Everything is hit and miss. We could have organised a really crappy trip into the desert. It is hard to remember how we booked this one. I think that practically every hotel organises its own trips or has a hook-up with an agency in the city. Perhaps ours was the Pushkar Palace trip. When I think back now it probably was organised from the hotel. The advantage is that the hotel will look after your bags while you are away. If you go with another safari organiser you would have to book out of your hotel and take your bags with you and they would have to be stored somewhere less secure than a hotel.
One day all this will come flooding back. I might not be able to remember whether I might have had my tea or who the well meaning people are who seem to know me but I am sure I will be able to remember all the details of exactly when we were introduced to our camels, mounting them and riding out. It must have been that we went to one of the gates of the the walled city and mounted our camels there.
My camel was called Hetha and Grace had one called Lala. I don't remember what Imogen's camel was called but it was a bit frisky.
The beauty of this camel safari was the fact that we were in control of our own camels. I have seen and heard about trips where you get to ride on top of a camel but it is tethered to one in front or led by a man walking. On this trip we mounted the camels (no mean feat) got the reins and actually rode them ourselves. The reins were connected to the wooded peg through the animal's nose and a tug on the starboard side caused the ship of the desert to turn in that direction. Actually mounting the camel was not something that could be attempted while the camel was standing up. They are extremely high off the ground. The way you get on is to get the camel to sit down. Somehow or other the camel driver persuades the camel to kneel down and then to collapse its hind legs and on you get. There's a saddle with stirrups. A camel's back is pretty broad and far from comfortable. Then the camel gets up and it is quite a thing to remain on top of it because (if I remember it right) the camel gets up onto it's front knees then onto its hind legs so that you might easily fall off forwards and finally lurches itself into an upright position. Then there you are atop the thing.
