A serious tourist moment — riding Camels to the Tombs of the Nobles

One of the things you have to do in Egypt is ride camels — if you don’t have pictures of yourself on a camel, people might not believe you had visited Egypt at all!

We had a number of opportunities to ride camels — at Giza (which was truly a tourist moment!), and again on our way from the Nile to St. Simeon and then on again to the Tombs of the Nobles. By the end of the day — probably two hours on camels — I was heartily sick of them!

But it was fun, really. It certainly takes a bit of getting used to, but the rolling walk of the camels in the sand is fun, and on a few occasions we got to lope off into the distance, arms flapping like some extra in Lawrence of Arabia. I felt really bad for the camel drivers, though, tromping through the sand beside the camels. It was hard work — even the few hundred yards we walked in the soft shifting sand was tiring. I definitely appreciated the camel!