Wadi Rum, Jordan 2018

They say you can't go back again. Because it's never quite the same. Sometimes you can, and it works. Wadi Rum desert in the south of Jordan has been a beacon to me since first visiting in 2007 and then having the perfect camel ride in 2008.

The expanded visitor centre was to be expected because of the intervening years, but it's almost featureless, and deserted. It's still early morning despite the hour's drive from Aqaba; by the time the sun becomes ferocious at noon, we will be on our return to town. Our timing permits only a hasty once-over in a shop barely opening up; no chance to see if the interpretive display has also been enhanced. Our group is hurried to several old pickup trucks for the ride to a desert rendezvous, perching two on a side in the back with some sunshade. The transport always varies for these desert incursions.

The experienced locals had estimated in advance how many camels would be required. This time three companions decide to join me. Would-be women warriors ☺

They are friendly (indicating well-treated) animals. Who doesn't love a hug as we mill around to mount? The Scot is a magnet.

Taking the lead camel was almost as good as being alone. My problematic hip joint allows some latitude for hooking my knee ‒ so much more comfortable ‒ but not perfect form. No racing today! As we amble along, the handler lets the camels nibble at some low-growing crunchy savoury grass smelling like thyme. Why is the desert strangely colourless this morning?

Riding high ... Ah. There is no feeling to equal this, merged into a timeless, magnificent planet. We drift along the sand, skirting the majestic cliffs. Carvings and petroglyphs on the rock walls are a common sight. Wadi Rum is a Protected Area and a UNESCO-designated natural and cultural landscape.

Always over too soon, our journey catches up with the non-riders who are shopping for crafts in a large tent. Familiarity. There's the boulder remembering Lawrence. Over one hundred years since the Arab Revolution against the Ottoman Empire, "Aw-renz" is imprinted on the collective memory here; this is only one of the modest commemoratives to him throughout the desert of the Arab Revolt.

After visiting the base of enormous dunes that beg most people to climb, away we rattle in the trucks for a refreshment stop at one of the desert camps. The temperature has risen slyly and fast. The large size of Captain's Desert Camp seems surprisingly anomalous to me. Tourism on a managed scale creates income for many Bedouin families. Here is welcome shade, musicians happily entertain as we sip mint tea, eat dates and small cookies.

The sun is then high above us as we finally turn toward the highway. But we're not leaving the desert before we have a look at the Hejaz Railway train. The railway was built by the Ottomans in the first decade of the twentieth century railway for transport to Aqaba and access to the Red Sea; this restored steam engine now shows its stuff only on special occasions. Ghosts of the filming of "Lawrence of Arabia" hover here.

Who can say if that was to be my last camel ride? Thank you, Wadi Rum, and thank you, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, for your hospitality. Please stay as fabulous as you are.

© 2019 Brenda Dougall Merriman

FIVE YEARS

Five years. Five years since I began chasing camels. Chasing them here on a blog, mind you. It was 23 April 2014 when I began writing.

The real camel adventures began much longer ago and continue sporadically. After all, it's not every day you can find camels to ride, pet, admire, or kiss.

... And Camelogue is still available at https://www.blurb.ca/b/8605379-camelogue.

My odometer registers eight countries that offered me camel experiences. Some more than once. They ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous.

"Sublime" Pushkar, India, 2009

"Ridiculous" dripping wet Bellingham, Washington, USA 2016

I was still wet behind the ears when I first went to Egypt. Were seductive Saqqara and Giza planting a subconscious seed? Did they poke some epigenetic trigger?

Of course, I will run out of camels and travel locales, sooner or later. Not to mention the nickels once saved for my old age. Who needs prism spectacles or hearing aids or new teeth, she says, when the world offers so many fascinating cultures to explore. When we find, see, and feel ancient footsteps. When we still have magical, natural places to feel oneness with the planet. Where the sky blissfully expands into the universe.

© 2019 Brenda Dougall Merriman

Friends Send Me ... camel things (9)

It's getting harder to keep track. They just keep a-coming.

I know not where on earth this one came from. Politically incorrect, you say?

Here's a classic, sure to offend everyone: a camel with a camel.

Coralie is full of jokes:

Cathy's favourite, but a little marzipan goes a long way ...

To follow up from cousin Brian's teaching moment:

Did anyone say Arabs don't have a sense of humour?

