Meet Sandy the Camel

This is Sandy the Camel. He (she? I didn't check) took me for a tour of the Negev desert in Israel while I sat atop his hump.



I went to Israel in January 2008 on a Birthright trip. For the Goys reading this, Birthright is a program where the Israeli government and Israeli benefactors pay for young Jews to travel to the homeland to experience our culture, first-hand. I was really excited for the trip and when I found out we would be riding camels, I was jumping for joy! Everyone tried to rain on my parade by pointing out that camels are smelly and they spit. Eh, who can't handle a little phlegm? (Eww. I hate that word actually.)

For part of our trip, we visited the Negev desert. We swam in the Dead Sea (more on that in a future post), repelled down a crater wall, met a Bedouin tribe, ate interesting food, hiked through a dry river bed, and rode camels! This is where we were:



I walked up to him (her? it?) and said "Hi. I'm Amy. Please don't dump me off your back and on to my butt." I turned to the camel handler and asked if he had a name. He just looked at me funny (maybe he only spoke Hebrew?). So I turned back to the camel, rubbed his nose, and deemed him Sandy from that day forward. (Camels live in the desert. The desert has sand.. hence the name Sandy! Utter genius on my part.)

I named him because I think everything deserves a name. Usually I name inanimate objects.. like Tiger my car (because she growls when I hit the gas) or Stevie the TV (sometimes I steal clever things from the TV show, Friends)

I gave him a name. He spit at me (and missed, so HA!). I took that as a sign of approval.

The handler hit Sandy in the knees (blatant animal abuse. not good, won't get into it) and he laid down. Emily, another girl on my trip, and I hopped on his back. Sandy stood up and we joined a line of our friends atop camels. Once everyone was on a camel back, away we went!

Look Ma, no hands!



The ride was bumpy but fun. Sandy and the other camels were well-behaved and only spit on a few people. The view was spectacular! The Negev desert is a gorgeous place and unlike any other terrain I had ever seen (no deserts in Bawlmer). We rode around for probably half an hour before I had to say goodbye to Sandy. It was a sad moment. I teared up. He spit. Ahh true love <3