We
rested a while at the base of Mykerinos' pyramid. The
Sahara deserts reaches to Giza. I watched some camels, swaying between the
sand dunes. The one hump Arabian camel of the warm and dry deserts can lose
almost a third of its weight from desiccation without any ill effects. Stubbornly
it makes its swaggering way through areas where no other mammals can survive.
The Arabian camel is approximately 2 meters high at the top of the hump;
it weighs more than 600 kg and lives almost 40 years.Suddenly
I saw
our guide involved in a loud discussion with two camel-mounted policemen.
It looked like trouble. The policemen started to lead our camels away. The
guide turned to them and handed something over to the police, who in turn
left the camels behind. "Those bastards!" the guide said when
he came back to us. "I had to bribe them; otherwise they had taken
our camels." Then I realized that he was an unauthorized guide.
First published: Monday 20th May, 1996.
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