Shirley is tireless at finding them:

Is Google tireless too? I've seen different promotional shots of the Google street view camera mounted on a camel, allegedly in the U.A.E.'s Liwa desert with a camel called Raffia. Balancing act looking a teeny bit photoshopped?

Not sure I want to try these ...

... which leads to this

And that's probably more than enough for now.

© 2019 Brenda Dougall Merriman

End of the Year

Time to make like a shill again. The book is still available. For sale on Blurb.com, $15.00 Canadian; the USD equivalent is less.

http://www.blurb.com/b/8605379-camelogue

"Chasing camels in Arabic countries encumbered only by gender, age, opportunity, and gentle self-delusion. Impersonating a world traveller requires permanent smiles and sign language on high alert. Strange, the writer's pull to ancient civilizations. Stranger still, baking one's tender body in near-isolated deserts. Highly recommended for lovers of animals and warm climates. Lose yourself briefly here in a different world."

"Arabic" is over-stated only in that two of the countries are not. The United States and the Netherlands. Some of the experiences were divine. Others were funny or disappointing with a variety of characters, and just one heart-attack-scary night "hill climb."

Back cover:

Brenda Dougall Merriman is well-known as a genealogist for her serious books Genealogy in Ontario: Searching the Records; United Empire Loyalists: A Guide to Tracing Loyalist Ancestors in Upper Canada; and Genealogical Standards of Evidence. She writes about her Canadian, Scottish, and Latvian ancestors at http://brendadougallmerriman.blogspot.com. Crime fiction, too - https://anotherfamdamily.blogspot.com/

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Our Man of the Camels

It makes me happy to bring to light some women who work with camels (Our Lady of the Camels, three posts). I haven't even touched on those who labour to grow the camel dairy industry, what with the health benefits of camel milk slowly being recognized.

But I can no longer avoid sharing a man of the ilk. Avoiding is not an apt word; I've put it off because describing one of the most consistently decent human beings I have ever met ‒ is next to impossible. Decent ‒ is that quite right? Considerate, caring, modest, funny, warm, open-minded, literate, patient, unpretentious ... see, so many very suitable words come to mind but they will encourage disbelief, ringing like the smitten fan that I am.

'Tis Doug Baum, hardworking proponent and advocate of traditional camel culture.

For your information, it's not just me. Hundreds of people across the United States and bushels more across the world know and love Doug Baum for his camel expertise, his willingness to help, his hospitality, his uniquely enriching tours abroad. Not to mention his home-based Big Bend Camel Treks in eastern Texas. Want a history lesson? Doug's Texas Camel Corps attends numerous schools and historical reenactments where he educates. Need camels for your living Christmas tableaux? Doug's on it. In fact, his entire family trailers their own camels (nine at last count) around the countryside and beyond; in 2016, for instance, they participated in some thirty-nine nativity and holiday performances.

Cameleers looking for training advice or for veterinarians or saddle construction? Doug and his contacts run training clinics for international participants and freely dispense advice on Facebook. Oh, the contacts! ... in Egypt (where he keeps a home with his Cairo family), Jordan (where he regularly arranges donations for Syrian refugees), Morocco, India. Wishing you could explore an exotic country in-depth with camel ride options? Doug's your man. He leads very small group tours to all those places where travellers spend their time with locals in a cultural immersion; personal relationships become the outstanding memories. His enthusiasm is expanding to Kenya and Mongolia/China.

Mongolia

Morocco, photo: Heather Daveno

Rajhastan

Doug also travels to provide training for animals and handlers, to build saddles, to attend conferences from Mexico to England to Mongolia. He knows that camel tourism – a newly coined phrase – can help ensure the animal's survival and turn things around economically for families in the more depressed regions. Always on his mind is the question of the native camel herdsman: "How do I continue to keep camels in my life in the face of changing times and modernization?"

So Doug's calendar must have 26 hours in a day and 40 days a month. When does he have time to make educational videos or play his guitar? And perfect his Arabic?? Or maybe he's studying Marwari by now. Yes, he has a Facebook page ("The US Army Camel Experiment") with many videos.

At any rate, don't let Doug see this or he would deflect any hint of admiration with his trademark humour.

He lights up the life of everyone he meets. I consider him the redheaded son I might have had. Camel culture is his calling, but the man with the stetson is a full-time goodwill ambassador on a global scale.

