Tit Things to Do

We had carefully prepared our travel and I had in the Land Rover not only a complete set of tools to fix any mechanical breakdown of one of the cars but also a tow-bar. It was actually great that we had it as I actually towed the Renault-5 for a good thousand kilometers, half of it on tracks or even off-road.

Towing was easy for the Land-Rover but the passengers of the Reanult-5 were not really comfortable: to be driven 80-90 km/h stuck to another car hiding any view and to receive clouds of sand in the face was not the best part of the travel for them! But that was perfectly safe though a stone broke one of their head-lights!

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Enlarge all three photos, you will see that the sand wind is increasing and that there will not be any other ride. In Spring (we were in April) sand winds, which were almost absent all winter long begin to blow. In summer again, they will not blow often neither but it is not advisable to visit the Sahara in Summer because of the heat.

This photo shows exactly what a rider should NOT do! On this photo, the rider did not prepare himself (step 1).
The photo of step 2 shows that the rider did not push on the neck of the camel with the feet and did not hold the camel's hump. He the cameleer does not help him, he will fall down and may be brake the expensive Nigerian saddle.

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These two photos show how to go down from a camel.

1- Before the camel folds his front leg, the rider must push firmly with its feet on the neck and hold strongly the hump tuft (first photo).

2- When the camel folds suddenly his front legs, all the weight of the rider is on the feet and neck of the camel (second photo).

3- Just after that, the camel will fold suddenly his back legs (sorry, no photo). The rider must lean forward as much as possible to forecast this movement. If he did not, he might fall backwards.

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As a young child could not at the same time sit on the saddle and push on the camel's neck with his feet, he has to ride in another way, behind the hump and hold the tuft of hair on top of the hump. May be that would not be very comfortable for a long ride but for a few minutes, that is fine!

Note that the background is becoming blurred, as the sand wind comes back!

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Our friend drove the camel by the leed (rahla) and the kids and adults that rode it had just to stay on the saddle. However, these three photos show well how a camel show be ridden , Saharian style (different from Middle East style). The saddle is arranged before the hump and the rider has both feet (bare or with soft shoes) pushing on the neck while on hand can hold the tuft of hair on top of the hump. When alone, the other hand is used to hold the rahla.

Camels are usually not very nice animals. They do not enjoy to be harnessed (would YOU?), utter in with a very strong and unpleasant voice and moreover they can bite. Most of the time cameleers tame camels tightening the rope (rahla) they have in their nose. This cameleer used a technique I had never seen: as the nose of the camel, designed to stop the sand, is very soft, he pinched it strongly and the camel could not do anything wrong! Not very nice but efficient!

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As camels roam more or less freely in the desert, they have to be identified. Here, in Tit, they had scars drawing geometrical marks on their neck and head. These marks looked like the fonts used by the Tuaregs, named Tifinagh. They allowed identification of the owner at first sight.