One Hump or Two. . .Definitely Two

I’m getting ahead of myself on this trip, but we talked to Jeff yesterday and mentioned we had ridden camels, and he said he had to see that. 

The camel holding area -- see all the people climbing the dunes. (The orange dune boots)

After riding on a night train from Turpan to Dunhuang, spending the entire day visiting a UNESCO historic site, the Mogao Grottos, our trip organizer decided we weren’t tired enough, so we had one more stop--the Mingsha Shan or Singing Sands Mountain.  This is a huge sand dune and home to about 700 camels.  Since I had ridden a camel before in Morocco and I wasn’t feeling great, I had decided I would sit this one out.  Brad told me the ticket was already paid for, so don’t decide until we get up to the camels. 

All aboard!

As we arrived at Mingsha Shan, all we could see was a huge line of camels stretching from the base of the mountain all the way to the top of the dunes.  Hundreds of people atop the two-hump, Bactrian camels were making their way up the dune. Supposedly the two-humpers are more mild-mannered than their one-hump relatives, the Dromedary camel.  We’ll see!  As our camel driver motioned for our group to enter the staging area, I decided  In groups of five, we climbed aboard the sitting camels, got our feet in the stirrups and then we were off.  My camel didn’t like bringing up the rear of our group, and even though he/she? (I didn’t want to check) was tethered at the rear, he/she kept trying to move up.  The pictures tell a much better story, so I’m leaving up to them to illustrate the ride.  Bottom line—I’m glad I did it.

what the heck!

Still smiling.

Brad has a new friend, too.

Look at the line in front of us!

A little artsy desert shot.

What goes up, must come down.

Met some friends, too.

"Look mom.  I'm flying a camel."

The camels had wireless.

My camel almost took a bite of Brad's leg.

The proof I did it.

The proof we did it.

Epilogue:  Many people also experience the dunes on foot, climbing up and then running and jumping down – similar to Sleeping Bear Dunes on Lake Michigan or Jockey’s Ridge on the North Carolina Outer Banks.  One interesting addition to the climb were orange fabric boots that people pulled on over their shoes to prevent sand from filling their shoes.  I see a new business opportunity in the U.S.