© 2018 Brenda Dougall Merriman

A Ship Called Camel

In 1783 with the Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War, a ship called Camel was one of a host of British vessels busy ferrying Loyalists to places of refuge in Nova Scotia and Quebec. Many sailed from New York, the last Loyalist stronghold.

References to the ship come from quite a variety of sources and they provided a continuing discussion in several issues of Loyalist Trails.[1] Different consultants and sources, both original records and authored works, were gleaned for information about Camel in the year 1783.[2] Original sources note that Camel was a frigate, converted to an armed transport carrier in 1783.

Model of a heavy frigate

The ship's activities looked like this:

April: Capt. Tinker was the master; Camel sailed with the Spring Fleet of late April, her first landing in (what is now) New Brunswick on June 10th.

July-August: She departed New York July 10th, arriving Quebec City on August 12th; Capt. Tinker as master. A transcribed list of passengers is available on the UELAC website: http://www.uelac.org/Loyalist-Ships/Camel-1783-July-QC-passengers.pdf.

September: Camel sailed September 1st to Saint John and Passamoquoddy, first landing on the 18th; the captain's name was indecipherable in the Master's Log but the ship commander was Lt. Geo Burlton. A roll of passengers is in the Ward Chipman Papers (Archives New Brunswick).

November: One historian believes she sailed this month from New York to Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.[3] Part of the ongoing discussion involved whether the fourth trip even happened. The ship's log records only the first three. At the time of the discussion in Loyalist Trails, it was unclear whether the log book extended beyond October 1783.

Another point of debate: "Secondary sources" say Camel did not arrive in New York from Spithead in England until late May of 1783, therefore could hardly have taken part in the Spring Fleet evacuation. Hence the question: was there more than one Camel? How likely is it that two ships of the same name were commissioned at the same time?

According to Revolvy, six British naval ships have been called Camel.[4] Two were in the period being discussed; of the others, one was seventeenth century and three were nineteenth century. It seems only the 26-gun naval supply ship HMS Camel is the best "fit" for the times. The Revolvy website says it was "formerly the merchant [ship] Yorkshire," ... "purchased in 1776 and sold in 1784."

HMS Surprise (replica), Maritime Museum, San Diego

Images here of eighteenth century frigates can only approximate what the Camel may have looked like. I stand to be corrected if I have misinterpreted any of the serial discussion or naval terminology. My interest here is in a name, not in arguing fine historical points of which I have no knowledge.

But why on earth the unusual name for a ship? Of course! ... Ship of the Desert. The camel is an ancient and enduring symbol of transportation.

[1] Loyalist Trails, weekly online newsletter of the United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada (www.uelac.org/Loyalist-Trails/2015/), No. 2015-18 (3 May); No. 2015-20 (17 May); No. 22-2015 (31 May). Information from Editor Doug Grant, and Ed Garratt, Stephen Davidson.

[2] For example, Library and Archives Canada (LAC), Carlton Papers, Book of Negroes; LAC, Ward Chipman Papers; Archives of the New Brunswick Museum, Ganong Papers, The Book of Proceedings of the Society of Friends or Quakers who Settled at Pennfield, Charlotte County in 1783; The National Archives (TNA - UK), ADM52 Log Books, ADM36 Muster Books.

[3] As discussed by Davidson: Theodore C. Holmes, Loyalists To Canada, The 1783 Settlement of Quakers And Others At Passamaquoddy where "This book includes the line: After disembarking the passengers the Camel returned to New York to bring more loyalists to freedom. So this historian believed that there was [possibly] a fourth voyage. I have not been able to find any references to this outside of Holmes' book. Holmes says that the ship was 293 tons. Tinker is given as the captain of the ship."

[4] Revolvy, https://www.revolvy.com/page/HMS-Camel? ... which would have lifted the information from elsewhere.

© 2018 Brenda Dougall Merriman

 

Al Ain, United Arab Emirates 2018

This post is pure fantasy. Because I missed my only chance to get to Al Ain, "garden city of the Emirates." Let's say, it's what I would have done, had I gone.

