Dubai: Fancy learning to ride a camel in the UN-designated Year of the Camelids? Ask Linda Krockenberger who runs the Arabian Desert Camel Riding Centre, a school dedicated to camel riding and handling.
“You can learn to ride a camel in 10-15 classes, but knowing your camel comes with time because they demand a little bit more. Camels always bring a smile to my face,” Linda says.
Yet, setting up a camel riding centre was not Linda’s priority when she landed in the UAE from Germany.
Linda arrived in 2015 and pursued a career in the hospitality industry. When COVID-19 hit, it gave her time to think about what to do next, and by then the dream to explore the desert had taken root.
Linda started exploring the dunes by car, and then moved to camels.
“One dream was to explore the desert without a car. I felt that the desert with its vast expanse and silence has such a powerful energy that you can feel it when you are there. But when you come by car, the noise of the engine and the speed take away some of this. You don’t really hone into the silence, beauty and harshness of the desert.”
But first, Linda began walking in the desert. She put together a route and carried everything she needed, only to realise that there are limits to how much you can push the human body in terms of endurance, scaling sand dunes and carrying water.
“A camel as a perfect companion. That was the beginning of an adventurous dream to traverse the desert without cars – the camel seemed to be the enabling factor.”
Why not horses?
“We seem to draw comparisons between the two always. But apart from the fact that we ride them, they are very different in their nature, psychology and demands. I used to ride horses, but I diverted to camels because it seems to be more indigenous to the UAE and in some ways more adapted to the climate and nature here.”
It was at this time that Linda came across the annual camel trek hosted by the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Heritage Centre, running in the UAE since 2015.
“I knew that 2019 was the year I wanted to be on this trek. I registered myself and trained for several months,” Linda says.
Enthusiasts prepare for the two-week trek at a training centre near Al Marmoom, on the outskirts of Dubai. People from different nationalities with varied abilities are finally chosen for the trek. “I feel very lucky and blessed that I was part of the team in 2019. The experience was nothing short of spectacular and pivoting when I look back at the events in my life.”
Here I was with this camel that would go with me wherever I wanted him to go. But this camel could also decide to say: ‘I’m not coming anymore. I'll go back or I'll stop here.’ But they enter into this collaboration and partnership with you to go where you want. This feeling of being able to connect with another species is so powerful.
Between June and December, Linda rode the camel at least three times a week to learn the basics from understanding the movement of the animal, how a human should sit on it, how to tack up the camel, and also learn about their personalities. “It’s an animal that lives and breathes, so you want to understand more about them, their habits, their ways of expressing themselves. That’s only acquired through time.”
Riding school
After the trek Linda started looking at alternatives “because I thought it can’t be the only place that would allow us to ride through the dunes and on the training track.”
So she started collaborating with a riding stable with a few camels until she was introduced to her business partner, who took the idea further and applied for a business licence. And that was the start of a riding school in Al Marmoom in 2021.
“I thought it would be good to build a little community, like a running club, where people meet regularly after work to share their common passion. I never thought it would turn into something I can now call my full-time business.”
Who are the people who come to learn riding?
Today, there is diversity in the riders at the centre. Most of them live in and around Dubai, but there are those who drive all the way from Abu Dhabi. Most of them are in their mid-20s and 30s, with more women than men, “from lawyers, teachers and other people from the hospitality industry, mums and dads. It’s very nice to see that there's something for everyone.”
Classes start at Dh130 a session when a package is purchased, or Dh150 as one-off for residents.
Is there something for children?
“We’ve just had a summer holiday camp for children between 5 and 12. With them we don’t focus so much on riding as a key component but more of an interaction with camels – caretaking, husbandry and showing children that even a small child of five years can give a command to an animal and it will respond. So it’s very powerful for children to learn how much influence they can have on their environment despite being small and young.”
“We have eight-year-olds who ride by themselves and navigate the camel. It takes time, and we need to practice more and let them understand the power they can actually hold to deal with an animal.”
Most riders stay on to learn how to put the saddle on and see what the camel eats.
“I teach the riders to feel responsible for their camels. It’s not like renting a bike and putting it back on the rack. There’s a before and after – a daily cycle for the animals. Being a good rider takes that into account too,” Linda says.
“We’ve set up our own C1 championship, a 5-race series for women. The riders have an opportunity to show that you can be skilled in cantering on a camel with limited support. It’s a great way to make camel racing a spectator sport and link different communities and cultures back to the UAE culture.”
The camels at the centre come after an active racing career from where they retire at the age of eight. They can live to 40 years or more. Some are just three years old when they arrive, and spend time getting trained before they slowly become part of the riding school.
What next?
“I would like this concept to expand. We are in conversation with people in Saudi Arabia to set up a riding centre in Riyadh. We looked at Ras Al Khaimah because it is beautiful to ride between the mountains and the sand. We are hosting trips to other countries to explore camel cultures in Oman and Jordan. We are also exploring the avenue of sustainable tourism to marginalised communities that have camels – an attempt to become a hub to connect camel cultures into accessible platforms to anyone who is interested.
