs first, catapulting you over the front. When they say ‘hold on tight', they mean it. Then the front legs come up and there you are. We had four young adult girls in our group and there was plenty of screaming during this transition from sitting to standing. If a momma has a baby, the baby is tied to her and goes out for the walk as well.
We rode out into the desert for an hour. Please notice, there are no stirrups on the saddles. Within five minutes, your inner thighs are screaming at you, so you had to find other ways to release those muscles… remember, this ride is an hour.
Keith is in front and all the camels are tied to each other. Our guide walked in front of Keith most of the time but he would often go back to check on the girls and the camel would stop. So Keith would nudge a little and off we'd go again. Let me just say, this is not like riding a horse, but it was fun when we were done. Our legs were sore for several days.
At one point, our guide took pictures and he was very good….
Next adventure, quads! We love riding quads and realized how much we have missed this sport over the years. We let the guide know we had experience and asked if we could ride in the back so we could have fun and he was good with that. So we held back and played like we were teenagers with not a care in the world. Oh, it was great fun.
At the half way point, we took a break and our guide made some fun pictures.
Time to head back and again we stayed in the rear. As we came over a rise, one of the girls had rolled her quad and dislocated her shoulder, and was in a lot of pain. Because of their faith, Keith couldn't touch her, so he gave instructions to her friend (who spoke english) to try and stabalize her. Eventually, the group continued on while the rescuers worked with her. We felt so bad for her.
The last stop was dinner and a show. The meal was traditional and very good. We were the first ones to arrive, of about 25 tour groups. The fire show wasn't until dark, and after everyone finished eating, so there was a lot of down time.
Guess what happens when the sun goes down in the desert, it gets very cold! We dressed for the warm sun, not thinking about the cold. Let's just say it was a very long evening and we were glad when we were back in the warm van, heading home. It was a very long day!