[We spent ten days sailing and touring in the hottest weather I've ever experienced, unseasonal even for the Middle East. The itinerary was made for me — new places like Khasab (Oman), Doha (Qatar), and Abu Dhabi (U.A.E.) ... more on some of those places elsewhere. But our final port, Abu Dhabi, promised an excursion to Al Ain and for whatever reason, it's been high on my bucket list. However, passengers were dropping out of shore excursions, unable to cope with the heat; only five minutes in the sun, between leaving the coach and entering the site to visit, melted us into dripping sweat and numbing of the brain. Stay out too long and we would literally begin to cook. More evidence of climate change. Finally I too admitted defeat; having the added sensory burden of fibromyalgia was too much of a health risk.]

My fantasy trip, perhaps, but based on collected facts. Abu Dhabi is one of the seven United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) and its territory includes extensive land regions east and south of the city. Al Ain is situated about two hours inland from the city, verging on the fabled Empty Quarter desert (Rub Al Khali) ... a desert of epic journeys in the 1940s by British adventurer Wilfrid Thesiger. An exhibit of his photographs and other mementos is in the museum of Al Jahili, said to be the welcome sight of civilization he spotted after completing a crossing from the south.[1] Al Jahili Fort is now restored to its unique 1891 origins. There I would be, scanning from its circular heights for signs of a camel train.

Al Jahili Fort

Wilfrid Thesiger

I can scarcely imagine what Thesiger endured after leaving Salalah in the south. His Arabian Sands is regarded as a classic of travel literature, describing the lives of Bedu tribes, "probably the finest book ever written about Arabia and a tribute to a world now lost forever."[2] I.e., a world before oil was discovered. My own taste of the Empty Quarter was five years ago before scrambling around the debatable "lost city of Ubar," in Thesiger's time a site still buried and unknown. It is beside Shisur, a village familiar to Thesiger. Certainly the Bedouin are more accommodating now than some of the explorer's encounters with suspicion or hostility.

A 1948 Thesiger photo of  Qasr Al Muwaiji

The rugged Al Hajar mountains are on Al Ain's eastern flank; landmark Jebel Hafeet mountain overlooks the city for excellent views, highest peak in the Emirate.

Al Ain itself is a UNESCO World Heritage Site as one of the oldest continual habitations on earth. Centred on and blessed with a large, flourishing palm oasis ‒ hence its appellation as "garden city" ‒ it recently grew from a village to tourist proportions. "This date palm oasis has been recognised by the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) for its importance as a repository of genetic resources, biodiversity and cultural heritage."[3] Strolling shady pathways in the oasis you can explore groves of tropical fruit trees and inspect working parts of the original irrigation system constructed 3,000 years ago.

Oasis

Dates

Besides Al Jahili, a number of forts that once protected plantations in the oasis have been re-purposed. Of heritage and cultural interest are Al Ain National Museum with sections on archaeology and traditional Bedouin crafts; the Palace Museum was once the home of the UAE founder Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyam, renovated in traditional design to exhibit the ruler's lifestyle and diplomatic relations. Qasr Al Muwaiji is the birthplace of the current Sheikh Khalifa of Abu Dhabi Emirate, displaying lush gardens and material related to the ruling family. And more ... Al Qattara Fort houses a gallery and centre for all manner of arts. Oh yes, I would be lingering over the jewellery exhibits, the colourful pottery, historical garments, the ancient artifacts. A handicrafts market takes place on seasonal weekends, including tastes of local food.

Al Ain Palace Museum

And then! The renowned camel market of Al Ain, apparently one of the few remaining livestock markets in the Emirates. Here the beasts are traded ― for breeding, racing, meat, or milk. I might lose myself freely wandering among the dusty pens, admiring and taking photographs (only with permission). Camels are and always will be an essential part of the heritage and fabric of the Bedouin, whether nomads or urban dwellers. Of course racing has become a national pastime with all the entailed competition and prize money.

Al Ain has other tourist attractions of modern variety not to be mentioned in the same breath. Great changes have come to the U.A.E. in the last fifty years, but Al Ain is determined to maintain an old and proud culture. So let's keep my fantasy trip far from the Emirates' glitzy shopping malls and outré architecture.

Sources:

[1] https://www.timeoutabudhabi.com/art/features/74944-in-the-footsteps-of-wilfred-thesiger

[2] Michael Asher, 27 August 2003, "Sir Wilfred Thesiger (obituary)," The Guardian.

[3] https://visitabudhabi.ae/en/explore/regions/al.ain.aspx

Also, "Al Ain," Yalla, the tourist guide for Abu Dhabi, Edition 2, 2018.

© 2018 Brenda Dougall Merriman