City Slicker India: The Day We Walked the Highway

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Consistently we have been asked where we have been walking these camels. Inquires ask if our caravan traveled on roads, through villages, in the desert or through fields. We have discovered the answer is all of those and many more.

We have taken these camels down desolate, barely travelled roads, through dry creek beds, down into deep draws, into very narrow passages, across streams of water, under thorn trees, down the streets of active villages and along pretty busy roads.

Every single situation and each unique terrain has been an adventure. Each one has been full of stories and observations.

But the one that really got the adrenaline pumping was when we just casually drove them onto a major four lane highway.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw our lead camel turn onto the highway and start traveling right down one of the lanes on the asphalt. Before we could even take time to digest this amazement, we were scrambling to keep everyone tightly bunched, calm and safe.

The camels were so well behaved and so calm for the circumstance. They were a little jumpy, but they had beautiful composure despite the large trucks flying past them, the horns blaring the entire time and the motorcycles darting straight toward their legs.

It was kind of amazing how cavalier the motorists were to the situation and how careless they were around these massive animals.

Of all the obstacles, the most maddening were the motorcyclists. They got very close to the camels with very little regard for the animals. They tried to dart between the camels, no matter how closely we had them bunched. And the worst, was when they just tailgated us just staring is amazement.

It is not shocking that they very sight of the caravan caught a lot of attention. The novelty of it all meant that people on motorcycles were prone to slow down and take photos, stare in disbelief and ask for selfies. Oh, those stinking selfies!

Some of the motorcyclists even thought that when people are driving a caravan of camels down a busy highway was a great time to hit on the cameleers!

I worked very hard to ignore the motorcycles except when I needed to scold them for encroaching on our caravan or when we needed to direct them to pass. I grew tired of telling them I did not exactly have time to drop everything and take a selfie with them. Apparently driving camels on a highwaywas not as important as getting a selfie!

The funniest moment was when I heard my dad yell at a few young males on motorcycles. “Keep moving boys, she isn’t interested in you, she is moving camels!”

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