Camel From Sudan
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Lion From Gabon
Hippo From Gabon
Bat From Gabon
Hyena From Gabon
Camel From Sudan
Mule from Ethiopia
Tuareg people from Mali
Stork from Mali
Crocodile from a bad dream
Samoyed from the Siberian Tundra
Reindeer from Siberia
NEXT von Borgengruft Adventure - Mule From Ethiopia
Previous von Borgengruft Adventure - Hyena From Gabon
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sent via lap-top computer to the pages of the Princess Noor Appreciation Society newsletters.  "Reluctant adieus were said to our charming and generous Gabonese hosts, as we boarded the unscheduled flight taking us from Libreville, on the west coast, to Wadi Halfa on the river Nile, a distance of over two thousand miles. Upon arrival in this picturesque town, which is situated about two hundred miles south west of the Egyptian Aswan High Dam, we proceeded to enquire about securing suitable transportation for our proposed trek across the Nubian Desert. Our destination being the town of Berber, a hamlet of about 15,000, a distance of approximately two hundred and twenty miles to the southeast. Having completed the painfully long drawn out monetary considerations, involving the rental of suitable Dromedary steeds, we then began acquainting ourselves with our allotted beasts. Being highly delighted with our first mount, we proceeded to trot and canter the steeds all over the plain. Since a camel's anatomy is not constructed for the purpose of cantering; many were the tumbles, they came especially when getting up. Mounting a frisky camel is exciting work for the beginner, and nearly always results in a tumble. The mode of procedure should be thus: having made your camel to kneel by clearing your throat loudly at him and tugging his rope, shorten your rein till you bring his head around to his shoulder, put your foot in the stirrup and throw your leg over. With his head jammed like that he cannot rise, and must wait until you give him his head. Unless you do as directed, he will get up before your leg is over; if this happens, stand in the stirrup until he is up, and THEN throw your leg over, otherwise you will infallibly meet with a hideous catastrophe. I might add that being run away with on your camel at a hard trot - as several times happened to me - is a most alarming experience, for you feel so utterly helpless. You haul away at his rope-rein till his head comes right back to your pommel - but his body still goes on!.The only way to stop him is to haul him around in large circles until he stops from sheer exhaustion. On the stony places I really pitied the podgy soft-looking feet of the camels, but they knocked their toes against the sharp stones with the greatest unconcern. I also had the practical experience that their feet are not soft, by a violent kick I received from the hind leg of my camel, who thought himself insulted by my examining his head-stall in the dark. A camel's hind-legs will reach anywhere--over his head, round his chest, and on to his hump; even when lying down an evilly- disposed animal will shoot his legs out and bring you to a sitting posture. His neck is of the same pliancy. He will chew the root of his tail, nip you in the calf, or lay the top of his head on his hump. He also bellows and roars at you, whatever you are doing - saddling him, feeding him, mounting him, unsaddling him. To the uninitiated, a camel going for one with his mouth open and gurgling horribly is a terrifying spectacle; but do not mind him, it is only his way. He hardly ever bites, but when he does you feel it for some time; as a matter of fact, the camel is really a very docile animal, and learns to behave himself in the most trying positions with equanimity, though I fear it is only a result of want of brains. Regarding his wonderful powers of endurance, my experience is that he gets a sore back after four days or less, does not go comfortably for more than five consecutive days; and as for trotting, it was only by a vigorous application of the 'kurbash' that I could succeed in making mine go that pace for more than fifty yards at a time. As things turned out, I really believe that we should have done better had we marched on foot the whole way. However, personal experiences aside, it is to the Camel the wandering tribes of the desert owe their immemorial liberty and independence. Many a conquering horde has been stopped in its career by the desert, and while the false glory of the scourges of mankind that have so often thrown the east into bondage passed like a shadow, one century after another looks down from the heights of Sinai upon the free and unfettered sons of Ishmael.  NEXT von Borgengruft Adventure - Mule From Ethiopia ONE OF OUR PNASI MEMBERS, Please visit her site for great Indo-Fijian recipes, music links, Fiji News etc The Camel and the Arab One day an Arab and his camel were crossing the desert. Night came and the temperature became colder. The Arab put up his tent and tied the camel to it. The Arab went to sleep. The temperature became slightly colder and the camel asked the Arab if he (camel) could just put his nose in the tent to warm up. The Arab agreed that the camel could just put his nose in, because the tent was small and there was no room for 2. So the camel's nose became warm and after a while the temperature went down even more. The camel asked the Arab again, if he (camel) could just put his fore legs in because they were very cold. The Arab reluctantly agreed that the camel could only put his fore legs in and no more. So the camel moved in his fore legs and they became warm. After sometime the camel asked the Arab again that he had to put in his hind legs or else he won't be able to make the journey the next morning with frozen legs. So the Arab agreed and once the camel moved his hind legs in, there was no more room in the tent for the Arab and the Arab was kicked out. Sneh's Home on the Web |
