Why expat started camel riding school in Dubai

Gulf News

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.  Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/uae/people/why-expat-gave-up-career-to-start-camel-riding-school-in-dubai-1.100359445  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #Dubai #camels

Transcript

00:00So, I arrived here in 2015, so I'm counting 8 years in the UAE, initially for hospitality,

00:10so I was very intrigued by the very fast-growing industry here and with having all the international

00:17brands represented, so chasing a career, basically, initially, and that's what I've been doing

00:26for most of my time here, until 2019-2020, of course, this whole travel industry took

00:34a hit and I sought after local explorations, first by car in my Jeep in the dunes in the

00:42desert and then later, eventually, with the camels, and now I'm here running a camel riding

00:49school.

00:50Why camels?

00:51Why not horses?

00:52Yes, it's a good question.

00:53We seem to always put the camel and the horse next to each other and draw comparisons.

01:01It's not so much for me, one or the other, I used to ride horses, but then I diverted

01:09to camels simply because it seems more indigenous to the UAE, in some way, more adapted to this

01:19climate and nature, so I feel more, I feel like I'm not exhausting the animals so much

01:23as, for example, a horse, when I see sometimes running in a fast country through the desert,

01:29it's tough on a horse, versus the camel, they won't go so fast by default, so I feel better

01:37about this companionship between horse and camel, excuse me, camel and human, and it

01:46makes me feel very connected.

01:48One key dream, maybe, that I had back in 2019, before all of this started, was exploring

01:56the desert without a car, so I felt like the desert, with its vast expansion, silence,

02:08it had such a powerful energy that you can feel when you're there, but when you come

02:15by car, you almost take a little bit away of that, because the engine is there, the

02:19power, the speed, you don't really hone in that power of the desert which comes in silence

02:29and in its beauty and harshness and unforgiving nature, in a way.

02:37I mean, seeing camels even on the road, they always bring a smile to my face, but clearly

02:42the ones I look after, the 14 that we have in our riding school, I can say they are my

02:47favorite camels, because you get to know them, and sure, you have a few that you feel they

02:56are very dear to me, simply because you can't not have affection for an animal that gives

03:05you so much in return, through just a sense of happiness.

03:12For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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