Saturday, September 06, 2008

Honeymoon, Part Eight: Where One of Us Gets Punched in the Face by a Camel

Okay, so I don't want to suggest that Joel and I didn't have fun on our honeymoon. We did. We totally did.

Here are two photos from our helicopter flight over Uluru.





We rode camels at sunrise.



Early British explorers imported camels from Afghanistan because horses weren't able survive in the Outback, which has little or no water. Once the railroad was built across the Northern and Western territories, (ironically, it was built by workers who used camels) the cameleers lost their jobs and the camels were turned loose in the bush.







The camels look really sweet and goofy don't they?



I was shooting tons of photos of them eating, as well as the birds that kept taking off and landing in the surrounding trees in huge, colorful flocks of awesomeness.





And some more in your face wide angle lens shots...





Look at that face! How cute is that! Except.... It turns out camels really don't like when you get in your face with a camera so much.



I was too close and focused on my shooting. Joel might have been able to predict what was about to happen. This guy doesn't look too happy... and...wait for it, wait for it....



WHAM! Yup, I was punched in a face by a camel. I totally deserved it, too. I know better. Sigh... But I was fine. The camera took the brunt of the love bite. My 20D was also fine. Is that an endorsement for Canon or what?

The Canon 20D SLR professional camera body, now with an automatic camel defense system!

After the helicopter flight, the hikes, the sunrise/sunset shoots, the visit to the cultural center, the campfires, the Sounds of Silence Dinner, the 800km roundtrip road trip to Coober Pedy with National Geographic style shooting, we took off for the Great Barrier Reef. From here on out, the honeymoon resembled a more traditional, um, honeymoon. We slept late, relaxed by the pool in the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in, went out to dinner, drank mango daquiris and got a loong massage (actually those two were all me), and yes, we walked hand in hand on the beach.

Have no fear, we didn't, like, morph into regular people for whom things unfold like clockwork or anything. There's still a little hilarity ahead. (SPOILER: I tried to juggle FIRE. True story!)

4 comments:

Unknown said...

That first photo of you and Joel on the camel together looks like the camel is about the lay a big wet one right on Joel's face.

Becky said...

You may have gotten punched by a camel, but it was probably easier to clean up than getting spit on by a camel. :)

gwen said...

Those camels all look SO MUCH HAPPIER than the one I was forced to ride in Egypt. I am glad for you for that, because those camels probably would have stolen your camera, spit on your head, and sold it (both head and camera) on the black market.

Carl said...

All honeymoons should feature helicopters. If I could be reasonably certain that I'd get a honeymoon helicopter ride, I would get married as soon as possible.