Menara and the Camel

There's a beautiful park in downtown Marrakech called Menara. There's a huge pool of water with giant fish that come to the surface to eat bread that people throw to them.  There is a  wooden platform over the water at the far end of the pool and a small bleacher area for concerts. Behind the bleachers there is restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating. Strolling musicians perform for tips around the restaurant and among the grove of trees in the adjacent area.

 From the bleachers you can see across the way to palm trees and behind them are the snow capped Atlas Mountains.  They don't look that far or that tall, but then I realized I could see a thin layer of cirrus clouds in the sky. About a third of the mountains' height still rose above the clouds.

So that's the beautiful part. Here's the good part. The sound you hear--it should just be reaching you now--the sound you hear is me with my eyes closed and screaming when the camel I got on stood up. A camel stands  hind legs first so it looked and felt as if  I was about to be pitched over her head (I know my camel was a her because her baby was tied to her and trailed behind).

Camels are popular throughout Morocco with tourists

When we left Menara we went across the street to perennial tourist attraction of camel and pony rides. I got on a camel, and in order to get on, I made this graceful move where I hitched up my long dress--while wearing jeans, of course--to get a leg over the camel. Her single hump was about four feet high even as she sat. When she stood, my eye level was about ten or twelve feet above the ground.

So after the camel stood, I opened my eyes and closed my mouth. I rode no more than about 200 feet up and back again, but I did it. Yay me. The fearless. The tamer of camels.

Forget what I said about the screaming.