Toboggan Hill/Camel Rides

Saturday, June 8, 2013

We are ready to ride the toboggan.

Off we go!

Kristin

Sydney

Dagan

Adam & Dana

Up the hill we go!

We left early this morning to head to Port Stephens.  We had a 3+ hour drive.  We found some lunch as we got into town, and then headed to Toboggan Hill.  Sydney, Dagan, Adam, Dana, & I went on the toboggan run.  We rode the toboggan to the top of the hill and zoomed down.  It is lots of fun.  We went four times.  Adam decided to go as fast as he could down the hill.  He ended up crashing twice. You would think that after the first time he went too fast on the curve he wouldn't do the exact same thing on the next run, but of course he had to try it super fast again.  He cut the back of his leg, ripped his sock, and got a huge skid mark on his shorts.  At least, he had fun.  The rest of us had fun, too.

The six of us at the start of the ride.

Adam getting on his noisy camel.

Sydney

Kristin

Dagan

JoAnn

Dana

We checked into our hotel and relaxed for a little bit.  Then we went to the sand dunes for our sunset camel ride.  We each got to ride our own camels.  They were sitting on the ground.  We were assigned a camel to ride.  You got on the camel like you would a horse.  Then we were told to lean back when it stood up.  It is a strange sensation.  You feel like you are going to fall off.   We walked through the dunes and up one of the hills.  Stockton dunes are the largest moving dunes in the Southern Hemisphere.  The dune are 20 miles long and about 1 1/2 miles wide at some points.  Our guides said they move constantly.  The camels were one hump camels.  These are dromedaries and live where it is warm.  These camels were wild camels living in Australia at one point.  The camels have really interesting feet.  They have leather pads and toenails that grow like a dogs.  The sand wears them off naturally.  My Camel's name was Ginger; Sydney's was Chester; Dagan's was Wiggy; JoAnn's was Mishna; Dana's was Candy, and Adam's was Colonel something or other.  Adam had the biggest camel.  It was also very noisy when he was trying to get on it.  It made the kids laugh.  Both Sydney and Dagan thought the camels were very soft.  Dagan especially liked the ears.  As the sun set, we walked in and along the ocean.  It was really beautiful.  Adam was last in line.  He said it was funny to watch all the camels move at the same time sideways to avoid the bigger waves.  We were all wondering how it would feel when the camels returned to their sitting positions, so we could dismount.  We were told to lean back as the camel bent its knees.  Again, this is a strange sensation.  JoAnn had a little more trouble.  She almost tumbled head over heels over her camel's head.  Our guide helped her out, so thankfully it went better than it could have.  Overall, it was an enjoyable experience.

We got some Thai food to go and went back to our hotel.  The kids swam after dinner in the nice warm pool.  We all headed to bed early for our big day tomorrow.