In preparation for the expedition, Jim has been spending time at The Nevada Camel Company in the U.S. learning as much about camel riding as possible. Here are some of his riding tips.

Saddling Up

One of the things we do to prepare a camel for riding is rake him. Using an ordinary garden rake, we comb his coat. This removes any sticks, stones, or burrs that might make wearing a saddle uncomfortable. They seem to enjoy getting their backs scratched, pushing other camels out of the way to get their turn.

There are many kinds of saddles. Some saddles are positioned in front of the hump, others go on top the hump, and there are saddles that mount behind the hump. In some countries where they race camels, the saddle is a velcro pad strapped across a camel's hips. Small children jockeys wearing velcro suits are "stuck" to the camel (this reduces weight in a race). In the above photo, I'm tightening up a traditional Indian or Australian saddle. It can handle two riders or one rider and gear. The frame of the saddle straddles the camel's hump. The hump on a camel makes fitting a camel saddle a little tricky. Four straps hold the saddle in place. During the course of a long journey, a camel's hump may change shape as it puts on muscle and becomes a lean, mean, walking machine. All the straps allow for a custom fit.

Speaking Camel

To ride a camel you need to speak Camelese. The words a camel understands depend on the trainer. One command used for camels raised in Nevada is "hoosh." This tells the camel to kneel so that you can get aboard. Then there's "up." When a camel comes up, if you aren't ready, it is like riding a catapult, or in this case a camelpult. The camel lurches forward, its rump coming up first, which means you want to be leaning back or you get your first flying lesson. Then the front comes up, so you switch to a forward lean so you don't get your second flying lesson backwards. Like dancing, once you get the hang of it, you move with your partner in a smooth motion. Other useful commands are "walk up" which gets a camel moving, and "stand up" which means to stop. (That last one is confusing. It is a term borrowed from Australian riders).

Into the Saddle

In the picture at the left, Gary Jackson, turns his camel's head to the side as he mounts. This is awkward for the camel. Awkward is good. It is hard for a camel to stand up when its head is facing sideways. The last thing you want is for your camel to stand up while you are lifting a leg over the saddle. If this happens and you are in one stirrup, you get camelpulted. Even worse is when you have not stepped into a stirrup and have one foot on the ground just as the other leg lifts over the saddle, you quickly, and painfully, learn to perform the Chinese splits. In the photo on the right, notice how I'm resting my foot on the camel's front leg. This pressure makes it hard for the camel to rise up unexpectedly. Twelve year old Delia, who has just gotten on, isn't quite ready for her camel to launch into the air.

The Camel Steering Wheel

Reins are used to steer a camel. But unlike a horse's reins which are attached to a bit held in the mouth, a camel's reins are attached to a peg inserted in the nose. Bits aren't used with a camel because they are a cud-chewing animal. This means they constantly chew. Even when they haven't eaten, they still find something to chew. Camels regurgitate food from their stomach back into their mouth. It would be like you up-chucking a MacDonald's hamburger back into your mouth that you have already eaten. Then you chew and swallow again. If a camel had a metal bit in its mouth, it would cause chewing problems. Thus, the nose peg. (Some camels are trained to respond to lines attached to a halter.) Slight pressure on the reins on one side tells the camel the direction you want to turn. Inexperienced riders confuse the heck out of a camel by maintaining constant pressure on the reins. In some cases, over-eager riders rip the nose peg out with hard yanks. This is painful for the camel and now leaves the rider with no steering wheel and one seriously ticked off camel.

Head 'em Up and Move 'em Out

Riding a walking camel is surprisingly comfortable. They sway from side to side. This is because a walking camel lifts both feet on the same side when moving forward. A horse's gait is different. A horse lifts a front leg on one side and a rear leg on the opposite side when walking. While walking is comfortable, trotting on a camel is a different story. It's like riding a jack-hammer.

One camel taught me a key riding skill. While working with Laverne, a camel that had not had anyone on her back for a year, she suddenly tossed her head and tangled the reins in her mouth. Then she took off. Futilely, I tried to regain control, but without the reins I wasn't having any luck. So I kicked out of the stirrups and slid off at a run, grabbing the reins and bringing Laverne to a halt. She looked at me like, "Hey wasn't that fun?" Being able to dismount in an emergency, without hooshing, is a good lesson. I've used it several times since.

Camel Escape Artists

When taking a break, it's important to pay close attention to how you tie your camel up, that is if you don't want to walk back to the corral on your own two feet. The front lip of a camel is "prehensile." Prehensile means the front two flaps on a camel's lips can be manipulated like fingers. Gary has watched a camel untie its own lead line from a bush, using its lips, then mosey over to his buddies and untie their lines as well. I was skeptical until I watched my own camel undo his line so that he could reach a tasty piece of sagebrush a short distance away. Now I tie knots that Houdini would have trouble getting out of.

Caravan Riddles

• What advantage would there be for a four-legged creature to lift both legs on the same side when walking?
• Chewing cud seems kind of gross, but how would cud chewing benefit a foraging herbivore?
• We often think of technology as electronic gadgets, but the development of a camel saddle was a technologic improvement that changed transportation in major ways. Can you think of some of the changes that might have been brought about by camel saddle technology?